Stop Criminalizing CPS Students
The City of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools are targeting certain neighborhoods with police state tactics. Last year, the Chicago Reader and the Shriver Center began investigating police assigned to work inside Chicago Public Schools. The news article and the...
Incarcerated parents have big impacts on students of color
Here’s an education reform you won’t hear about from DeVos or Duncan: stop locking up so many Black and Brown parents! A recent Economic Policy Institute study confirmed something that may seem obvious: students with a parent in jail are likely to have...
Criminalizing Mental Illness
New research is emerging that further emphasizes how important public resources and social services are to our Chicago neighborhoods. A study published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities highlights the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder...
Just how much sanctuary does Chicago provide for undocumented students?
The US Department of Justice has confirmed what we’ve known to be true in Chicago: the Chicago Police Department consistently uses unreasonable and deadly force against communities of color with little accountability. These findings come from a DOJ report that states,...
Students with Incarcerated Parents
The Illinois prison population has doubled in the last twenty-five years, mostly due to the “war on drugs,” and incarceration rates tend to be concentrated in high-poverty communities. CPS does not have enough social workers or counselors to help students…
Young Black Organizers Demand New City
Laquan McDonald was 17 years young when he was executed by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. The fatal details surrounding his murder have put Chicago front and center for questions around police conduct, competence, and corruption among the city’s officials. Young Black organizers across the city are demanding a complete restructuring of how Chicago is governed and funded.
Community Resources, Not More Incarceration
Chicago Police Department superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired by Mayor Emanuel last Tuesday, after protesters have been demanding it for months. Back in October, members of the Black Caucus of the city council demanded his replacement because crime is still...
The Loveless Age of Schooling
…I realized I was not following my own advice in sharing my authentic voice with my students. How could I open the year without talking about my mission as an educator to bring love back into schooling? So the next morning I stood before parents and a classroom of third graders talking about love.
Mike Brown Means We’ve Got to Fight Back: 1 Year Later
Mike Brown’s life had become an equation; a sum of his respectable parts minus any mainstream missteps to determine his right to equality. Four and a half hours left in the street gave view to an enduring truth in America…
