Throngs of teachers gather at Phila. schools HQ to protest their contract cancellation

More than 1,000 teachers and union supporters gathered Thursday afternoon outside the headquarters of the School District of Philadelphia to protest the School Reform Commission's cancellation of the teachers' contract earlier this month.

The crowd spilled into the street, blocking traffic in front of 440 N. Broad St., where the commission is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m.

Christine Moan, a Philadelphia teacher and parent, brought her children to the protest.

"What they're doing isn't fair," Moan said.

There was a heavy police presence with access to the building restricted and a phalanx of officers stationed at the front door.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the group that "Philly is Ground Zero for injustice."

Gov. Corbett, she said, "has decided to make a war on public education."

The crowd roared with approval when labor leader Henry Nicholas suggested the possibility of a citywide strike.

"We're not rolling over and we're not taking it," PFT president Jerry Jordan declared.

Officials from the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank critical of the union, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, were expected to be on hand.

The foundation stirred up controversy this week when it hired about a dozen workers to hand out anti-PFT flyers. It also launched PFTfails, a website that blasts the union as "pathetic for teachers" and "by defending the status quo at failing, violent schools."