Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School According to a couple of folks who emailed me about this, there was a student at Hyde Park HS who brought a gun to school and was caught yesterday afternoon. He is a basketball player, which raised the concern that his case might be handled differently than it normally would.
No formal word has been conveyed to students or staff at the school, according to those who have contacted me, which of course only makes the rumor mill go into high gear.
However when I called CPS they said that the word so far from their head of security is that the athlete has been arrested and taken to jail and will be recommended for suspension just like any other kid. Apparently there are hearings etc. involved in the CPS part of the process, just as there are on the legal/criminal end.
Any updates or insights, let us know. And thanks for the early warning emails sent in by folks near to the situation.
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Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 3:54 PM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
according to CPS, the student has already been suspended and will be referred for expulsion. in the meantime, they do an "emergency removal" so that the student can't come back to his original school while waiting on the referral. bottom line, according to CPS: he won't be returning to Hyde Park.
Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 8:35 PM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
I work at Hyde Park and I have not heard anything about this incident. I do know about one that occured in early December. Do the metal detectors not work?
Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 9:16 PM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
Chicago Police Department CLEAR MAP - Crime Incidents
HN735296
Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:20:39
1500 E 63RD ST
AGGRAVATED BATTERY
AGGRAVATED: OTHER DANG WEAPON
HN710974
Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:00:00
6300 S HARPER AVE 0320
ROBBERY
STRONGARM - NO WEAPON
HN706472
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:00:00
6200 S STONY ISLAND AVE
SCHOOL, PUBLIC, BUILDING
AGGRAVATED BATTERY
AGGRAVATED:KNIFE/CUTTING INSTR N
HN678213
Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:30:00
6200 S STONY ISLAND AVE
SCHOOL, PUBLIC, BUILDING
AGGRAVATED BATTERY
AGGRAVATED: OTHER DANG WEAPON Y
HN735296
Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:20:39
1500 E 63RD ST
AGGRAVATED BATTERY
AGGRAVATED: OTHER DANG WEAPON
HN710974
Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:00:00
6300 S HARPER AVE 0320
ROBBERY
STRONGARM - NO WEAPON
HN706472
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:00:00
6200 S STONY ISLAND AVE
SCHOOL, PUBLIC, BUILDING
AGGRAVATED BATTERY
AGGRAVATED:KNIFE/CUTTING INSTR N
HN678213
Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:30:00
6200 S STONY ISLAND AVE
SCHOOL, PUBLIC, BUILDING
AGGRAVATED BATTERY
AGGRAVATED: OTHER DANG WEAPON Y
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 5:33 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
When I read stories like this and questions like these I feel a bit angry over how much the Chicago Teachers Union has surrendered in "school security and safety" by just plain stupidity the past four years.
But let's do some review before the final examination:
The metal detectors in a general high school are of little use at this point in the school year unless there are enough reliable security staff at all the doors all day. Anyone who believes that serious weapons are going to get inside a school through the front door needs a reality check.
When I used to visit schools with security problems, one of the first things I'd do was ask "Where's the back door the kids come in?" At every school that had problems, (a) that door was known to everyone, and (b) it wasn't "covered" most of the day. Even at a place that's as potentially tight as Gage Park or Foreman, the back door has to be opened because of the classrooms out back!
Then there is the current pressure by Arne Duncan on general high schools to take in every teenager who "wants an education" in late September or early October or risk losing teachers (how do you spell "Julian") when Arne clicks the mouse and the "20th Day" arrives.
So here's what happens at the general high schools (but not at the magnets or charters):
During the first month of school, the kids who are in school are there because they want to be there or have to.
During the second month of school, the kids who come have been invited in order to keep the "numbers up" by certain principals. This is when you get the largest number of gang bangers who have absolutely no intention of passing even one course.
By Halloween, they have "made" the security systems. The only kids who are caught with weapons at metal detectors are the ones who left their box cutters in their pockets after working the previous night until midnight at "Tacos are Us" or "Burgers 'R Cheap."
By Thanksgiving, every gang banger worth his tattoos has "made" the security system at the schools that are his (or hers, in the cases of places like Clemente) "mark."
So this is the season to be folly. Why would you think the metal detector was going to deter anything real?
At least this school year we're not getting silly stories on page one of the Tribune about how the crime rate has gone down (oh, yes, "on average", as Arne loves to say) and weapons are no longer a danger in the public schools. It's just a little over a year since the mythmaking machines were churning out those propaganda stories about how much safer Chicago schools were getting under the latest iteration of the Daley miracle.
But let's do some review before the final examination:
The metal detectors in a general high school are of little use at this point in the school year unless there are enough reliable security staff at all the doors all day. Anyone who believes that serious weapons are going to get inside a school through the front door needs a reality check.
When I used to visit schools with security problems, one of the first things I'd do was ask "Where's the back door the kids come in?" At every school that had problems, (a) that door was known to everyone, and (b) it wasn't "covered" most of the day. Even at a place that's as potentially tight as Gage Park or Foreman, the back door has to be opened because of the classrooms out back!
Then there is the current pressure by Arne Duncan on general high schools to take in every teenager who "wants an education" in late September or early October or risk losing teachers (how do you spell "Julian") when Arne clicks the mouse and the "20th Day" arrives.
So here's what happens at the general high schools (but not at the magnets or charters):
During the first month of school, the kids who are in school are there because they want to be there or have to.
During the second month of school, the kids who come have been invited in order to keep the "numbers up" by certain principals. This is when you get the largest number of gang bangers who have absolutely no intention of passing even one course.
By Halloween, they have "made" the security systems. The only kids who are caught with weapons at metal detectors are the ones who left their box cutters in their pockets after working the previous night until midnight at "Tacos are Us" or "Burgers 'R Cheap."
By Thanksgiving, every gang banger worth his tattoos has "made" the security system at the schools that are his (or hers, in the cases of places like Clemente) "mark."
So this is the season to be folly. Why would you think the metal detector was going to deter anything real?
At least this school year we're not getting silly stories on page one of the Tribune about how the crime rate has gone down (oh, yes, "on average", as Arne loves to say) and weapons are no longer a danger in the public schools. It's just a little over a year since the mythmaking machines were churning out those propaganda stories about how much safer Chicago schools were getting under the latest iteration of the Daley miracle.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 5:37 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
While we're talking about how Arne Duncan has created a security mess at Chicago's general high schools ("Shock Doctrine" anyone? After all, the objective is to privatize every one of them), why hasn't anyone reported those regular gang fights at Amundsen High School, which took in one of the largest numbers of gang bangers (People, by the way, not Folks) in September and October to make the numbers Arne was demanding -- or else cuts?
And of course if the principal won't sign a complaint, or show up in court, then the cops are usually unlikely to make the arrests in the first place.
And how many of those 47 (actually 49) kids arrested one month ago (November 16) at Crane High School were suspended, and who showed up in court when the cases were called?
This system has been sabotaged. As long as "news" is propaganda spin, things like this go on and on and on.
Let me know when someone gets better numbers out of Amundsen, Crane, Clemente, and Wells -- for starters.
And of course if the principal won't sign a complaint, or show up in court, then the cops are usually unlikely to make the arrests in the first place.
And how many of those 47 (actually 49) kids arrested one month ago (November 16) at Crane High School were suspended, and who showed up in court when the cases were called?
This system has been sabotaged. As long as "news" is propaganda spin, things like this go on and on and on.
Let me know when someone gets better numbers out of Amundsen, Crane, Clemente, and Wells -- for starters.
Wed Dec 19, 2007 at 1:40 PM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
the student-athlete was also involved in a shooting last wednesday after school on harper street behind the school. he wounded his intended target, too. he remained on the team and had no disciplinary measures taken against him.
how did he get in the school with the gun? it just so happens that the boy has mandatory basketball practice at 630 am, in which he enters the building through a side door with no metal detectors and no security check. Mr. D.K. lets the team in. According to students he has had the gun in his locker every day since thanksgiving, and this is how he got it through security. The security dept. and CPD are at odds with the Athletic department and administration over this latest event.
On a non-related note: Why did the school recently install 3 large HDTV in the lunchroom, I am sure the Science dept or Math department could have used that money.
how did he get in the school with the gun? it just so happens that the boy has mandatory basketball practice at 630 am, in which he enters the building through a side door with no metal detectors and no security check. Mr. D.K. lets the team in. According to students he has had the gun in his locker every day since thanksgiving, and this is how he got it through security. The security dept. and CPD are at odds with the Athletic department and administration over this latest event.
On a non-related note: Why did the school recently install 3 large HDTV in the lunchroom, I am sure the Science dept or Math department could have used that money.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 2:07 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
"...how did he get in the school with the gun? It just so happens that the boy has mandatory basketball practice at 630 am, in which he enters the building through a side door with no metal detectors and no security check. Mr. D.K. lets the team in..." (aitchpe tribe, yesterday).
Thank you for this level of precision. If there is every anything I can do -- very serious about this -- give a call.
Hopefully this will give some others the ability to be as precise.
As I was saying (yes, I told you so -- and years ago, as a matter of fact) there is always a "back door." So security costs at the front door become a joke when you're being "marked" (as in, "He's a mark") by serious bad guys (and gals), most of whom are members of Chicago's politically powerful and well-connected drug gangs. As in Black P. Stones, Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings and all that. You're dealing with professionals, and psychos coached by professionals. The reason the "shorty" usually pops the cap is because they've "made" the juvenile justice system long long ago.
The only kids the metal detectors will catch at the main entrances will be the Boy Scouts who forgot to leave their Boy Scout knives at home after their Scout meetings or camping trips.
CPS would rather spend its millions on technology. If you think metal detectors are expensive, think of the x-ray machines and closed circuit TV cameras that you either have to watch full time or tape and then risk having the tapes subpoenaed. Technology is a lucrative fantasy of the Mayor (blue lights anyone?), so this kind of crazed faux security goes on and on and on.
X-ray machines. Metal detectors. Outside the schools, blue lights and fences under the expressways (to keep terrorists from planting bombs under the Dan Ryan, or to keep the homeless from sleeping there?). What a town!
Back to the average school.
X-rays machines and metal detectors and blue lights outside on the poles.
Meanwhile, half the intercoms in high school classrooms don't work, so that when things go wrong in real time, we have really good videos of empty space, while be blood's flowing elsewhere. This stuff really needs a TV show (after the Writers Guild strike ends) to do it justice. A Chicago version of The Wire.
Every general high school in Chicago, and half the magnets, is vulnerable today because of these things. At least this year we are no longer stuck with all that Happy Talk nonsense about how the "average" violence has gotten "less" (something Arne was still prattling less than 12 months ago, for those who still take history and fact seriously).
Now to the real problems: the elementary schools.
The 50 - 80 elementary schools where things are really bad are ready to blow and will this winter and spring. By this time, the teachers (especially those on the upper floors) know how bad things are and have either figured out how to defend themselves or are making plans to change careers.
When I was doing security and safety for CTU. I got in the habit of beginning my elementary meetings by defining "Battery" in the legal sense (using what was then called the "Uniform Discipline Code").
Then I'd ask every teacher who had been the victim of a battery in school during the previous 12 months to stand.
Usually, every female teacher stood, along with a majority of the males if it was a really bad school. Nothing's changed since those days, except the cover-ups are smarmier.
Thank you for this level of precision. If there is every anything I can do -- very serious about this -- give a call.
Hopefully this will give some others the ability to be as precise.
As I was saying (yes, I told you so -- and years ago, as a matter of fact) there is always a "back door." So security costs at the front door become a joke when you're being "marked" (as in, "He's a mark") by serious bad guys (and gals), most of whom are members of Chicago's politically powerful and well-connected drug gangs. As in Black P. Stones, Disciples, Vice Lords, Latin Kings and all that. You're dealing with professionals, and psychos coached by professionals. The reason the "shorty" usually pops the cap is because they've "made" the juvenile justice system long long ago.
The only kids the metal detectors will catch at the main entrances will be the Boy Scouts who forgot to leave their Boy Scout knives at home after their Scout meetings or camping trips.
CPS would rather spend its millions on technology. If you think metal detectors are expensive, think of the x-ray machines and closed circuit TV cameras that you either have to watch full time or tape and then risk having the tapes subpoenaed. Technology is a lucrative fantasy of the Mayor (blue lights anyone?), so this kind of crazed faux security goes on and on and on.
X-ray machines. Metal detectors. Outside the schools, blue lights and fences under the expressways (to keep terrorists from planting bombs under the Dan Ryan, or to keep the homeless from sleeping there?). What a town!
Back to the average school.
X-rays machines and metal detectors and blue lights outside on the poles.
Meanwhile, half the intercoms in high school classrooms don't work, so that when things go wrong in real time, we have really good videos of empty space, while be blood's flowing elsewhere. This stuff really needs a TV show (after the Writers Guild strike ends) to do it justice. A Chicago version of The Wire.
Every general high school in Chicago, and half the magnets, is vulnerable today because of these things. At least this year we are no longer stuck with all that Happy Talk nonsense about how the "average" violence has gotten "less" (something Arne was still prattling less than 12 months ago, for those who still take history and fact seriously).
Now to the real problems: the elementary schools.
The 50 - 80 elementary schools where things are really bad are ready to blow and will this winter and spring. By this time, the teachers (especially those on the upper floors) know how bad things are and have either figured out how to defend themselves or are making plans to change careers.
When I was doing security and safety for CTU. I got in the habit of beginning my elementary meetings by defining "Battery" in the legal sense (using what was then called the "Uniform Discipline Code").
Then I'd ask every teacher who had been the victim of a battery in school during the previous 12 months to stand.
Usually, every female teacher stood, along with a majority of the males if it was a really bad school. Nothing's changed since those days, except the cover-ups are smarmier.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 8:44 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
How do we fix it then? Put in new intercom systems?
Criticizing Daley and Duncan on a daily basis is kind of like shooting fish in a bucket, it's certainly not hard to do and in the end it is about as productive. Especially on a site like this where, 90 percent of the time, you are preaching to the choir.
I agree that metal detectors and x-ray machines aren't the real answer, mostly because I think you are simply espousing a prison mentality with their use. But I do think security cameras are still a good idea and know that there needs to be some serious security presence. It is just walking that fine line between helping the students feel safe at school vs. making them feel like inmates at school.
But my question is, to anyone but especially to George who does have more experience in the classroom that the average person here along with some actual school security experience, if we can safely assume that Daley and Duncan are not going to swoop in anytime soon with a feasible and equitable solution, what should schools and teachers be doing in the meantime.
I'm admitting, that I don't even begin to have the answer to this problem. I could spout off stuff about the need for more social workers and special education teachers in all of our schools as a means to prevent some of this by targeting the students most likely to participate in this behavior with more personalized attention at school. But in the end I don't have any hard facts to back up my assertions, so they would just be wild guesses. I'm guessing that some people out there have a lot more than just wild guesses though, and it would be nice to hear some positive solutions being recommended on the blog.
Criticizing Daley and Duncan on a daily basis is kind of like shooting fish in a bucket, it's certainly not hard to do and in the end it is about as productive. Especially on a site like this where, 90 percent of the time, you are preaching to the choir.
I agree that metal detectors and x-ray machines aren't the real answer, mostly because I think you are simply espousing a prison mentality with their use. But I do think security cameras are still a good idea and know that there needs to be some serious security presence. It is just walking that fine line between helping the students feel safe at school vs. making them feel like inmates at school.
But my question is, to anyone but especially to George who does have more experience in the classroom that the average person here along with some actual school security experience, if we can safely assume that Daley and Duncan are not going to swoop in anytime soon with a feasible and equitable solution, what should schools and teachers be doing in the meantime.
I'm admitting, that I don't even begin to have the answer to this problem. I could spout off stuff about the need for more social workers and special education teachers in all of our schools as a means to prevent some of this by targeting the students most likely to participate in this behavior with more personalized attention at school. But in the end I don't have any hard facts to back up my assertions, so they would just be wild guesses. I'm guessing that some people out there have a lot more than just wild guesses though, and it would be nice to hear some positive solutions being recommended on the blog.
Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
No union representative has come out to the school.
Tue Dec 25, 2007 at 8:58 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
This is one security problem that hasn't changed in many years. Unfortunately, George is right on target about how easy it is to get a weapon into any building and how it doesn't take much for an enterprising rule-breaker to figure out a way. The best security is for staff to keep their ears open to the gossip among students, who always know who's got what, and may even find a way to let staff know.
Tue Dec 25, 2007 at 11:12 AM
Hyde Park HS Athlete Caught With Gun In School
Security
Our metal detectors haven’t picked up anything dangerous since the day after
They were installed. I am personally convinced that they are more of a psychological deterrent, than a real guarantee of safety. So to me the question is how to prevent dangerous things from entering school.
The first thing is to establish trust between you and the kids. A few years ago a kid
Who was bullied told a girl he knew by e-mail that he was going to shoot up the school
the next day. The girl trusted an English teacher so much she e-mailed her. The teacher called the police who tried to pick him up. But the boy already left for school. The
administration trusted the faculty enough to tell us, so we blocked every door. The kid
was quietly picked up a couple of blocks from school.
When trust is not enough what is wrong with bribery? Every effective dean knows that
twenty bucks can save the school a lot of grief . Just let the word out that information
leading to somebody with a real gun in school is worth a no questions asked hundred
dollars.
Our metal detectors haven’t picked up anything dangerous since the day after
They were installed. I am personally convinced that they are more of a psychological deterrent, than a real guarantee of safety. So to me the question is how to prevent dangerous things from entering school.
The first thing is to establish trust between you and the kids. A few years ago a kid
Who was bullied told a girl he knew by e-mail that he was going to shoot up the school
the next day. The girl trusted an English teacher so much she e-mailed her. The teacher called the police who tried to pick him up. But the boy already left for school. The
administration trusted the faculty enough to tell us, so we blocked every door. The kid
was quietly picked up a couple of blocks from school.
When trust is not enough what is wrong with bribery? Every effective dean knows that
twenty bucks can save the school a lot of grief . Just let the word out that information
leading to somebody with a real gun in school is worth a no questions asked hundred
dollars.
