(Photo by Lorie Shaull)

Though she has never taught at, attended, or sent her children to a public school, newly instated Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited a D.C. middle school this morning as one of her first public acts on the job. A crowd of parents and educators were there to tell her that they love our public schools, and activists came out to show resistance.

DeVos was confirmed this week in a historic tie-breaking vote after a groundswell of opposition seriously threatened her prospects. But while two Republicans senators—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine—broke ranks with the party, opponents couldn’t flip a third and Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaker.

In addition to being a prolific donor to the Republican Party (it’s “possible,” DeVos said at her confirmation hearing, that her family has donated as much as $200 million to the GOP), DeVos is known for decades of lobbying for charter schools and voucher programs for private and religious schools.

Public school educators have scorned DeVos for her lack of experience and badly fumbled answers to questions from Democrats during her confirmation hearing. They fear that fear she will gut the public school system in favor of charter, private, and religious schools.

“We want to send the message that we love our public school system,” Elizabeth Davis, head of the Washington Teachers’ Union, told WAMU about why they organized this morning’s vigil outside the Southwest school. “We do not want a market-driven school system. We want to have support for our public schools and build on that. We are going to continue to advocate for quality public schools throughout the District in all communities,”

It is unclear why DeVos chose to visit Jefferson, a predominantly low-income school, and D.C.’s new school chancellor Antwan Wilson declined to answer reporters’ questions about the visit on the scene. DeVos entered the school through a back door, according to NBC4 reporter Mark Segraves, to avoid both protesters and media attention. At one point, she was physically blocked by protesters taunting her for “buying your way to the position.”

One protester on the scene was arrested by D.C. police.

On Thursday, DeVos and Omarosa Manigault met with Howard University President Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick and a group of student leaders. “I look forward to visiting many schools across our great country and continuing the discussion on how we can increase access to affordable, quality higher education,” DeVos said in a statement.

Before her confirmation, multiple protests drew out hundreds of opponents. One was organized by two local kindergarten teachers who had never started a protest before.

“It’s frightening that someone that’s completely unqualified and doesn’t understand very basic pieces of education is simply put in this position because of money,” Katie Keier told DCist last month. “We need to put children first.”

This post has been updated.