A response to “Teaching About Laquan McDonald: A Toolkit for Teachers”
A response to “Teaching About Laquan McDonald: A Toolkit for Teachers”
December 3, 2015
By: Danny B Martin, PhD, professor of curriculum and instruction and mathematics
Josh Radinsky, PhD, associate professor of curriculum and instruction
Cecily Relucio Hensler, PhD Curriculum Studies student
David O. Stovall, PhD, professor of educational policy studies
Josh Radinsky, PhD, associate professor of curriculum and instruction
Cecily Relucio Hensler, PhD Curriculum Studies student
David O. Stovall, PhD, professor of educational policy studies
Download this analyis as a PDF | Short URL for online version: education.uic.edu/toolkit
In anticipation of the release of video of the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) created a document titled “Teaching About Laquan McDonald: A Toolkit for Teachers” that was made available to teachers over the Thanksgiving holiday. The toolkit is “designed to help guide a difficult conversation, if you choose to discuss the case in class.” It aims “to ensure teachers feel comfortable and prepared,” anticipating that many CPS students will have seen the video of the shooting and media coverage of the ensuing protests.
As teachers and teacher educators at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Education, we support CPS’s aim of helping teachers and students productively discuss LaQuan McDonald’s killing and its aftermath. This is a critical and tragic moment that demands our attention, and teachers need to be supported in their efforts to create educational spaces for young people to make sense of these events.
However, the CPS toolkit raises many questions and concerns for us. There is no mention of the reasons why this case has sparked massive protests, nor that it is one of numerous police killings and assaults on African American citizens that have been documented and protested within the last year alone. While the details of this case are unique, the events surrounding it are not isolated. A culmination of similar historical moments nationwide (many not captured on videotape) has led up to this moment in Chicago.
As public educators, we wish to offer some suggestions of how to better serve youth, communities and educators in Chicago. We are all struggling to understand these events, and how they reflect larger historical, social and political forces and conditions. We hope to reframe the discussion on the important teaching and learning that needs to happen at this time.
CPS’ Summary of the Case
The Introduction to the lesson plan describes the killing of Laquan McDonald on October 20, 2014, and offers an account of the events that followed. This account mirrors the account given by City and police department officials: it uses the word immediately (twice) and the phrase several days later to suggest a timely investigation, and emphasizes that the officer was charged with first degree murder, as if to imply an aggressive prosecution of the case. Not mentioned are the reports that officers at the scene dispersed witnesses, failing to take statements from those who might have provided a different account. There is no mention of the fact that the video contradicts CPD testimony, that the charges were not brought until a judge ordered the video’s release (against CPD’s wishes), or of widespread demands for the resignation of the States Attorney, CPD Chief, and Mayor.
The introduction to the lesson plan also makes excuses for delays by the City and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez throughout the investigation. These delays have been widely criticized by local and national press, and especially by local community members. The introduction fails to point out that the $5 million settlement with the family was not the result of a lawsuit, but was initiated by the City in apparent acknowledgment of the egregiousness of the case. Also omitted is the fact that the murder occurred four months before the mayoral primary election of 2014, and the $5 million settlement was finalized one week after the runoff election. It is Teachers For Social Justice: A response to “Teaching About Laquan McDonald: A Toolkit for Teachers”:
