GREENBELT, MD, April 7—Over 50 parents, teachers, students, and residents rallied at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) here to demand the reopened schools be made safe. Prince Georges’ County(PG) failed to do so, backtracking on its promises to have weekly coronavirus testing and upgrades to the air filtration systems before re-opening. The rally was sparked by teachers angered by the Board of Education and the County Council turning a deaf ear to their concerns.
A young teacher involved in a Progressive Labor Party (PLP) study group helped organize the rally by knocking on doors in the Spring Hill Lake apartment complex and struggling with fellow teachers to attend. Several PLP members came in solidarity, distributing over 30 copies of CHALLENGE as well as flyers linking the school battle to the upcoming communist-led May Day rally in Malcolm X Park in D.C.
The CHALLENGE article about the fight to remove School Resource Officers (regular armed cops) from the schools especially resonated with a few folks and started lively conversations. Attending May Day will be an important step forward, recognizing that the capitalist system is organized around profit, not good education or safe schools, so moving from attempting reforms to the school to organizing for communist revolution is a necessary next step.
The protesters marched to the Greenbelt City Hall with their safety demands including vaccinations for all employees before returning to the school building, teleworking as an option, and equity learning labs. Teachers worried that children could infect other children who in turn could infect family members.
The lead organizer of the rally, a teacher and mother of five, gave a rousing speech to end the rally including a shoutout to our Party, “PLP is in the house!” A PLP member caught up with her after the rally and invited her to join a study group. Several other participants including a grandmother who came with her grandson who goes to the high school expressed interest in the PLP’s activities.
Our broad goal is to meet more people in the community, invite teachers to our study groups, join with them to lead the struggles in the schools in this county, and create more communists.