Protesters Continue Hunger Strike after Meeting with Mayor about Bronzeville School
Jeanette Taylor-Ramann was hospitalized last week while on a hunger strike in protest of plans for the Walter H. Dyett High School building in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago.
She said she suffered from dehydration and a heart attack.
But on Monday, Taylor-Ramann returned to join 11 others who have gone without food since Aug. 17 because they want Dyett to reopen as an open enrollment school.
“I know I passed out and was in the hospital,” said Taylor-Ramann, 40, a mother of two school aged children, who joined the group outside the Dyett at 555 E. 51st St. “But I want change by any means possible.”
Later that day, many of the group’s protesters met with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel after his town hall meeting on the city budget at Malcolm X Community College, 1900 W. Van Buren St. in Chicago.
The meeting between the mayor and group came after many speakers demanded one.
On Monday, the group picked up support from multi-faith clergy who called on Emanuel to reopen Dyett as an open enrollment school.
The strikers want a “green tech” school that would incorporate a science curriculum meant to capitalize on its location in Washington Park. The school also would be a LEED-certified green building.
The group opposes two other plans for the school. One plan transforms it into a contract school, called Little Black Pearl Art and Design Academy.
A third idea makes Dyett, a sports-themed high school.
Hearings on the plans were scheduled to be held in August but were pushed back to Sept. 15.
Taylor-Ramann and other supporters responded with a hunger strike.
Taylor-Ramann was hospitalized for two days last week. Two other strikers also have been hospitalized. But members of the protest group, like Taylor-Ramann, said they will continue to strike until they reach their goal, even if it makes them ill.
Spokeswoman Kelley Quinn said in a statement: “The mayor appreciates there are strong feelings about Dyett, and he understands there is a desire for a quick resolution about its future, however, what’s most important is the right decision.”
In the past, the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett has protested against the 2012 phase-out plan at Dyett. The school had its final graduating class in June 2015.
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