What would Harvey Milk do if he knew his namesake school, the only one in the country with a civil-rights emphasis, was slated to close? Elementary students asked this question as they marched through the Castro on Wednesday afternoon, calling on the district to “save Harvey Milk.”
On Tuesday, Mission Local obtained the list of the San Francisco public schools that meet the district’s criteria for merger or closure. Among them was Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, a small school in the Castro that is on the list to potentially merge with Sanchez Elementary. Its campus, where 170 kindergarten through fifth-graders now attend school, may be repurposed as an early education center.
A staff walk-out was initially planned for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, parents and teachers said. But this morning, after the superintendent learned of this plan, the district warned them not to march. Otherwise, staff would risk disciplinary action.
One teacher said it was unclear what this would entail, but that she was told the infraction would go on teachers’ records. If the principal joined a walk-out, she continued, he would also be written up.
But Harvey Milk’s community, including students who are taught a social-justice curriculum, did not seem intimidated. Parents still gathered outside the school, holding hands with children who had been making their signs all day.
The march was moved to 2:30 p.m. so that teachers would be able to join at the end of their work day.
A peaceful protest was a “natural response” for Harvey Milk students, who are taught to use their voices, librarian Sarah Kerns said. “This is what we do,” she added. “It’s only the beginning.”
After school, students filed out of class and circled up in the yard. They passed a microphone around. “Our school is about equality and peace,” one child said. “The not peaceful thing is the school board and us.”
“What would Harvey Milk do?” another child asked. “Would he keep the school or would he kill it?”
Parents said they’ve also had more uncomfortable questions to confront, like whether to enroll their children in private school if Harvey Milk closes.
One, Elisabeth Lagelee, said that she’d been hesitant to pull her son Theo out of French school to “go public.” But then, her first grader’s “magical” teacher and Harvey Milk’s welcoming, international community convinced her to stay. She hadn’t looked back, until today.
For others, like University of California, San Francisco, nurse practitioners David and Courtney Gordon, private school isn’t an option. David said he first learned of Harvey Milk’s impending closure from Mission Local.
Once the news was confirmed by the superintendent, families began organizing, he said. “It just feels like a huge blow to the community, and to our family,” David added, fighting back tears as he described the school’s focus on LGBTQ+ issues.
The couple also had to explain the loss to their kindergartener and second-grader. “It’s okay that people make these decisions,” Courtney remembered saying. “But it’s our job to voice our concerns.”
As chanting students, teachers, and parents left the schoolyard and began to march, the Castro echoed with kids’ rallying cries of, “I can’t hear you!” Bystanders joined in from the sidelines, while dozens of journalists followed.
Allies from other schools set to close said they hope to follow Harvey Milk’s lead. “We’re trying to create a coalition of small schools,” said Gaelan Haleigh McKeown Hickel, an organizer at San Francisco Community K-8, who attended the protest. “It’s disingenuous to say … ‘Close other schools, but don’t close ours.’”
The protesters formed a final circle at Harvey Milk Plaza at 3 p.m, conducted by student advisor Glenn Castro and physical education teacher Derik Dulin, who is also a parent. The educators quickly stepped aside to give kids the floor. An increasingly emboldened cluster of students remained well after most camera crews left, passing around the microphone to address the public.
Fifth graders Dalia and Bella Jane were among the student speakers. Even though she’s headed to middle school next year, Bella Jane said she couldn’t imagine being unable to return to visit her beloved teachers.
“This school is one of the things that helped me come out and understand who I was,” Dalia later added as their parent quietly smiled from the sidelines. “Most schools have a community. This school also has a community. But it’s not just a community. It’s a family.”
While it’s critical to listen to the concerns of Harvey Milk families, media coverage like this continues to center mostly white voices, exacerbating the narrative of privilege. Why aren’t we hearing from parents at predominantly Black and Brown schools, like Malcolm X Elementary, that are facing the same closures? Their perspectives on equity, integration, and resource distribution are vital to understanding the bigger picture.
Mission Local, I encourage you to investigate a key fact that’s being overlooked: San Francisco’s birth rate is down, and there are simply fewer kids in the city. Why would we keep half-empty schools open when consolidating could mean better resources for all?
These protests, especially from parents saying they’ll go private, after being merged with Sanchez, which is a primarily Hispanic, less affluent and less white school, feel extremely problematic. Instead of resisting change, we should be focusing on the equitable distribution of resources and what’s best for all children in SF, not just a privileged few.
While Harvey Milk is a wonderful school with wonderful teachers and families, it is a student body of 170. Schools under 260 are reported by the district to not be able to provide comprehensive services, and are siphoning away resources from other schools.
How are Milk families making Sanchez families feel with these protests, saying they’d rather “go private” rather than show up at Sanchez for an education alongside their less affluent, less white peers just a few blocks away. Where are the social justice values among Harvey Milk parents?
How embarrassing for these families. Pack up your supposed commitment to civil rights and consider spreading the joy and love that you claim this school has and take it to the diverse community with Sanchez (4.9% white). Build a new identity together. The facilities at Sanchez are so much bigger, which means this community could GROW and have even more children exposed to the programming available from BOTH schools. Families have left my child’s Mission school with majority Latino families for Milk (45% white) in the past and this is not a surprise to see them clutching their invisible pearls over the idea of merging with Brown families down the street. Would Harvey Milk want his message in just one tiny school or spread across a diverse community? Also this article elevates people with so much privilege calling out that they’ll consider private school if they need to merge with a predominately Latino school. I challenge Mission Local to talk to ACTUAL Mission families that invest in integration and stand on their values. No schools in the Mission are closing but how many families from this neighborhood flee with their CTIP designation to whiter schools?? Where is that story? The real story of whiteness and racism in this neighborhood.
I’m just shocked that Mission Local is posting about and uplifting this as the main story. Report on how many people live here and choose schools outside the neighborhood to attend “better” and always whiter schools than what is available in the Mission. Milk isn’t in the Mission. Tell stories from families living here and committed to our school communities.
Perhaps they could rename Sanchez to Harvey Milk.
That would be very helpful. It hurts to see his legacy erased with the stroke of a pen. And it would be helpful if Sanchez Elementary could take on the civil rights emphasis and the teachers and staff. The kids don’t want their school to be erased like it didn’t matter. The children are very upset, a lot of tears and fear, and it would be helpful to see what the future would look like. Also, as a parent, the practical reality of a 7:50 start time at Sanchez versus 9:30 for Harvey Milk needs to be addressed or people will end up finding whatever late start time school is nearby and the community will be scattered.
Whine, whine, whine. My school is special. Close some other parent’s school. Not mine!
It’s going to be called Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy at Sanchez Elementary. My school got “earthquake proof”, Raphael Weill at John Sweat and Golden Gate. Legacy will live on, just at another location. Budget constraints, everyone has to do their part.
The district has been continually mismanaged and now making communities pay the price. Our family was once part of the HMCRA community and continues to remains very near and dear to our hearts. It is an amazing school with some of the best educators the city has to offer. This is an abomination. Administration at 555 and EPC should be very ashamed.
Aaron Peskin is the only mayoral candidate who will fight to keep San Francisco public schools open!
And how is Aaron Peskin going to pay for that?