W E D N E S D A Y
March 7, 2018 Vol. 36, No. 29 ONE DOLLAR
@oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
2018 Sample ballots Pages 31-34
Demands for more minority teachers at fever pitch
Local activists increase pressure on D97 and D200 to do something soon By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Lalo was scooped up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), soon after crossing the border in October into California, because he didn’t have a visa and said he couldn’t afford to pay the high price for one in Guatemala.
Oak Park community members, many aligned with roughly a dozen local activist organizations, have come together in a concerted effort, amplifying their demand that public school districts in Oak Park hire more minority teachers. At a Feb. 22 meeting of the District 200 school board and a Feb. 27 meeting of the District 97 board, representatives from what activists are calling a Campaign for More Teachers of Color, presented a series of short-term and longer-term goals that they want board members in those districts to implement over the next two academic years. The campaign’s short-term goals, which activists urged the districts to implement by the start of the 2018-19 school year, were presented to the two boards a few months after Oak Park Call to Action launched a petition demanding more minority hires in Oak Park. The petition has since garnered at least 600 signatures. Their goals include developing “ambitious” plans “during the current hiring cycle” to address racial disparities in teacher hiring, granting “immediate priority” to increasing the pool of black teachers in core subjects and implementing “viable action steps” to eliminate “any bias and barriers” that fail to align
See SANCTUARY on page 18
See MINORITY TEACHERS on page 17
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
SEEKER: Donal Eduardo Valiente Marroquin, also known as Lalo, front, with his attorney Mony Ruiz-Velasco, left, and Rev. Eric Biddy at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Oak Park. Lalo, who suffers from cancer is seeking asylum from the violence of his native Guatemala.
Oak Park church becomes sanctuary for refugee St. Christopher’s houses Guatemalan facing deportation
By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter
Donal Eduardo Valiente Marroquin, aka “Lalo,” fled his native Guatemala last summer, fearing for his life, because he had dared to resist one of the gangs terrorizing the population there.
His odyssey has led to him, since Dec. 13, 2017, to taking sanctuary in the basement of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Oak Park. “It was an adventure that I decided to take,” he said, “hoping that God would help me find a place without knowing exactly where I would end up.”
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