Anti-Fascist Yvette Falarca Returns to Teaching

My Open Letter of Thanks:

I'm so excited to return back to my students! Thank you so much, everyone. This victory belongs to all of us. We've built a movement: the support letters emails (over 50!), phone calls, attendance at mass organizing meetings, school board meetings, support from groups including BAMN and EON/BAMN Caucus, Berkeley Federation of Teachers, Peace and Justice Commission, United Opt Out, Pacific and Asian Community Alliance, Media Alliance, Partisan Defense Committee, Freedom Socialist Party, Oscar Grant Committee, Norma Harrison of Peace and Freedom Party, KPFA, Occupy Oakland and Indy Media, the International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund, and many more, consistent attendance at office hours, protests, and courageous public speeches -- all these are expressions of our mass movement with the power to win justice in the Berkeley schools.

With our outstanding victory, I'm asking everyone who can to still come to the Berkeley School Board mtg tomorrow, 2020 Bonar St., 6:30pm rally outside, 7:30pm speak out inside to:

1. Celebrate ? because our movement won this!

2. Address some very important issues that are still outstanding in my case, including political discrimination, violations of due process, free speech and academic freedom, unjust disciplines that the District is still trying to issue against me, and the District's continued refusal to restore my back pay.

3. Defend the students who were interrogated--immigrant and international students in particular should never be subjected to this kind of discrimination and abuse again.

4. Defend special education teachers and programs, including Ms. Clark who is facing retaliation and retribution for having publicly supported me, to restore her to her position in the after school Homework Center in the Library.

To teachers, I hope that my case can be an example of the fact that when we stand up for our rights, we can garner support, and we can win. We don't need to feel defensive, stigmatized, or isolated, which is what these attacks on us are designed to make us feel. Other teachers have faced discrimination and abuse in Berkeley--I'm not the first. The difference in my case is the fact that I was prepared to speak out, and that stems from my history with and backing from my national and local civil rights organization, BAMN, and our EON/BAMN Caucus in the union. No one can go through what I've been through in the past 6 weeks and have kept it going all alone. Basic mass organizing tactics like those above, combined with a smart and aggressive legal approach (but never soley relying on that), I am ever grateful to BAMN and EON/BAMN for being the organization that's building the movement that FIGHTS TO WIN. And now, in this first phase in my fight in the Berkeley schools, we've won!

This movement was always more than about getting me back in my classroom, it's about defending teachers, school workers, and students, and the future of public education in Berkeley and beyond. Our movement won this very important first victory, so I invite all of you to join me to keep it going!

In addition to tomorrow's School Board meeting, upcoming events:

1. EON/BAMN Mass Organizing Mtg
Wed. Nov. 9 at 5 pm
Berkeley Public Library

2. First Hearing in Felarca v BUSD
Thurs. December 8 at 1:30 pm
San Francisco Federal Court,Judge Seeborg
It's an open hearing, so everyone is welcome!

THANK YOU AGAIN! I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow, and I am so grateful for your help to make this happen. Yes we did! Yes we can! Si se puede!

With Love and Gratitude,
Yvette Felarca
Martin Luther King Middle School Teacher
Equal Opportunity Now / By Any Means Necessary (EON/BAMN) Caucus
Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) Executive Board Member

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