Video: Students and staff denounce the threat to close Detroit’s Catherine Ferguson Academy

By Andre Damon and Jerry White

13 May 2011

Catherine Ferguson Academy, located on the near westside of Detroit, is one of over 50 schools slated to be closed or sold off to charter school operators within the next month by Robert Bobb, the school district’s emergency financial manager.

The school, one of only three like it in the country, was founded in 1986 to educate pregnant and parenting mothers in the same building as their children. Its dedicated staff and innovative practices have won it dozens of awards. The school’s threatened closure has evoked an outpouring of opposition from students, staff, and the community, which has won support throughout the country.

In this video, the first of two parts, teachers, students, and the school’s principal speak about the unique role of the school and the potential consequences of its closure.

See the second video of the series, "Catherine Ferguson Academy students and teachers speak on school closures and social inequality".