Even as CPS opens more new schools, children with special needs have a tougher time finding options. Placements in private therapeutic schools are scarce, and some charters are reluctant to enroll them.
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Handcuffed At Julian
By: Alexander Russo / May 14, 2009
Here's a letter to Principal Taylor and Dean Sadisky sent in to me about an intense-sounding incident that happened yesterday at Julian, in which a student was stopped and handcuffed in the bathroom of the school and then suspended for 10 days in a way that may prevent her from graduating next month.
What do you make of it? Unusual or commonplace? What's the protocol for handcuffing and suspending students in your school -- do personnel need some sort of justification?
There've been a few reader comments about Julian lately -- this may or may not be connected to reader concerns.
Please note the following letter to Principal of Percy Julian H.S.
regarding an incident with a student. Please contact me if you have any
questions.
Principal Taylor and Dean Sadiky;
As the aunt of student Brittney Bates I am writing in response to the treatment of my niece on yesterday in the school building.
According
to Brittni she was en route to the restroom to blow her nose. She was
approached by a staff person who asked for her identification. Brittney
stated that she did not have ID and proceeded to the restroom. The
staff person then called police officers to the restroom. At this point
3 women police officers cornered Brittni in the restroom
stall, handcuffed her, and drug her down the hall by her handcuffs.
Brittni who has never been involved with law enforcement went into
shock and begin screaming because she felt as though she was being
attacked by the officers. Moreover, Brittni is a senior and is
scheduled to graduate June 5th. She has received a 10 day suspension
which will prevent for meeting graduation requirements.
I am appalled at the conflict management procedures of your
building. It is unfortunate that students are subjected to being
treated like criminals in an environment where they are supposed to
feel safe and is conducive to learning. I believe that the officers
escalated the incident by using unnecessary force rather more civil
communication means.
When viewing your vision , mission, and goals I see a theme that
includes providing an environment that is conducive to learning, the
use of critical thinking and problem solving techniques, etc., that
prepare students for opportunities that enhance their future quality of
life. The actions shown in this incident did not reflect your stated
goals.
In order for us to come to a full understanding of how this
incident escalated to an act that merited the level of force used by
officers, we would like to view a video tape of the incident and sit
down to discuss how to assist Brittni in recovering from the feelings
of being violated and attacked by those that are supposed to provide
safety and security. In addition we would like to view of a copy of the
protocol for handling situations such as this one.
Brenda McGowan, M.P.A.,F.L.E.,
Handcuffed At Julian
Did she graduate? Auntie was worried. Poor auntie.
Handcuffed At Julian
Hey, maybe auntie (with all those letters behind her name) has clout and can get her into U of I!
Handcuffed At Julian
Graduation is coming up, this week? Is that handcuffed student going to graduate?
GWHS vs. Julian (rained out)(update)
I don't know why a championship game would not be rescheduled, but to my my knowledge, it has not been, that is, the Washington High / Julian HS baseball game.
THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT I FOUND A PROFESSIONAL LEFT-HANDED FIRST BASEMEN'S GLOVE FOR THE GWHS FROSH-SOPH'S FIRSTBASEMAN. IT HAS ALREADY BEEN BROKEN IN. I THINK THE DUDE AT THE BACK OF THE YARDS FLEA MARKET WAS A CUBAN. THEY ALSO HAD A FANTASTIC SEASON. THE JUNIOR VARSITY BASEBALL TEAM OF GWHS, THAT IS.
SPEAKING OF CUBANS, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT CUBAN ON THE WHITE SOX, NOT THE PITCHER, BUT RAMIREZ.
HE HIT ANOTHER ONE TODAY. HERE IN MCKINLEY PARK, YOU CAN HEAR THE FIREWORKS.
HEY YOU OTHER "OLD GOATS" (WELL WE CALL THE STUDENTS, KIDS, AFTER ALL, KIDS ARE ACTUALLY BABY GOATS) YOU "SOUTH SIDER" WORKING CLASS SOX FANS, THAT IS, REMEMBER THE 1959 "GO, GO SOX", AND THE GREAT CUBAN, MINNIE MINOSO? MY FATHER WOULD HAVE THE RADIO ON TOP OF THE REFRIGERATOR, PROBABLY SO HE COULD GET THE NEXT COLD BEER OUT CONVENIENTLY, AND WITH THE SOX GAME ON THE RADIO, AND COLD BEER IN HAND, WHEN MINNIE CAME UP HE WOULD YELL AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS, "COME ON, MINNIE"!, AND THE WHOLE HOUSE SEEMED TO SHUTTER. YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THEY WENT TO THE WORLD SERIES THAT YEAR, AND PLAYED THE LA DODGERS.
WEE, AFTER MY PARENT'S DIVORCE, I MOVED DOWNSTATE TO RURAL ST. AUGUSTINE TO LIVE ON MY AGRANDPARENTS FARM, AND THE LAST THING MY FATHER DID BEFORE MOVING OUT TO TUCSON, ARIZONA WAS TO DROP OFF TOP QUALITY BASEBALL GLOVES FOR MY 2 BROTHERS AND ME. I DON'T THINK I SAW HIM THAT DAY THOUGH MY KID BROTHER WENT OOUT TO SEE HIM BEFORE HE PASSED ON IN THE EARLY 70'S. SAD STORY, SHOT IN THE LEG IN WORLD WAR 2, WORKED FOR DECADES IN A PLANT, AND DIED WHEN HE WAS 65.
MORAL OF THE STORY? WATCH OUT FOR YOUR STUDENTS NEEDS, AND HONOR A VET THIS MEMORIAL DAY, BE IT A VIET NAM VET AGAINST THE WAR (VVAW) OR AN IVAW (IRAQ VET AGAINST THE WAR) GOD WILL PAY YOU.
Subject: Anti-war Memorial Day Event, 11 AM Monday May 25, Wacker and Wabash
MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVANCE and the ENEMY KITCHEN
Date/Time: Monday May 25th from 11am to 12noon
Location: Veterans Memorial at Wabash and Wacker, downtown
Speakers include: Representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and anti-war labor activists and artists.
Following the observance - There will be a BBQ at the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, located at 18th and Indiana (in the south loop area).
Emcee: Ken Nielsen, VVAW National Staff, VFP Member, and IVAW Supporter/Organizer
Music: Carol Williams
Aaron Hughes, a former Illinois Army National Guard Sergeant who served 6 years and was discharged in June 2006. He was involuntarily deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003 with the belief he would provide humanitarian relief for the Iraqi people, he quickly came to the realization that he was not providing humanitarian relief, but contributing to the oppression, destruction, and dehumanization of the Iraqi people. Following a 15 month deployment he returned home committed to ending the occupation and US corporate pillaging. He’s dedicated his life to fighting dehumanization and oppression; and is currently building alliances between veterans and unions in Chicago. He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War in 2006 and has served as a Member, Chapter President, Regional Coordinator, Board Member, and Organizer. He helped found the Winter Soldier Project, the Warrior Writers Project, and the Chicago Chapter.
Barry Romo, National Coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He was an infantry lieutenant in 1967 and ended up as a company commander before the age of 20, he spent a year in Vietnam. In 1971 he joined VVAW and was elected to the national committee. VVAW has remained at the center of the battle over Agent Orange and has publicly opposed subsequent U.S. military ventures. Members give presentations at schools, promote reconciliation with Vietnam, and advocate for veterans rights.
Carl Rosen, Western Region President of the United Electrical Workers (UE). He is a native of the Southwest Side of Chicago. Over the years, he has served in numerous positions with Local 190 of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE). In 1994 he was elected to full-time union office as President of UE District 11, and was elected President of the UE Western Region in 2006. Carl was directly involved in the plant occupation by UE Local 1110 at Republic Windows and Doors this past winter. Carl and his family have been active in social movements, from Viet Nam to the illegal wars in Central America, to banning nuclear weapons. In 2002 he helped found Chicago Labor for Peace, Prosperity and Justice, the Chicago affiliate of US Labor Against the War. He represents his national union on the steering committee of USLAW.
Michael Rakowitz, an artist based in Chicago and New York City. In 1998 he initiated paraSITE, an ongoing project where the artist custom builds inflatable shelters for homeless people that attach to exterior outtake vents of a building’s heating, ventilation, or air conditioning system. His work has appeared in venues worldwide. He is the recipient of a 2008 Creative Capital Grant; a Sharjah Biennial Jury Award; a 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Grant in Architecture and Environmental Structures; the 2003 Dena Foundation Award, and the 2002 Design 21 Grand Prix from UNESCO. Upcoming shows include SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art in Montreal in May 2009, and Tate Modern in London in 2010. He is an Associate Professor in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.
ENEMY KITCHEN
1PM. Enemy Kitchen The National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum 1801 South Indiana
Lead by Michael Rakowitz and Veterans
Michael Rakowitz's 'Enemy Kitchen' breaks down cultural barriers
Sheng's classmate Niamh McGinley stood nearby, chopping tomatoes for a salad that would include peppers, onions, cucumbers and a pickled mango preparation called amba. "Most of us were too young to realize why we got into Iraq," she said. "The idea of spreading democracy is all well and nice, but ..." Her thought trailed off.
"It's not just President Bush," put in Arjun Shenoy. "People don't trust this government anymore. We need to find some way to re-establish that."
Across the worktable, Vivian Hsiao was hand-rolling rice-flour dumplings for kubba bamia, a traditional Iraqi dish the Saratoga students were preparing for their lunch at the Montalvo Arts Center Villa one day last week. "This war has made me wonder what it would be like to love my country," said Hsiao.
The cooking and conversation were occurring under the guidance of Michael Rakowitz, a 34-year-old artist who was in residence at Montalvo. In an ongoing project he calls "Enemy Kitchen," Rakowitz invites groups of students or adults to prepare and eat a meal using his Iraqi-Jewish mother's recipes.
The aim is to open new channels of ideas and feelings about the Iraq war and its underlying issues. Food, he believes, creates a leveling "social platform and circumstance" that can stimulate what he calls a "cultural puncture" among separate geographical, political and psychological realms.
Rakowitz, who was raised on New York's Long Island, has never visited Iraq and now teaches art theory and practice at Northwestern University, can sound pretty wooly when he gets going on the conceptual framework of his work. Cooking and eating with people, he said later, "is a public act that enlists an audience as vital collaborators in the production of meaning." Doing that in the United States with Iraqi recipes, he went on, invokes "the poetry inscribed in the notion of consuming the enemy."
But when he's working with a group of California teenagers, all of them dressed in "Enemy Kitchen" aprons bearing an image of the Iraqi flag, Rakowitz projects a receptive, curious and altogether accessible air. A dark beard, dark corkscrew curls and blue-gray eyes give him the look of a genial satyr. His Socratic dialogues are firmly grounded in the tactile, sensual nature of cooking.
Grabbing a handful of turmeric to season the kubba bamia's stew base, Rakowitz invited the students to come closer and get the full effect of the spice releasing its vapors in the hot oil. "You guys should eat more turmeric," he said. "It's the elixir of life. Also," he added, holding up his bright yellow palms, "they (Iraqis) use it as a dye."
Rakowitz spent 45 minutes each with two groups of about a dozen students, all of whom are enrolled in one of Judith Sutton's poetry writing classes. He asked questions, gently steered discussion and volunteered experiences of his own. He talked about his Iraqi grandparents' emigration in 1946 and told the students about the lines outside the door at Khyber Pass, an Afghan restaurant in New York, a few nights after Sept. 11, 2001. "People were there as a gesture of peace, as we were getting ready to attack Afghanistan," he said. "I thought that was really beautiful."
Rakowitz asked the students if they knew of any Iraqi restaurants in the Bay Area. When they couldn't name one, he asked if they knew any Vietnamese restaurants. They all nodded. Pointing out that we were once at war with Vietnam, he offered this wishful thought: "The thing I hope is that it will be very normal one day for people here to be eating Iraqi food."
Ingredients hold both literal and symbolic importance for Rakowitz. He held up the bag and told the students they were using California rice flour for the dumplings instead of an Iraqi product unavailable because of trade sanctions. "Which is pretty funny when you think about," he said, "since we're supposedly trying to rebuild the country."
Last year, in a project called "Return" that married art and a kind of Platonic commerce, Rakowitz reopened his grandfather's long-closed import-export shop in Brooklyn for the sole purpose of importing Iraqi dates. The fruit, in a convoluted series of events, became a "surrogate refugee," as the shipment was shuttled from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, and on to Syria, where the dates spoiled in the heat. Rakowitz did eventually succeed in getting five small boxes of dates through the bureaucratic maze of U.S. Customs and Homeland Security.
An Iraqi refugee named Shamoon, who had been visiting the Brooklyn storefront and struck up a friendship with Rakowitz, was one of the first to get a taste of thikra, or homeland memory. Rakowitz got a faraway look when he described his friend's half-blissful, half-anguished reaction. " 'This,' " he said of the date he had just eaten, " 'was 46 years in the making.' "
Rakowitz's suggestive food-based art is part of "Iraq: Reframe," an ambitious series of events, performances and talks sponsored by Montalvo and other organizations to explore "the significance of the current circumstances of Iraq in a global and historical context." In addition to artist-in-residence projects at Montalvo, there have been exhibitions at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art (through Jan. 19) and San Francisco's Triple Base Gallery (through Jan. 5); a hip-hop collaboration and a forthcoming performance of Heather Raffo's solo play, "9 Parts of Desire" (March 29); and various lectures and panels. Events on the "Iraq: Reframe" calendar continue through April.
An unavoidable, animating irony of the program is the use of art to address issues about a country that has been drained of its artistic and cultural lifeblood. That was apparent when the students took a break from cooking to visit "Al Dar Al Iraqi (Iraqi House)," a one-room, mud-brick shelter erected by refugee artist Wafaa Bilal down a grassy hill from the Italianate Montalvo villa.
Bilal, dressed in black, stood outside the flat-roofed one-room house and told his story. An aspiring artist in Iraq, his plans to attend art school in Baghdad were thwarted when a cousin was executed during Saddam Hussein's reign. "If a family member was in trouble," he explained, "you did not get good opportunity yourself." Bilal refused to fight in Iraq's 1991 invasion of Kuwait and fled to Saudi Arabia. It was there, in a refugee tent camp, that he and others began building mud-brick structures. One motivation was to protect the paintings he was doing from blowing sand. The 125-degree heat was another.
"Shelter is an issue," he said. "But hope is another issue." A number of the Saratoga high schoolers wrote that down. They were assigned to write both poems and submit journal entries based on this field trip.
Bilal spent two years in the camp, made it to New Mexico in 1992, learned English and earned a master's degree. Much of his work as an artist has been about "bridging the gap between here and there. War in Iraq," he said, "never ends." Bilal recently lived in a Chicago art gallery for 31 straight days, in an Internet-inflected conceptual piece that involved people logging on to shoot paint balls at him. Thousands of people, from 138 countries, took him up on it.
At 11:30, the students gathered at a long table in the villa's main hall to eat the kubba bamia and pickled-mango-dressed salad they had made together. Many of them liked the soft, meat-filled dumplings served over basmati rice. Some weren't so sure and left food on their plates. Rakowitz sat at one end of the table and smiled as the room filled with the sounds of forks on plates, fizzing soda cans and high school chatter. At one point, he got everyone's attention.
"My mother," he said, "would be very proud of all of you."
GWHS vs. Julian (2 corrections)
GWHS varsity baseball vs. Julian(the game that was cancelled Friday, was not played Saturday) (the make up game has yet to be played)
2. the other error in the aforementioned post : The GWHS frosh soph team's first baseman is who needs a left handed first basemen's glove)
Handcuffed At Julian
Again, there were NO cameras at Julian when the former Principal was removed!! If they were there, they would have shown the staff cheering Dr. Young's removal!!
Handcuffed At Julian
Battery
6300 block W. 56th St Aggravated battery: Knife/cutting instrument
Place: School, public building. Reported at 3 p.m. on May 7, 2009.
It just makes me laugh when people RAVE about Kennedy high school. Incidents like this one happen all of the time. Incidents like this is why authority should be respected.
Handcuffed At Julian
thats the same as being asked by an officer on the street for some form of identification (adults) and you don't have id you don't just tell the officer I don't have it and walk off you must obey authority. thats the problem students don't respect authority figures or anyone else for that matter anymore. A Lot of students are ignorant and rude to anyone who attempts to question them. Parents and aunts need to start teaching their children to respect adults!!!
Handcuffed At Julian
Yeah, I am deeply concerned about the death of investigative print journalism, but contrary to the media's over self-absorbed spin on the issue, it has a lot more to do with negligence in working to report the community than it does with the rise of the internet.
Handcuffed At Julian
I believe in the need for a free press, but papers like the Trib are dying because they tell the regurgitated story. Too bad they stopped practicing: 'if you mother says she loves you, check it out.'
Handcuffed At Julian
"And the Tribune's version of "news" coverage about CPS is to recycle the "Communications Department" press releases -- or to host an "editorial board briefing" where some CEO type uses Power Point to outline how the Tribune is supposed to spin the story. Then TV "News" simply follows the Tribune's version of reality, and the images of The Miracle become the story, not matter what the truth at 103rd St. may be. Why were the TV cameras lined up at Julian High School on orders from City Hall on April 3 when the principal was given a perp walk, but not at Julian last September and October when overcrowded classes were further destabilizing the school?"
- Yeah, why is that?!?! It makes me mad as hell that this city's mainstream press can't cover the CPS. As journalists act so shocked that they've lost readers/viewer/listeners, they really need to take a long look at themselves in the mirror.
Handcuffed At Julian
What would New Trier do?
Handcuffed At Julian
To: my insider friend
Are you referring to the CHSAS decision?
McGreal was the suppossed pick until the word got out that CPS would NOT allow him the principalship no matter what.
Heard that too
Handcuffed At Julian
I wish the union would step in-the large class sizes are affecting students and teachers. It is ridiculous. I wonder how this would be handled in the burbs. Would the teachers there have so many students in a class without grieving in right away? Here in the city where schools are run by the corrupt machine, people are afraid to speak out. Teachers are overworked and to reward them the city solution? Lay off teachers to create MORE work!
Handcuffed At Julian
Obviously, very few people have all of the information on the situation - participants and witnesses are about it. I hope they do have video; it speaks volumes. These types of things rarely happen the way they are described by the students involved.
MPA?
Master of Public Administration
FLE? Take your pick:
Foreign Language Education graduate certificate
Family Life Educator
Foreign Legal Entity
Female Libido Enhancement
Front Loaded Evolution
Future Logistics Environment
Français Langue Etrangère
Future Learning Environment
Functional Literacy Exam (obviously not this one)
Firefly Lantern Extract
Friends List Expansion
Four Little Engines
Front Line Elite
Fraternity of Linemen and Electricians
Who knows? But it does make her sound Very Important, doesn't it?
Handcuffed At Julian
Back to Julian and the letter: is there actually a video of the incident as implied by the aunt? I hope there is, and then auntie will see what a liar that kid is. And what are all those letters after her name?
Handcuffed At Julian
So why are the neighborhood schools dumped on and not the magnet schools?
Handcuffed At Julian
No need for apologies. Most people don't believe the incompetence of the Board of Education and CPS. Heck, I didn't believe it until I shifted careers to become a teacher.
While I am no fan of our impotent, bloated contract and weak, colluding union, class sizes are a state legislative issue. The CTU and its teachers are barred from bargaining over class size by our Springfield lawmakers. To my knowledge we are the only district in IL with such a restriction. Same for residency and myriad other regulations.
It's amazing to me, though not surprising, how teachers get such a bad rap when we are consistently hamstrung by the state, the Board, and CPS. It's no wonder, to bring us back to the original thread, why Julian has had such a difficult year.
[i]The kids and teachers at your schools deserve so much more.[/i]
Ain't that the truth!
Handcuffed At Julian
You've made your points. I do appologize to class sizes, programmer, and re: class sizes. I truly did not know how impotent our union contract really is. The kids and teachers at your schools deserve so much more.
Handcuffed At Julian
Marty McGreal was blacklisted by Arne Duncan. Even if a school's LSC was to select him as principal, because of his "insubordination" to Duncan, the selection would NOT have been approved by the Board. So he moved on to clean up schools after Katrina.
Geoge, did you know about this?
Handcuffed At Julian
I don't think Class Sizes is describing a typical situation, but those types of numbers do exist. For example, at my neighborhood school we have three classrooms that hold over 100 students each. They are routinely filled to capacity with students, though not usually core subject areas. Another room holding 75 is used all day for academic classes.
It is entirely common for our academic content classrooms - English, math, science, history, etc. - to hold between 40 and 50 students whether there are enough desks for them or not. Students routinely must stand or sit on the floor because there are no desks available, not that there is space to fit them anyway. P.E. classes are routinely well over 50 - and they have to be. There is no room for these students in the other classrooms.
I subbed for a freshman English class last week and had 44 students. 36 desks were crammed into the half-size classroom. There were 6-8 folding type desk-chairs that were pulled out once the class was full. (Regular desks wouldn't fit.) Seriously packed in like sardines. It was very uncomfortable for me, though the students seemed used to it.
Our first lunch period begins at 9:30 a.m. Our last lunch period begins at 2:10 p.m. Next year we will move from a staggered 3-shift schedule to a 4-shift schedule. Every single room in our building will be in use from 7:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m.
Yes, we've gone through the joint Union-CPS class size committee. They did not offer a solution because outside of a new high school nearby that holds at least 1500 students there isn't one. It has been this way for well over a decade. The Board rejected our school's proposal for a solution: relocate a nearby elementary magnet that buses in a large number of students to a vacant CPS building in another neighborhood and turn their current building over to us as a freshmen academy. The Board didn't even consider that.
The staff is generally resigned to the overcrowding and we do the best we can. And we're not doing too bad - our student cohort growth outperforms all other neighborhood high schools, every selective charter, and nearly all magnet high schools.
Of course, we expect a charter school to open up nearby any day now to siphon off students with the most invested families. I suppose our scores might decline at that point, but for now they've been rising consistently every year.
Handcuffed At Julian
in September through Nov., (McGreal) Gage Pk was innundated with students just coming in to register for the first time. Was it over 250 studets? or 300? that devistates a school and then, (even now) IMPACT HS scheduling was so screwed up that students were sitting in rooms for weeks without a program or instruction--there were no teachers to teach! You are off base with your commnet--stick to the facts please.
Handcuffed At Julian
And what lesson did we learn from that Gage Park overcrowding hysteria a few years ago? That Mr. McGreal's Chicken Little claims that 1,800+ students would be enrolled the following September were way, way off base.
He protested the situation the spring prior on the basis of an argument that turned out to be false.
Too bad for everyone. Maybe he would have made a good hs principal.
Handcuffed At Julian
"...You are right! Yes, I remember. That was Marty McGreal. CPS threw him under a bus. He had principles and guts and put kids first. No place for him at CPS. He was a good guy..." (About Gage Park overcrowding, earlier).
Truly.
These deliberate sabotage stories are nothing new. CPS has been trying to screw up the city's general high schools and neighborhood elementary schools for a long time using these "tight staffing" stupidities. Then they turn around and talk about "budget constraints" while their executives hire more and more executives out of the mayor's patronage pools. In the years that Julian (and other schools) were suffering the opening of school without enough teachers (and with 40 or 50 in a class) and Marilyn Stewart was ignoring the problem or shouting down people who tried to talk about it, CPS was adding "Chiefs of Staff" and "Chiefs" everywhere. For every patronage "Chief" (at around $130,000 per year or more), CPS could have two or three teachers in the classrooms. But Chicago's media choose instead to recycle those "Ho, What a Miracle" stories about Mayor Daley's genius and ignore the suffering of the "nobodies" in the neighborhoods.
Arne Duncan, who is now supposed to "save" the public schools of the USA, fired Marty McGreal as principal of Gage Park High School four years ago because McGreal refused to keep taking kids into Gage Park that overcrowded the school. Duncan went on to get a promotion, and the Duncan plan for sabotaging the city's general high schools and neighborhood elementary schools continued. And continues.
But Marty McGreal was not the only one. The same problem was central to why the recent principal of Julian was dumped. For two years, she had argued and fought against the CPS sabotage of Julian by Arne Duncan (and now Ron Huberman). Principals are supposed to bully teachers into loading up classes to dangerous levels of 40, 45 or more, while official Chicago looks the other way and further expands City Hall patronage at CPS.
One difference with the Gage Park story back then was that the Tribune had four reporters covering CPS regularly.
Today all of those reporters are gone (unless Stephanie Banchero has returned from Stanford).
And the Tribune's version of "news" coverage about CPS is to recycle the "Communications Department" press releases -- or to host an "editorial board briefing" where some CEO type uses Power Point to outline how the Tribune is supposed to spin the story. Then TV "News" simply follows the Tribune's version of reality, and the images of The Miracle become the story, not matter what the truth at 103rd St. may be. Why were the TV cameras lined up at Julian High School on orders from City Hall on April 3 when the principal was given a perp walk, but not at Julian last September and October when overcrowded classes were further destabilizing the school?
Don't believe me. The record at this point makes Chicago's traditions in news reporting into a kind of sick joke. Every story about the schools is straight out of the scripts written by Jackie Heard (at City Hall) and Monique Bond (at CPS) for the "Daley news." Chicago's reporters used to pride themselves on that tough guy claim to follow the facts: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out!"
Now -- If it ain't the mayor's version, it ain't news in this town.
And be sure to add some cheers and boosterism for Olympics 2016 while you're doing re-write for City Hall's massive Spin Room.
Check out how Arne Duncan got that story into the Tribune two weeks ago about how Illinois was risking stimulus money by not jumping into Arne's charter school and "close bad schools" nonsense.
Arne didn't talk to the Illinois State Board of Education, the governor, or the General Assembly. He sat down at 435 N. Michigan Ave. with the Tribune's editors, dictated the story he wanted them to recycle as "news", and was able to see it in print as "news" within 24 hours.
You won't see any more of those page one stories like you did from Lori Olszewski in the Tribune about Gage Park this coming August. Tribune now runs nothing but infomercials praising every silly iteration of corporate "school reform."
I heard they're setting up their "education" reporter's desk a block north of CPS at the headquarters of the Civic Committee and "Renaissance Schools Fund" just so they always get their "news" straight from the corporate horse's mouth.
Handcuffed At Julian
"It basically rolled back all of the work we did with our incoming freshman over the summer. But I suppose it did save the Board a ton of money in the short term."
Excellent point, xian! Central office pays a lot of lip service to wanting freshmen to start off on the good foot (as James Brown used to say) and yet the neighborhood schools, which deal with the incoming ninth-graders who most need support, are constantly undermined by asinine bordering on criminal staffing protocols.
Joyce Brown, et al. have done a commendable job instituting summer support for incoming freshmen, but it is immediately undermined when those students who have bonded with teachers over the summer are placed in classes without a real teacher because neighborhood schools cannot cement their staffing until the 20th day of the first semester. I say "neighborhood schools" because that's my only experience in CPS. One step forward, at least two steps back is the rule of law in my CPS.
Handcuffed At Julian
you'd have the equipment you need for baseball or any other sport a coach produced a roster for.
Shame on Adl. pope ofr following daley's wishes to help his federally charges and found guilty buddy of hdo. Now, daley has uno.
GWHS vs. Julian for Champs (revised)
George Washington High School vs. Julian for varsity men's championship rained out yesterday, but rescheduled for today, May 16, 2009. If anyone has a decent first base glove for the minutemen's first baseman, could they please bring it? My old fast pitch first basemen's glove that I used for catching is no good for him, because the dude is left handed. It seems like the board ha$ plenty to spend on other things at 125 S. Clark. The 100, 000 dollar club is way too big, many making closer to 150,000 or a few even 200,000 dollars, and our first baseman told me he made a couple of errors last game, because he didn't have a first basemen's glove? No handcuffs needed for the umpire or security. It starts early on, that is, we have to reach them intrinsically, and not merely control our youth extrinsically. That is, what is the intrinsic motivation within the young man, or young lady at Julian or Washington? What do they care about? What is important to them? We are no better than them. The small talk seems to be mostly show boating, or just showing off. My point is, like the rotten grading system that exists, that there have to be some serious paradigm shifts made in our educational system. Schools that quit grading the first few years of a child's school years are doing their students justice. And how can a basketball player, who goes out on the court, and performs complex Geometrical and Physics tasks, be failed in Math or Science? Couldn't he be given credit? Granted he / she must go to class. These were the words of a Native American educator who once spoke to a group of instructors at a State Conference. His name was Mitch Walking Elk. And we know the many horror stories that Native Americans fell victim to in the American educational system. From reservations to boarding houses to reservations, and back again. Stripped of their culture and language, and then "sorted like potatoes". Alfie Kohn would say, issued A, B, C, D, or F. (see Alfie's "Punished by Rewards". The trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plan$, A's, Praise, and other Bribes). This indictment of rewards can hold true in what is going on at home or even with you at work. Alfie Kohn spoke to teachers two years in a row at an Illinois "State Teachers Conference". My theory is this, though I have not come across any research on this. What we are doing is guiding them into their "social class to be" to some extent, with the F's having a great chance to be part of the lower glass, and needless to say the A student has an opportunity to enter the upper class. A student who gets, Bs / Cs, like I did in High School can make it to the middle class. Oh, the dumb Ds: you can be in the upper lower class. Hey, I am a middle class citizen of our capitalist society. I would like to say, once I acquired a second language, I later became an A student in graduate school, plus I lived and studied in three other different countries. By the way, how come no one ever talks about the depression that we are sinking into, as a "crisis in capitalism"? Not democracy, they don't mean the same thing. What are some of our social problems that stem from capitalism, and imperialism, for that matter? We plead with our youth to cease the violence while bombing Iraq back into the dark ages, under three different presidents now, one of them a democrat between Bush Sr., and the “sonofaBushâ€. And why are ROTC programs so rampant in our public schools in Chicago? Isn’t this another social class issue? Or do they have the same high percentage of ROTC programs in the filthy wealthy North suburbs? I don’t think so.
Handcuffed At Julian
What is with the disparity (sp?) between high school and elementary teachers? I have worked in both, and yes, it is true. I just never understood why. I am in HS now, and these teachers don't take crap from a principal. When I was in elementary, they (we) were bullied and abused (including me). When I moved to HS, I grew up. Why is is like this? I think back now on some of the abuse and I'm mad at myself for taking it - but that's the way it was. High school is not nearly as demanding as elementary (go ahead and shout, but it's true) on so many levels. What's up with that?
Handcuffed At Julian
500 students each day? I am NOT in la la land, I just dont believe it. 500 students is 3+ positions. If this is true this story should be headlines in every newspaper. How many (roughly) teachers have similar programs in your school? How many "unfilled" positions are we talking about? This would be huge. Are you for real?
Handcuffed At Julian
I remember that, too. CPS told him to just take the overload - that they would probably drop out within a year. And folks, that's who we work for.
Handcuffed At Julian
Class sizes, you have 500 students... are they on IMPACT?
Handcuffed At Julian
Let me join the spinning. I thought there was a union with a contract with class size agreement. Marilyn, where are you?
Handcuffed At Julian
Kinzie has at least 37 students in each 7th grade classes. I also heard that there are some teachers from those grades being let go.
Handcuffed At Julian
The class size committee referred to - is that school based or from CPS? Either way, it's bogus. 100 in a class? I'm spinning, too. What subjects are you talking about - just curious. I think I'll join the previous poster in la la land. So, is that common? I really want to know.
Handcuffed At Julian
You are right! Yes, I remember. That was Marty McGreal. CPS threw him under a bus. He had principles and guts and put kids first. No place for him at CPS. He was a good guy.
Handcuffed At Julian
Isn't this the reason that the principal of Gage Park was fired-because he refused to take more students into an already dangerously overcrowded school?
Handcuffed At Julian
Thanks to those who stepped up and let me avoid answering that as I don't actually teach elementary.
All I know is that when my high school kids, who complain about everything from the color of chalk I use to the shoes I'm wearing any given day, don't complain when they're put in an algebra class with 45-50 students (or a gym class with 80-100), so I can only assume they're used to it.
Our class schedules actually left at least 4 freshman classes set up with 35-40 students and no assigned teacher at the beginning of the year because our student to teacher ratios were so ridiculous that we knew we'd get more positions after the 20th day (I believe that, somehow, we ended up procuring at least 9 new teachers after the 20th day). Of course, that doesn't translate into real teachers until about the 60th day, but... we make do. And the other freshmen teachers were already overcrowded (I walked in my first day to a class of 48 students, with 52 on the roster).
If you think the staffing formula is messed up, you should come to the CTU special house of delegates meeting this Tuesday at Dunbar Academy. Some people are trying to talk teachers out of attending the meeting, saying there is nothing the union can do to fix these types of problems. I disagree! I think it's the purpose and responsibility of our union to make our workplace safe (for the students and teachers!) and productive. Come out or tell your delegate to go!
Re: Class sizes
Yes, you can file a grievance, but the current procedure is really only useful for addressing individual situations.
In the case of Julian--like a number of other neighborhood schools--we simply weren't given the number of positions by the Board to cover the number of students in our school. This left dozens of classes without teachers, and over a hundred classes above the class size recommendation, including 50+ that were high enough we couldn't scavenge up desks for the students.
The class size committee came to visit and little happened, and we didn't receive positions until over a month in. We couldn't actually find people to fill the positions until nearly a month into the school year.
It basically rolled back all of the work we did with our incoming freshman over the summer. But I suppose it did save the Board a ton of money in the short term.
Handcuffed At Julian
I'm spinning. So you are saying that in CPS high schools there are classes with 80, 90, and over 100 students instead the contract 30 something? So 'Class Sizes' is painting an honest picture? I guess I am in la la land - i.e. magnet school.
Handcuffed At Julian
I am a high school programmer. I can only divide the students evenly among the teacher CPS says we are entitled to. Almost all our classes are over 30, several over 40 and most PE over 50. Some teachers have grieved, but the class size committee is unable to do anything because there are no small classes and no unused teachers. The issue may be a corrupt administration, but is more likely the corrupt system that does not allocate resources equitably. Trust me, the class sizes are not this large at the magnet schools.
Handcuffed At Julian
We have 40 in our eighth grades in our school on the southwest side neighborhood school. We have to take all who enroll and we have no space for an extra classroom. The teachers get an extra prep-should be a monetary concessoin but grammar school teachers are too complacent.
Handcuffed At Julian
Sorry
I ment when I was a student in the catholic school system long
ago.
Handcuffed At Julian
do you mean ass kicked literally or figuratively? With all the stuff I read in this blog I'm starting to think anything is possible. Can you tell a bit more? What's their beef with you?
Handcuffed At Julian
I humbly appologize if I am wrong. This really is unbelievable. I'd rather not leave my personal info. I teach at a CPS high school, too. When we go over the limit we grieve and it is resolved. Also that many kids warrant, how many, 2 or 3 more teachers? If you are truthful, then you truly have a corrupt administration. If there is more than one like you in your school, we could be talking dozens of positions. I'm still not convinced. Anybody else...is this possible? Am I in la la land?
Handcuffed At Julian
Sorry about the off-topic.
But 9:09 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., presumably the same person, represent a fascinating and disturbing phenomena in the field education - the disbelief that the Board of Ed has so horribly mismanaged its neighborhood schools.
Yes, I see nearly 500 students every single day in my classroom. The room is built for 88 occupants but we fit about 120 desks in the room. They fit just fine, though sometimes we have to rearrange the desks so students can get in and out of their seats and rows.
So, 9:30 a.m., you are welcome to come visit my classroom any time. Leave your e-mail address here and I'll send you a personal invite.
Handcuffed At Julian
Both sides
So much was not written in the Auntie’s letter it could fill volumes.
I am sure the arrest report had a few other things to say.
But I have been on both sides of this issue personally, a couple of times, I got my
ass kicked by teachers for something I did not do. And as a teacher I have called
for reinforcements to help handle certain situations. Whatever happened we may never know the truth. What I know for a fact, is a student asking for trouble will usually
find it.
Handcuffed At Julian
I don't belive you. Are saying you have 113 students in one classroom? 81 in another, 90 in another, 92 in another, and 103 in another? Even shoulder to shoulder they would not fit. Did you file a grievance?
Handcuffed At Julian
9:09 must not be very familiar with Chicago Public Schools. Nearly the entire southwest side has class sizes well over 30 students, many over 45 per class.
30-60 is not an outrageous range at all. For instance, my class sizes on the SW side all started above 100. Currently they are as follows: 81, 90, 113, 92, 103.
Handcuffed At Julian
"Of course, we all know test scores are a joke, but it's honestly really hard to learn (or teach, for that matter!) in a classroom of 30-60 students which is, unfortunately, an all too common experience for many students in our neighborhood elementary schools"
All too common? How many schools can you cite where there are more than 35 students in a classroom? I realize that's beyond the limit, but you used an outrageous range "30-60".
Handcuffed At Julian (jswhitfield)
I like what you're saying, but it's important to remember that in CPS, A/B/C's in many schools still don't offer students access to the upper or middle class. CPS (to piggyback off you, capitalism, really) presorts many students before they even get past the first standardized test, even more so now with Renaissance 2010.