A group of public school students in Newark staged a sit-in at the district headquarters, vowing not to leave until they get a face-to-face meeting with the beleaguered superintendent.
The high schoolers, all members of a group called Newark Student Union, have been protesting superintendent Cami Anderson and her One Newark school reorganization plan for nearly a year. They began sitting in at Newark Public Schools' offices Tuesday night and are demanding Anderson's resignation.
The sit-in, which has gone a little over 12 hours, is being streamed live on YouTube.
A spokeswoman for the district told NBC 4 New York that administrators had tried to hear the students' concerns but the high schoolers ignored repeated requests to meet. They said Wednesday morning that they had reached out to the children's parents to try to get them to go to school.
"We appreciate the passion shown by these students, but the district strongly believes that this passion would be better served in the classroom," the spokeswoman said. "Newark Public Schools has reached out to their parents in an effort to get this group of students to school this morning, and we remain open to engaging in a constructive dialogue that does not compromise valuable learning time."
It's not the first time the student group has protested Anderson and the One Newark plan, which would close some schools in favor of charter schools. Last spring, the students and about 60 others protested outside a school board meeting and changed "Hey hey, ho ho, Cami Anderson has got to go."
After the protest, students sat on the floor in the front of the school boardroom, and demanded Anderson's resignation. They sat in the boardroom for several hours, and were visited by then mayor-elect Ras Baraka, who doesn't support the One Newark plan.
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Newark Public Schools is New Jersey's largest school district and supervised by a state education authority. Opponents of the One Newark plan have called for public schools to remain open and for the state to cede control of the district back to the city.
