the village free press Vol. II No. 23
Proviso Track, PAGE 2
JUNE 6, 2018
Mayor or at White Whi Castle, tle, PAGE 2
thevillagefreepress.org
PMSA families on idea of moving school: ‘Drop It!’ Students, parents and teachers spoke against relocation at May 15 meeting By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
The consensus at the fifth and final facilities master plan community engagement session — held May 15 at Proviso Math and Science Academy in Forest Park — was loud, clear and expressed most stridently by Jose Espin, a PMSA parent. “I’m really concerned about this idea of moving PMSA into East or West,” said Espin, the father of a current PMSA student and of a graduate of the magnet school. “I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how this is even an idea. … We will be literally killing PMSA and what it stands for,” he said. “Everyone has told me, ‘If they move PMSA to either East or West, we’ll pull our kids out of PMSA [and] take them to private school or move to another town.’” Espin said he has “a 12-year-old studying hard to make it into PMSA,” then told the district, “There is no more debate to have. Drop this today. This is it.” Although Proviso Township High Schools District 209 school board President See PMSA FAMILIES on page 5
ALEXA ROGALS
NEW DESIGNS: Proviso East student Edgar Guerro shows his design layout for the shuttered girls swimming pool at the high schools. Guerro was among 20 students who spent the year researching and creating scale foam models of new uses for the old pool space.
Gang burials a problem in west suburbs A Cook County task force has been established to explore the problem
By TIM INKLEBARGER Wednesday Journal
As the director of Smith & Thomas Funeral Home in Maywood, Ilene Johnson has participated in countless funeral processions, and in every one she sees the same thing — motorists attempting to get past the long line of cars, so they don’t have
to be held up. “I see the expression on people’s faces,” she said with a laugh, describing the exasperated looks some give when they know they have to wait for the procession. Some don’t wait, swerving around the line of vehicles or breaking into the procession, she said. It’s one of the most dangerous moments in a funeral for
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everyone involved. “I call it ‘Beat the hearse’,” she said. Johnson and others say the processions are made even more dangerous when they involve the death of a slain gang member. Law enforcement officials have dubbed them “rowdy processions” — many of See GANG BURIALS on page 4
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