- Ansel Herz
This afternoon, Seattle Police officers entered the Horace Mann building, a Central District property owned by the Seattle School District, and arrested four people that the district says have been illegally using the property since this past summer. The four were led out in handcuffs past a large banner that read, “Help us stop the school to prison pipeline now.”
Ansel is reporting from the school; he says there’s a large police presence and Cherry Street, between 24th and 25th Avenue, has been blocked off. “They’re pulling out individuals in handcuffs,” Ansel says. He asked one arrestee, a man named Greg, what the scene was like inside the building and “he shouted that the SPD has been very professional in how they’ve been handling him.” With roughly 20 cops milling about the area, it’s unclear if more arrests are forthcoming.
The Seattle Police Department apparently decided this morning that the arrests would take place after receiving notice that there were no children in the building. However, the arrests come as no surprise to those familiar with the protracted fight over the Horace Mann building. Central District News has the backstory:
The Nova Alternative High School is set to open in the E Cherry Mann building next year, but groups operating under the More 4 Mann coalition have been using the space for various activities, including outdoor movie events, mentoring programs, vocational training, and other programs.
The groups were told to vacate by Aug. 15, then Aug. 30, and most recently by Sept. 18 so renovations could begin to stay on track for a Nova return next fall. More 4 Mann continues to operate out of the building, which has raised the hackles of some in the community.
More 4 Mann has been essentially occupying the building, calling on the Seattle School district to do more to address racial inequities in our public school system. Most recently, on November 7, Seattle Public Schools superintendent José Banda informed the group that they were trespassing.
“This is bullshit,” a bystander and More 4 Mann supporter named Charlie Mitchell said on the scene. “We were standing up trying to do something for the kids. They were putting up an antenna radio. These are just peaceful folks trying to make a stand for the kids.”
“I don’t support any eviction,” says Malakhi Kaine, a parent of Seattle public schools students and member of the Africatown Center for Education and Innovation Task Force, which operated out of the Mann building, when reached by phone. That group left the building on the district’s schedule and is still negotiating with the district to get a new space. “I don’t think that was necessary,” he adds. “The negotiations are still underway… We have a lot more support than we first started. We’ve never been on hostile terms with the district. And we’re moving forward.”
The four people arrested today will be charged with criminal trespass, says SPD spokeswoman Detective Renee Witt.
More photos after the jump.
- Ansel Herz
- Ansel Herz
