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Harlem Public School Parents and Teachers Under Attack

By Jeff Mays | March 1, 2011 7:03pm
Parents and teachers of Sojourner Truth School students came out in force against Harlem Success Academy's expansion plan.
Parents and teachers of Sojourner Truth School students came out in force against Harlem Success Academy's expansion plan.
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DNAinfo/Jon Schuppe

By Jeff Mays

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

HARLEM — The parents and teachers at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem say their problems seem to be coming in waves.

First, the Panel for Education Policy voted last month to allow the Harlem Success Charter School to expand there next year, against the wishes of many of the parents. And now, the school is slated to lose 16 percent of its 25 teachers if proposed layoffs go through.

"It's dangerous to be a public school student in Harlem," said Marquis Harrison, 25, a third-year, eighth-grade social studies teacher at the school. "The mayor is limiting the opportunities of students in Harlem by closing schools and laying off teachers and pushing charter schools."