CHICAGO – Parents and social justice activists in Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood are starving themselves in an attempt to force Chicago Public Schools to adopt their “global leadership and green technology” plan for Dyett High School.
CPS voted to close Dyett High School in 2012 because of years of abysmal academic performance and declining enrollment, with plans to reopen the campus in 2016-17 as a new school,Progress Illinois reports.
According to school data on Niche.com, Dyett High School boasted a graduation rate of 42 percent, with roughly 10 percent of students proficient in math or reading. WGN-TVreports 13 students received diplomas in its graduating class last year.
CPS is currently reviewing three proposals for the site: one from the “Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School,” which includes Teachers for Social Justice, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Journey for Justice Alliance and others; another from the nonprofit Little Black Pearl for an arts school; and a third from Dyett’s former principal Chares Campbell for a sports career academy, according to Progress Illinois.
Crisis over the CPS budget, driven primarily by employee pension costs, forced officials to reschedule a meeting on the three proposals set for last Monday to mid-September – Progress Illinois reports officials set a hearing for Sept. 10, while WGN-TV reports the date is Sept. 15. Either way, that’s apparently way too long for the social justice warriors to wait.
They marched out to Dyett High School and staged a hunger strike Monday to get their point across that the “global leadership and green technology” plan they cooked up is the only plan they’re interested in.
The protestors told WGN-TV they were under the impression their plan would be considered in a final meeting this month and would receive a vote Aug. 26.
So for now, a dozen angry social justice protesters are sitting at the school and consuming only water and “light liquids” until CPS officials give in to their demands.
“This is what it has come to,” Erana Jackson Taylor, 1981 Dyett graduate, told the Hyde Park Herald. “We will be out here all day … as long as it takes to get the message across to CPS about their fragmented process.”
“We are tired of our voices not being heard,” said fellow hunger striker Jitu Brown, who is a KOKO member along with Taylor. “There has to be accountability to the public for the destabilizing of schools in our community and the sabotage of our children’s education.”
Another protestor told WGN-TV her daughter is in eighth grade this year and if the school doesn’t reopen on time she’ll be forced to travel 16 miles to the next closest high school.
“We feel like we are being pushed to this drastic measure,” Teachers for Social Justice member Prudence Browne told Progress Illinois. “And that’s why I’m out here, because I don’t know what else to do. I helped to write a proposal. I show up to board meetings. I advocate, and it’s not being heard.”
Even defeated Chicago mayoral candidate and Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia showed up to the hunger strike to show his support for what’s “fair and just,” according to the news site.
Garcia told protestors he’s “very moved” by their refusal to eat.
