Community Asks Duffy, "Why Avoid Open Debate?"

While members of the Rochester Business Alliance ate breakfast for $45 a plate inside the Riverside Convention Center, students, parents, and community members gathered outside for a "People's Breakfast" to draw attention to the exclusionary nature of the event.

Myra Brown, a member of the Community Education Task Force discussed the event, "$45 to a person to be able to come and get in on the conversation. I think that it's wrong to put that kind of a price on people having a voice — particularly people who are directly impacted by this issue." Others added that the 7:30 starting time made the event next to impossible to attend for many parents and students.

One parent who made it out was Mary Adams. She said Duffy has a history of avoiding open debate. "He will carefully select his audiences and the format in which he speaks so that he does not need to face critical questions or address opposing viewpoints. [Duffy has repeatedly said] that he went to a school meeting and sat in with parents at school of the arts. I was at that meeting, that was not billed as a Duffy presentation. In fact, I did not know that he and his entourage were going to show up until he was there. He talked to us and talked to us and talked to us about pretty superficial things having to do with his ideas about education. Parents actually had to interrupt him in order to get any chance to say anything."

Some members of the breakfast decided to try to enter the building without paying the $45 price tag. They were immediately grabbed and pushed out of the building.

Video: Students "Escorted" Out of Convention Center During Mayoral Control Debate | Anti-Mayoral Control Action on March 23 at RJB "Power Breakfast" | Watch the full debate!