Chicago school board disses youth, votes to keep cops in schools

Latest

Rally at Whitney Young High School to demand that Chicago City Council defund the police by 75 percent and invest in the community.

 
CHICAGO – The board of the Chicago Public Schools voted on August 26 to renew its district-level contract with the Chicago Police Department to assign officers to schools.
The board’s decision means the School Resource Officer (SRO) program will continue only in the 55 schools where the local school council (LSC) had voted to keep SRO. Earlier this summer, 17 other LSCs voted to end it.
Young activist movements in Chicago have been campaigning against SRO under the hashtag #CopsOutCPS after the Minneapolis school district cut its ties to the police following George Floyd’s murder.
One of the Chicago groups is GoodKidsMadCity (@GKMC18), which is made up of “Black and Brown young people united in fighting to end violence in our cities” who “call for more resources to underserved communities.” One of its organizers, Miracle Boyd, was bloodily assaulted by a Chicago cop during a protest earlier in the summer.
GKMC at once denounced the school board’s decision in a tweet, saying: “@ChiPubSchools doesn’t GAF about students and our safety! The BOE WHO ISNT ELECTED ONCE AGAIN VOTED TO KEEP COPS IN CPS!!!”
Black Lives Matter Chicago (@BLMChi) tweeted: “This decision perpetuates a system that targets Black, Brown, and disabled students with physical and emotional trauma. Everyone that voted yes should be ashamed.”
During the 2019-20 school year CPS paid $33 million to hire police officers in schools with access to school computers. The 2020-21 school year contract with the police has been reduced to $12 million.
Activists criticized SRO for officers entering students’ names into CPD’s notoriously wrong Criminal Enterprise Information System – known as the “gang database” – which in turn serves Chicago’s school-to-prison pipeline. Under the Chicago Public Schools’ plan for the coming year, CPD computer terminals will be removed from the school and SRO cops will be barred from the gang database.
Meanwhile, there have been several days of protests by Loyola University students demanding that campus police cut its ties to CPD. (A Loyola official wrote that campus police are legally required to work with CPD and that “calls to sever all ties are not practical.” The official did not specify what law links the university to CPD.)
GoodKidsMadCity, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Chi Nations, BYP100, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and 11 other local groups rallied hundreds of people on August 22 at Whitney Young High School to #BreakThePiggybankChicago.
Among the rally’s demands is that the Chicago City Council defund the Chicago Police by 75 percent and invest instead in non-jail services and community programs. Another is the enactment of CPAC, an elected citywide civilian board overseeing the police, as well as closing of Homan Square and all other Chicago Police illegal secret detention warehouses called “black sites.”

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

‘We Need Urgent Global Climate Action’

Eighty-nine percent of people worldwide want their governments to do more to address the global climate crisis. Conference on tipping points says situation is urgent. Meanwhile U.S. govt does more to boost fossil fuel forms of energy.

May Day 2025: United We Will Win

International Worker’s Day is celebrated on May 1st around the world. Today, the entire U.S. working class, of which immigrants comprise an integral part, is under attack. The defense of immigrants is vital to the defense of the entire working class.

White School Officer Pepper-sprayed and Kneed Black Beaumont, TX Student, Complaint says. Will Feds Act?

A 6-second video, recorded by a teacher and reviewed by the Texas Observer, shows an officer grabbing a student’s hair, kneeing her in the face, and knocking the 100-pound girl on her back.

Pope Francis Dies After Easter Plea to End War in Gaza

"In his final public message, Pope Francis decried the “terrible conflict” in Gaza.

Bring Union Brother Kilmar Home: His Deportation Is an Attack on All of Us

The deportation of union brother Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a gut punch to the labor movement, a slap in the face to every worker who dares to organize.

More from the People's Tribune