East Ramapo students fight cuts, learn a life lesson

Spring Valley High School senior Olivia Castor clutched a clipboard in her arms as she moved from student to student gathering signatures and distributing fliers outside the East Ramapo school administration building Tuesday.

While Castor networked, classmate Kenney Alexander chanted into a megaphone, leading rallying cries for the crowd, "D'Agostino must go!" and "Respect us!"

The demands came from a burgeoning group of fed-up teenagers, determined to speak their minds about the sorry state of East Ramapo's beleagured school system. As the express their dismay at budget cuts and the loss of programs, the students also are getting a lesson in how to speak up for themselves and organize a grassroots movement.

Members of the East Ramapo Student Coalition are texting and tweeting, gathering contact information and emailing, to draw the community to demonstrations and to the microphone at School Board meetings.

"You need to give the power back to the young people because they're the ones who are there every day," said Cassandra Edwards, a mother of East Ramapo students and a local activist.

STUDENT LOSING SLEEP OVER CUTS

The East Ramapo Central School District has been operating deep in the red for two years. During the fiscal crisis, students have watched their favorite teachers fired, classes cut and budgets for clubs and sports dwindle.

"I am 16 years old and I should not be able to say that I lose sleep because I fear that I may not be able to take enough classes to get a good education," said Dominique Alvarado, a 16-year-old junior at Ramapo High School.

Alvarado remembers the first time she spoke to the nine-member school board two years ago. She was wearing dance clothes, with her hair tied back in a bun. She talked about how the drama club had changed her life.

She said she takes pains to address the board respectfully, hoping that the members will see her not as a pesky kid, but as an ambitious young woman.

"It's stressful feeling like a child in this, because you don't want to be looked at as a child," Alvarado said. "You have to make sure they take you professionally. Otherwise, it's pointless."

Some board members feel the students have been contemptuous at meetings. Several sessions have ended abruptly when officials left the room, presumably offended by critical student comments.

At a recent meeting, School Board President Daniel Schwartz claimed that the students were being manipulated by a group of disgruntled parents. He's concerned that student protests are being stage-managed.

"I am always pleased to hear from students, so long as their overtures to the board are in the spirit of mutual respect and a real desire to make things better," Schwartz said in an email.

Superintendent Joel Klein charged that "student activism" was a misnomer and adults were the instigators. Moreover, he said, the students don't have their facts straight.

"I like the idea of students being active and involved, but I think they should know what the facts are in whatever is being done," Klein said. "I do think it's a great learning experience."

RHINESTONE-COVERED PHONE HOLDS EVIDENCE

Marjorie Calle, a Ramapo High School freshman, wasn't deterred when she felt board members didn't believe a speech she gave last month about the worsening conditions at her school building. On Tuesday, she returned to the meeting grasping her pink, faux gemstone-covered phone, which was loaded with pictures of water damage and gaping holes in the school's ceilings.

"They don't see the whole picture," Calle said of the School Board members. "We're uniting. We talk about what's happening."

Students such as Rashelly Palma have drawn inspiration from history. Palma, a 17-year-old senior at Spring Valley High School, said she was motivated by a video a teacher showed her called "The Children's Walk." It documented the role of students in the civil rights movement.

"It inspired me and it showed me that even though they look at us as little, we have a voice and we can make a difference," Palma said.

Additional motivation came from her younger sister, a fourth-grader at Elmwood Elementary School, Palma said.

"It broke my heart when she came home and said we can't play instruments anymore," Palma recalled.

STUDENTS LEARNING TOUGH LIFE LESSONS

Among those who have been guiding the students is The Rev. Weldon McWilliams IV, 33, the youth minister at First Baptist Church in Spring Valley and a history professor at SUNY Dutchess. He said he has been speaking with them about history and organizing.

"They have a right to express themselves as long as they don't do it in a way that will cause harm to anyone else," McWilliams said. "They need to come together, deliberate, discuss and figure out how they can convey this feeling. What we need to be able to do for them is define what activism is."

Steve White, a Spring Valley parent and an activist himself, said he has printed out fliers for the students and advertised the events through his "Power of Ten" mailing list. White also connected the students with an expert who could tell them how to hold nonviolent rallies. The impetus for the movement, however, has come from the students, he said.

"They have their own minds and their own causes," White noted.

McWilliams said the students have learned a lot by organizing two recent rallies, and he believes the lessons will enrich them for a lifetime.

"Even if the outcome is not what they want it to be, they see that they've affected a movement here in Rockland County," McWilliams said. "I think the other students are inspired by the action. It gives them a renewed sense of self and a renewed sense of importance."

Alvarado said she is indeed learning a life lesson, albeit a difficult one.

"It's kind of upsetting that it sets us up for the real world, because you don't want the real world to be like this," she said. "But, when it's not tearing me apart, it just makes my skin tougher."