CPD officers mounted unprovoked assault, taser attack on Marshall High teenage girl.
CHICAGO, April 11, 2019—CTU President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement in wake of news that documentation has surfaced showing an unprovoked resource officer assault on a teenage girl inside her high school.
“This appalling case underscores exactly what our students need and continue to lack in our schools: trained adults who put children’s wellbeing ahead of their own. If that student had been met by a social worker or a restorative justice coordinator or even a school nurse—all staff who are in critically short supply in our schools—she would not have been beaten down and tasered. But because the mayor who controls our schools has refused to staff those trained professionals, this child was criminalized when no crime had been committed, beaten down, and traumatized because there is no proper training and no accountability for school resource officers.”
“Will the outgoing mayor convene a press conference to express his outrage at the abuse of this student? Or will he simply follow his own pattern of chronic mistreatment of South and West Side schoolchildren, and ignore once again the need for responsible, trained adults in our schools who work to help, rather than harm, the children whose parents entrust them to our care? Will he demand greater accountability from police in our schools? Or will he simply leave it to the next mayor to remedy the failure of eight years of his control of our schools?
“While these are rhetorical questions, the crisis is real. The next mayor must move immediately to resource our schools with restorative justice coordinators, school nurses, social workers and counselors. She must staff our schools with compassionate professionals who are trained to support our young people.”
