This week New Yorkers gathered in each borough to protest MTA layoffs, budget cuts, and the cancellation of student MetroCards. The Insideschools staff was wrapping up its workday Thursday when chants of protest poured in through our 7th-story window. I grabbed my camera and bolted down the stairs.

After hopping a steel barricade and weaving through a crowd of police officers, I joined the thousands marching from a rally at Gov. Paterson's office to the Fashion Institute of Technology -- where MTA held a public hearing on the MetroCard cuts. Students waved picket signs and led chants. "Hands off our MetroCards," rang down the canyon of mid-rise buildings lining 7th Avenue.

We were greeted at FIT by a three-story inflatable rat, installed by protesters. The crowd was corralled by another set of steel barricades. I hopped another fence and turned down 27th Street to find another crowd of students still standing outside the entrance to the hearing. "Let us in," a small group of high schoolers chanted. The police informed me that the room was full and that "no one else is getting in."

I attempted to blend in with the fashionable crowd on campus to find a back door, but my meager style sense didn't cut it with campus security. Luckily, Gabriel Resto-Montero of DNAinfo made it in and provided a great report. The MTA board is expected to vote on the cuts on March 24.

protests.pngLabor unions organized speakers at the corner of 7th Avenue and 29th Street.