Chicago Public Schools Memo Instructs on How to Handle Civil Disobedience Against School Closings
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) currently intend to close fifty-four schools before the year is over. This means Chicago is likely to have the largest number of school closures in any city in America this year.
President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Karen Lewis, has declared, “Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscience will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design. ”
She added, “These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory.”
A major demonstration is planned for downtown Chicago tomorrow. The streets may look like they did back in
Students and parents from Lafayette School protest school closing (Creative Commons-licensed Photo by chicagopublicmedia)
She added, “These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory.”
A major demonstration is planned for downtown Chicago tomorrow. The streets may look like they did back in