Dyett hunger-strikers vow to continue fight
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praised the actions of the hunger strikers at Dyett High School. | Mitch Dudek/Sun-Times
On Wednesday morning — Jeannette Taylor’s 10th day of a hunger strike aimed at saving a neighborhood school in Bronzeville — paramedics removed her from a Chicago Board of Education meeting because she was too weak to walk out on her own.
As Taylor, 40, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, her fellow hunger strikers — a dozen in all — sat in folding chairs outside Dyett High School, 555 E. 51st St., where they have spent their days since giving up food on Aug. 17.
One of them, Jitu Brown — who has lost 17 pounds since August 17 — began feeling dizzy about noon and grabbed a friend’s shoulder, but stumbled. Onlookers called an ambulance.
“Paramedics checked me out and said my blood pressure is a little high,” said Brown shortly after the incident. “But I didn’t want to go to the hospital. So I told them I’m staying here. My body may be weak, but my spirit is strong.”
Brown has been drinking liquids and vegetable broth for sustenance.
Another in their ranks, Irene Robinson, 50, was hospitalized Monday for about 24 hours. At the hospital, she refused to eat food that doctors said was necessary for her to take her high blood pressure medication.
“I’ll be here until I die,” Robinson, who has grandkids who attend CPS, said Wednesday outside Dyett.
Hunger-strikers Irene Robinson and Jitu Brown at Dyett High School on Wednesday. | Mitch Dudek/Sun-Times
In 2012, Chicago Public Schools decided to close Dyett High School this June citing low enrollment and poor performance. Rather than closing all at once, CPS phased out the student body so last year, only 13 seniors remained, finishing their school careers in a nearly empty building.
But faced with community backlash, including arrests at City Hall of some of the folks now on hunger strike, CPS accepted proposals on what should become of the school.
The hunger strikers and other members of the community offered their proposal they’ve developed over the last five years: transform the school into The Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology Community High School, which would partner with the DuSable Museum, Chicago Botanic Gardens and UIC’s College of Education. Acontract school also has been proposed, as well as a sports-themed neighborhood school.
Randi Weingarten, president of the Washington D.C.-based American Federation of Teachers — which boasts 1.6 million members — joined the hunger strikers Wednesday at a news conference outside of Dyett.
“These hunger strikers are pursuing justice — not for themselves, but Dyett hunger-strikers vow to continue fight:
