DAY 10 -- Support builds and the media curtain has finally lifted.

Rep. Rob Martwick and other pols step up. Martwick is sponsor of the Elected School Board bill. 

The Tribune and Sun-Times have finally discovered the hunger strike. So has the Washington Post.

A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten who flew in yesterday to speak in support of the strikers. She was joined by a group of pols including Reps. Martwick, Flowers, Hernandez & Ford; Commissioner Chuy Garcia; Progressive Caucus Alders John Arena, Sue Susan Sadlowski Garza, Carlos Rosa and others.

Pres. Weingarten & hunger striker Jitu Brown

Weingarten called the community's proposal for a public (not charter or "contract") Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School, “the best proposal I have seen in my entire career.” 

CTU V.P. Jesse Sharkey spoke. As did IFT Pres. Dan Montgomery. CTU Pres. Karen Lewis voiced her support in the Defender.

I spoke on the phone yesterday with Stanford Prof. Linda Darling-Hammond who voiced her support for the hunger strikers.

Ald. Will Burns is alleged to be hiding under the mayor's desk.

With striker Jeanette Ramann hospitalized yesterday after collapsing at the CPS board meeting and Irene Roninson hospitalized Monday, many of the strikers are now feeling the effects. But still no action on the part of the mayor or his puppet school board.

But don't think board members aren't feeling the heat. At the Board of Education Wednesday, one gallery speaker after another called on CPS to approve the green tech plan for Dyett.

According to the Sun-Times, board member Mahalia Hines called for some resolution to the Dyett question.

“This has been going on well beyond this board and I think we either need to get a yes or a no.” 

Board president Frank Clark (former ComEd CEO) replied:

“The Board is not immune to the people who choose to enter into a hunger strike and put their health at stake to get a resolution on something important to them... We do need to reach a conclusion, it may or may not be the conclusion that everybody wants, but a conclusion I think is necessary as soon as we can do that.”

You can tell when they're nervous. The room fills up with double-talk.

#FightForDyett #WeAreDyett Beautiful Photo by @OLBLightBrigade and @MTEAunion pic.twitter.com/2YOOggb6lk

— phillip cantor (@phillipcantor) August 27, 2015