Student protesters say SRC member yelled, disparaged schools

A member of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission has come under fire for yelling at student protesters who disrupted a parent movie night Wednesday at School District headquarters.

Ruby Anderson, a senior at Science Leadership Academy, a top city magnet school, and two other attendees said Commissioner Sylvia Simms asked the students what schools they attended and then told them, "You all probably go to failing schools."

The students, members of the Philadelphia Student Union, were there to object to the showing of Won't Back Down, about parents who become frustrated with the public school system and the teachers' union, and try to start their own school. They decried the decision to show the movie, which they see as antiunion, a week after the district canceled its teacher contract.

They were equally dismayed at Simms' reaction to their concerns.

"I thought it was pretty inappropriate for a public official to yell at people she's supposed to be representing," said Anderson, who was among about 20 students staging the sit-in. "I also thought it was really inappropriate for her to assert that the school we went to, if it were failing, meant we had no right to dissent."

Simms said she raised her voice to the students because they were chanting loudly despite repeated requests for them to stop, and she wanted to communicate. Simms, 53, a North Philadelphia grandmother, parent organizer, and mayoral appointee, said she talked about failing schools, but denied saying the students attend them, though she said she could not remember exactly what she said.

"I've noticed we have a lot of failing schools," she said. "It's my job to try to fix as many schools as I can."

Simms said she was annoyed that the students disrupted the event, which drew about 30 parents and was held for parent appreciation month, and sponsored by the Women's Christian Alliance.

"I thought that what they did was really inappropriate," said attendee Jay Cohen, who has a daughter at Central High. "It's very important for students to have a voice and exercise that voice in a democratic society, but what they were doing is preventing other people from getting information."

Simms also noted that the event had been planned well before last week's SRC vote. A former School District bus attendant and union member, she said she didn't see the film as antiunion but as a good example of parental involvement.

At the event, students sat on the floor in the front of the room and chanted "Philly is a union town" and "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the SRC has got to go."

When police showed up, the students left the building, and no arrests were made. The movie then was shown in its entirety.

"I'm appalled and I'm angered, and I feel let down," said Nomi Martin-Brouillette, a senior at Science Leadership Academy, who objected to police being called.

The incident drew Twitter traffic, with calls for Simms' resignation.

Lori Shorr, Mayor Nutter's chief education officer, said the incident shows how tensions have flared as the district deals with a lack of adequate funding.

"Everybody is stretched to such extremes . . . given the underfunding of our schools, that unfortunately these tensions start to play out even among people who are on the same side of the issue," she said, "the issue being, we need more funding in our schools."

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