On January 31st, I received an unsolicited offer to answer questions from the NCAE’s member-led protest arm, Organize2020. This offer to answer questions came on Twitter. I happened to be online when Organize20202 tweeted to me and I took the opportunity to ask if they formed Aim Higher NC.

Ignoring they open up with a loaded question of their own in this offer, their answer to my main query was “No”, although they beat around the bush a bit in answering.

In my previous article, it was noted that Todd Warren was quoted at the Aim Higher Press conference. According to Organize2020’s Twitter account, “we” just show up to speak for Aim Higher NC.  The person answering via Organize2020’s account also answered that their group’s Facebook Admin, Todd Warren, was not a member of Aim Higher NC “that they know of”.

The full conversation between myself and Organize2020 is below or you can read it on Twitter here.  I have a pending question for Organize2020 that I just asked this morning. I’ll update when I get a reply. The same goes for the question I posed to the NCAE.

What was interesting about this conversation is that Mr. Warren didn’t respond at all during this exchange. He was included in some tweets directly, yet his wife was the one to comment.  See below.

I didn’t expect that tweet from Mrs. Warren. Mainly because Occupiers usually have me blocked.  Mrs. Warren is also a fan of Moral Monday.

RT @ncnaacp: Will we see you in Raleigh on 12/23? Shine the light of justice on these extreme immoral policies? http://t.co/gu4gjbv9Zl

— Valerie Warren (@valeriewarren) December 20, 2013

As is her husband since he created the Facebook event  Defend the Right to Protest! Defend Moral Monday Arrestees.  If you click “read more” on the event information, at the bottom we see the final line says,  “Called by the Southern Workers Assembly http://southernworker.org/“.

Check out their “About” page:

The Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) is a network of local unions, worker organizations, and organizing committees, committed to building rank-and-file democratic social movement unionism (unionism with a social justice agenda, defined by and accountable to the rank-and-file) as a foundation for organizing, uniting and transforming labor power throughout the South.

SWA Core Principles: Rank-and-file democracy; national and international labor solidarity; organizing the unorganized; fighting all forms of discrimination; building a Southern labor congress; and building labor’s power for independent political action.

SWA Core Demands: Repeal Taft-Hartley and Right-to-Work laws, and collective bargaining rights for all workers.

Gee, Union organizing. Shocker.

By the way, speaking of Southern Workers Assembly remember Saladin Muhammad? [Related read:  Southern Workers Assembly Pickets Courthouse]

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Warren is also an occupier. It looks like foreclosures was Mr. Warren’s big thing; also protesting Bank of America alongside Raleigh F.I.S.T. In fact, it’s looking like a family affair if you scroll through this article you’ll see “Todd W.” brought the kids along.

Cue the outraged teacher commenting on this article with ‘why do you hate teachers?!’ or similar. Let’s be clear: I don’t hate teachers and never will.

Given Mr. Warren and his wife are deeply involved in a variety of politically tinged activism, (Moral Monday, Occupy and the protest arm of the NCAE) these folks have made themselves public figures.

All the information I’ve listed here is readily accessible and public. This isn’t an attack on teachers or the Warrens, but the whole truth as to who these people are isn’t covered by North Carolina media.  That’s not a bug, that’s a feature.

I’m sure Mr. Warren is an adept Spanish teacher. I have no idea what goes on in his classroom at Guilford Elementary, but I definitely know what he was doing outside of it. One would hope he’d keep his politics and protesting out of the classroom

The full Twitter conversation between myself and Organize2020: