Lori Higgins

Detroit Free Press

Supporters of Steve Conn, the ousted head of the Detroit teachers' union, stormed a hotel this morning where a hearing was being held to determine whether Conn would get his job back.

Two security guards tried to hold back the couple of dozen protesters, but the demonstrators pushed their way into the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Detroit and shouted outside the room where the hearing was being held.

"No trusteeship! We want Steve!" the supporters chanted.

"Call 911!" a hotel employee yelled.

Conn was appearing before the executive council of the American Federation of Teachers to appeal a decision by members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers to oust him as president. He was stripped of his title and expelled from the union in August after the DFT's executive board convicted him of five misconduct charges.

He was narrowly elected last January. ​ Over the summer, some teachers launched an effort to recall him.

He said before today's hearing that he wasn't optimistic. "This is a biased body," Conn said before heading into the hotel.

Conn, a fiery and controversial leader, said teacher sick-outs that closed nearly 90 schools today would continue until teachers' demands are met. Those demands, he said, include reinstating him as president, reducing class sizes, increasing pay and improving teaching conditions.

Meanwhile, the DFT is in turmoil. The AFT placed the union under voluntary trusteeship last month and installed an AFT official — Ann Mitchell — to run the union's day-to-day operations.

Conn spoke this morning as protesters — most of them members of the controversial social justice group By Any Means Necessary — held signs and chanted outside the hotel on Gratiot. Conn is closely aligned with BAMN, and that affiliation is one of the reasons he was ousted.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, Ivy Bailey's got to go," they chanted, referring to the interim president of the union.

After the hearing began, protesters began plotting. They said they would storm into the hotel, but had no intention of getting arrested. After a few minutes of chanting and yelling outside the hearing room, hotel security guards managed to move the protesters back upstairs and outside the hotel. They quickly scurried. By the time Detroit police officers arrived, they were gone.

One hotel employee met the officers outside and urged them to arrest a man he said hit him. He pointed out the man, who was driving a Jeep. The man drove by, waving as he passed police.

Contact Lori Higgins: 313-222-6651, lhiggins@freepress.com or @LoriAHiggins