WASHINGTON - The D.C. council chambers were packed Friday with laid off school workers. One hundreds teachers were scheduled to testify about their terminations, and ABC 7's Jennifer Donelan reported the proceedings could last through midnight -- or perhaps the weekend.

Marsha Karim was among the sea of faces and stories. She taught social studies for 25 years and was one of the 388 DCPS employees handed pink slips, including 229 teachers.

"I'm very scared," she said. "The economy is bad so I don't really know what I'm going to do."

"I am best teacher that they had," said Emma Johnson. She was the only chemistry teacher at Spingarn High School. Johnson said she had worked for DCPS since 1984.

"I miss my students and my students miss me," Johnson said. "My students feel that they have been abandoned."

The teachers' union is raising concerns, saying a majority of the teachers who were fired are over than 40 years of age. Sixty-nine-year-old first grade teacher Promella Gupta showed us her awards, perfect evaluation scores and her students' standardized test results: 100 percent.

"I don't know what else to tell you," she said. "I'm just totally in shock. It came like a ton of bricks."

"I may not be able to pay mortgage," she added. "I might not be able to take care of my husband."

She opened a school in India, has a master's degree, 20 years teaching experience in New York and Ohio. She, like the rest, wants the Council to step in and get their jobs back.

"My hope is I will be reinstated and go back to my children," she said.

The teachers' stories appeared to fall on sympathetic ears in the Council chambers, Jennifer Donelan reported.

"I refuse to stand idly by and allow the city's young people to become victims of their own school system," said Council Chairman Vincent Gray.

"There are some people who believe that was a deliberate effort to get rid of older teachers," said Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry, who later added: "I just say straight up: a lot of lies have been told."

Rhee insists the decision is based solely on balancing a $43 million budget shortfall and nothing more, but admits which teachers were let go was based on performance evaluations.

"Anybody who would say that somehow we would do this on purpose obviously doesn't live this life," Rhee told ABC 7 News last week.

But Gray says the schools' 2010 budget was $15 million higher than the 2009 budget. He also disputed Rhee's account of the layoffs, saying it was done in an "arbitrary, ad hoc way with little regard for performance."

Rhee did not attend Friday's hearing. She and Mayor Adrian Fenty are scheduled to testify in front of the Council on Oct. 29.

 Email To Friend