July 3, 2012: 11 years ago, July 3 2012, Oakland school police raided a sit-in at the [...]
11 years ago, July 3 2012, Oakland school police raided a sit-in at the recently-closed Lakeview Elementary School, arresting two. Parents and activists organized by the Education Committee of Occupy Oakland had been camping at the school to protest its closure for 18 days
Lakeview was one of 5 schools designated to close by the Oakland School Board in 2011. Activists involved with Occupy Oakland worked with affected families to set up a protest camp and to briefly reopen Lakeview as the People’s School for Public Education
Organizers responded to the raid with a march to the house of Oakland schools superintendent Tony Smith. At the accompanying rally, People’s School students called for the removal of police from public schools
The People’s School made important connections between policing and attacks on public education, helping to organize a march in honor of Raheim Brown, a Black 20-year-old who had been shot to death by the same school police officer who gave the order to clear the Lakeview sit-in
