Episode 30: The Grace Dodge Protests: Not Until It’s Safe with Alexandra Haridopolos and Ilan Desai-Geller

On today's episode I speak to Alexandra Haridopolos and Ilan Desai- Geller who both teach on the Grace Dodge Campus in the Bronx.  They have been a part of the ongoing protests against the NYC DOE and The UFT as teachers are returning to unsafe classrooms before the students come back.  There has been an effort to keep classes remote because schools are not meeting the safety standards with poor ventilation and windows that barely open. Teachers have had enough and are speaking out for their own safety and the safety of the students.

Ilan Desai-Geller is a high school educator in The Bronx and active member of MORE-UFT, the social justice caucus of the New York City teacher's union. Taking inspiration from the centuries-long tradition of Freedom Schools and ethnic studies, Ilan strives for his classrooms to provide his students with the context and skills to organize for liberation of all peoples.Alexandra Haridopolos is a high school educator in the Grace Dodge Campus in The Bronx, a UFT delegate and active member of MORE-UFT, the social justice caucus of the New York City teacher's union.

Alexandra Haridopolos has organized around educational inequities since high school, fighting for equitable admission policies, parent power in DOE decisions and now sounding the alarm on DOE's abandonment of vulnerable communities since the COVID19 pandemic began in March 2020. In the classroom, Haridopolos centers participatory action research projects and popular education methods to facilitate students' development of their own research on issues impacting their community culminating in a short documentary film presented at the local public library.