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Vol. 34 No. 30
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July 22, 2020
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Loretto avoids July 20 strike,
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Students St d t ddemandd renaming Douglas Park after Frederick Douglass, PAGE 3
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Outside of the lines
Some Chicago school councils tasked with voting on police in schools aren’t following the rules By YANA KUNICHOFF & PASCAL SABINO Chalkbeat Chicago & Block Club Chicago
As young protesters in Chicago joined those across the country calling for an end to school policing, district leaders hastily called upon local school councils to decide whether to keep police on campuses and gave them an Aug. 14 deadline to make the decision. But the process so far underscores longstanding issues around the transparency of the groups, how much they are supported and trained, and lackluster participation. Reporting from 16 schools that so far voted on or discussed the issue shows that some councils failed to post meetings publicly or follow other rules that allow parents and community members to participate. Others tried to limit media access or public discussion. Last week alone, at least one council voted to retain police in schools, but the meeting wasn’t posted publicly online. Another voted before allowing public comment, and a third was in violation of rules that require the councils to place all planned votes on their agenda and post minutes online after meetings. One council ended its meeting abruptly after a reporter logged on and tried to identify herself, saying it would continue the meeting privately at another time. By the middle of the week, Chicago Public Schools had released a toolkit and held an informational meeting in an effort to clarify the rules. But the district does not centrally track the dates of meetings, times or agendas, leaving parents, students, and often reporters to rely on the record-keeping at individual schools. That often means scrambling to find a meeting, or struggling to figure out how and why a decision was made. According to the state’s law establishing the See SCHOOL COUNCILS on page 8
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza/Public Domain
HERO MOURNED: President Barack Obama hugs Rep. John Lewis after his introduction during the event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., March 7, 2015. (Caption via Wikimedia)
Area leaders honor late John Lewis Congressman Danny K. Davis recalled Lewis as ‘the essence of decency’
By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Tributes from local lawmakers at various levels of government have been pouring in for John Lewis — the longtime Georgia Congressman who was a constant presence in the modern civil rights struggle. Lewis died on July 17 from pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. As a college student in Nashville, Lewis helped organize the sit-ins that prompted local officials to desegregate lunch counters. From there, he joined the
Freedom Riders on life-threatening bus trips across the country that helped pave the way for the effective desegregation of interstate travel. As a 23-year-old leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis was among the “Big Six” organizational leaders who planned the March on Washington in 1963. “We’re tired of being beaten by policemen. We’re tired of seeing our people locked up in jails over and over again, and then you holler, ‘Be patient.’ How long can we be patient? We want our freedom, and we want it now,” Lewis
exclaimed in his speech at the historic demonstration — a speech that he was asked to tone down by other organizers who thought his original draft was too radical. “By and large, American politics is dominated by politicians who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic, and social exploitation,” he said that day in 1963. Lewis was perhaps most famous for
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