Nick Blumberg | July 14, 2021 8:55 pm
Wednesday marks the deadline for about 50 local school councils with Chicago Public Schools to decide whether they want to keep their school resource officers Chicago police officers assigned to work on school campuses.
So far, CPS data shows that most of the schools are set to keep at least one officer. While they’ve been the subject of controversy, particularly after last year’s racial justice demonstrations, supporters of having officers on campus argue that they can be part of a comprehensive safety plan.
Thanks to our sponsors:
“They’ve been a resource, whether it’s (helping) students who’ve endured violence en route to school or whether there has been violence surrounding the school that had to result in a soft lockdown,” Ramona Burress, a member of Kenwood Academy High School’s local school council told WTTW News last year. “Those things would only occur because we had those officers present to be the resourc
Meyiya Coleman, 22, describes familial connections to the issues she organizes around. Growing up on the West Side of Chicago, she says she was about eight years old when she started engaging in community activism with her family. At a young age, she lost a cousin she loved dearly when he was gunned down at a gas station blocks from her grandmother’s house. Later, her grandmother who Coleman says was her best friend survived a gunshot to the head. Her grandmother began joining Coleman, who is a youth organizer at Communities United, in speaking to legislators to advocate for gun violence prevention. When her grandmother passed away, Coleman used this work as a means of coping. “Just to know that I’m continuing something that she started is truly amazing to me,” she tells
The organizations, chosen out of 15 applicants, for the “Whole School Safety Steering Committee,” include: Voices of Youth in Chicago Education; Mikva Challenge; Community Organizing and Family Issues; The Ark of St. Sabina; and BUILD Inc.
The groups will each receive a $30,000 stipend, funded by philanthropic organizations, for their work, CPS said.
Meyiya Coleman, a youth leader for Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, said groups like hers have spent years working toward the removal of SROs.
“It’s amazing to know that CPS wants to work with us on this, to actually figure out a way that we can find the better solutions on dealing with school safety,” Coleman said Tuesday. “Now that our board and all of CPS is willing to finally listen to young people, it’s amazing.
CPS seeks alternatives to in-school officers
By Sun-Times Media Wire
CTU members threatening to strike over coronavirus safety concerns
Brian Weinthal, employment attorney with Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, PC, examines the legality of a potential strike by the Chicago Teachers Union in wake of fears for their own safety.
CHICAGO -
Chicago Public Schools plans to partner with community organizations to create new trauma-informed safety approaches, following a summer of student-led protests against
Five community organizations were selected to lead the development of the new holistic program, which schools will be able to adopt next year as an alternative to school resource officers, CPS announced Tuesday.
Chicago Public Schools seeks alternatives to School Resources Officers after summer protests abc7chicago.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abc7chicago.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.