Tony Avella at P.S.123 on Friday, July 10th

Here's the video of the Councilman saying what we're saying.



And here's a press release on the same story:

Avella Stands with Victims of the Charter School Takeover of PS 123

Harlem — City Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Tony Avella joined with parents and teachers from PS 123 this morning to resist the downsizing of their school and the expansion of the charter school Harlem Success Academy II.

“The reason for having a charter school was because the public school system wasn't working,” Avella said. “Why not fix the public schools in the first place? It's backwards common sense. And for a charter school to take over a local school and push them out little by little is just unacceptable.”

On July 2, movers hired by Harlem Success Academy entered PS 123 and began carrying all furniture and computers out of the classrooms and stacking them in the gym, even though a lawsuit by the teachers union and parents had put a stop to the expansion of the charter school. The Department of Education has called the problem “a mistake in communication.”

“It should never be a situation where a charter school comes into a public and literally starts pushing them out, literally starts pushing the kids out from their own local schools. That should never be done. And it's happening here. You don't want it to happen here and I'm here to support the parents.”