As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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Aldermen to tell CPS to lower suspension rates
By: Sarah Karp / October 07, 2011
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) told parents at a rally Friday morning that he intends to co-sponsor a resolution with Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward) calling on CPS to lower suspension rates by 40 percent and to implement restorative justice practices.
“Rather than punish our children, we want our children to be nurtured and cared for,” he told about 40 members of POWER-PAC, a parent organization, which is part of the not-for-profit Community Organizing and Family Issues.
POWER-PAC held the rally at Wells High School as part of the Dignity in Schools Campaign’s National Week of Action. City council resolutions are not binding, but Burnett said that a resolution puts alderman’s wishes “on blast.”
Though recent numbers aren’t available, CPS has long had a high suspension and expulsion rate. POWER-PAC member Lynn Morton said that in a meeting with CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard he told her she was preaching to the converted in terms of using restorative justice to reduce out-of-school punishment. “We are calling on you, the converted, to give life to your words,” she said.
CPS Covers Up Drug Trafficking Employee David J. Pittman
In a year and a half investigation Substance News has uncovered the fact that a wanted felon was on Chicago Public Schools (CPS) payroll, working at Hyde Park Career Academy High School. David J. Pittman was on CPS payroll with a Felony Warrant issued January 23, 2009 for delivery of controlled substance on school property. Mr. Pittman is son of the politically connected Dr. Donald Pittman, once Chief Officer of High Schools for CPS, under Paul Vallas. The elder Pittman is now Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Development, Northern Illinois University.
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2677§ion=Article
has this alderman seen what
has this alderman seen what goes on in schools? if his son were a 25 year old teacher and his son was physically assaulted and threatened would he prefer restorative justice practices??? please adress the real problem....complete lack of teacher respect..i had students tell me they were going to kick my white a@&.....these kids need smaller classrooms better supplies and relearn to fear failing?? id like this guy to sub undercover for a week!!! see if he keeps this opinion
Alderman to tell CPS to Lower Suspension Rates
Maybe Alderman should tell parents to do a better job of preparing their children for school, instead of pressuring CPS to make allowances for bad behavior!! If one really wants to lower suspension rates, parents need to be actively involved with their children from birth to college. I was available for all three of my boys, all African American, and never had behavior problems. Now it seems as if some families want their children to disrupt the school day with nonsense behavior and they want the teaching staff to endure the punishment by making them sit through in house suspensions. Would you like to sit with someone else's disruptive child all day long??? Some of the children acting up are disruptive on a daily basis. How much should schools endure?? Parents, please invest in your children from birth, love and nurture them, provide the supports that they need at every level and you will rarely have a school issue. My three son's never caused me any problems at school, but again, I have always been an involved parent. Yes, it's a tremendous amount of work, but children are worth the investment if you love them. CPS needs to issue tough love to the parents that have been lazy in their job of raising good citizens. CPS is not a social service agency, so don't try to turn it into one. Hold parents accountable when it is needed! We are expecting way too much from the teaching staff and not enough from the parents. The best thing that CPS can do is refer these parents to parenting skill classes that the school social worker has investigated. This may help with the next child that they may have or maybe after taking a class, they may understand the parental investment that is really needed to raise great children and thus decide not to have any more, unless they are willing to be involved. This is all just my opinion, so uninvolved parents, please do not get hysterical!!
Because....
I'm very curious about where and how Ald. Burnett came up with the number of reductions he wants to see. Forty percent. Did this come to him in a dream or was it based on a review of suspensions or did it just seem like a good number? Anyone know?
It was already in the
It was already in the Resolution. Alderwoman Smith came up with the 40% number. Not sure what the rationale was
probably the same brainiac
probably the same brainiac think tank that came up with ALL children must eat breakfast in unviersal breakfast and that 100% children will be at level by 2014 and that 90 min more will get cps caught up with all schools!!! ie people who dont work in schools nor children.
Alderwoman Harris that is...
Alderwoman Harris that is...
PARENTS ARE INVOLVED!
I want to once again thank the alderman for standing up for the people most effected by the punitive and overly racist policies of CPS. As a parent and a person that works in a school I see on a DAILY basis the how these policies are puting our children on the fast track to prison. PARENTS ARE INVOLVED. It is the voice of parents, youth, community people, churches, and teachers that have come together and formed the High HOPES Coalition to collective tell the powers that be that the school to prison pipeline is not acceptable! The children and their needs should be first!. Out of school suspensions does not work. The children come back with the same issues they had when they left.
In response to the comment about parents being involved I am involved! I have a son in CPS now who has never had any problems in school and have fostered two of my nephews in CPS who have had problems. I know first about the unproductive policies of CPS. I would love to have a live conversation about Restorative Justice and it's effects on behavior and attitudes of ALL those involved!....RESTORATIVE JUSTICE WORKS!!!! PRISON DONT!
I agree with what you are
I agree with what you are saying but what about the children who daily yell racial slurs at teachers of different colors? is this to be acceptable? or those who threaten physical violence to a teacher. it is not as easy as you think. Maybe some people are stronger than I , but when a kid tells me to shut up and I "aint listening to you you F&*( Itch ...am I supposed to negotiate with this child? the racism goes both ways I am afraid to say.
Lowering suspension rates
How very bizarre anyone would want a child to NOT be suspended when clear rules are broken. Certainly not the teacher(s) affected, or the kids in the classroom, or the parents who are sick of hearing about the kid who keeps disrupting the class. The only ones who benefit from this concept are the parents of the children who want their school to remain available to the child 24/7----as opposed to taking accountability of their child's actions that caused the problem in the first place. Wow--absolutely no respect for teachers, once again. By the time a child is suspended, there is usually a long list of problems that have occurred. WHY would the aldermen think this is a good idea??? They need a reality check and spend a few weeks in a school with children that do not know how to behave. Parents-you need to train up your children right so they know that school is a place to LEARN. Back in the day, if a child got in trouble, parents were sorry, the child was suspended, and the child learned they were responsible for their unacceptable behavior. School is not a babysitting service.
Universal breakfast
The entire point of Universal breakfast is that it makes money. What a shocker. Before maybe 125 kids ate breakfast--because they wanted to. Can't make money that way. Now 650 kids are eating a breakfast (no way as good as the original breakfast option served in the lunchroom without the 10 min. time limit) but with each child 'enouraged' to take a meal, that adds up to big cashola. Who cares that the breakfast isn't as good as before, or that most kids don't want to eat it anyways....and it is funny how the big rule about NEVER eating in the classroom was suddenly not a problem.....not too mention the extra workload on an already overworked kitchen staff to bring the food to the floors to be distributed.....oh I can go on and on.......once again, it alllll sounds good. The waste that goes on....would shock you.
Lowering Suspension Rates
I know of 5 people who in the last 5 months have officially quit teaching altogether. The reason--the abuse of the children (grammar school aged through high school) both verbally and physically. All were white by the way and all of them were stressed out from the racial slurs that were a constant in their daily work. All went out on a medical leave. Good teachers, hard working, caring, dedicated---and burned out. Wake up parents---our teachers are in classrooms that are out of control. 35 kids against one. Spend a day in a classroom and YOU give it a try. Some of you can't handle your kid at home, and you expect a teacher to do it with more kids in the room? Who is going to be left to teach? Of the 5 I know, they were exceptional. But no parent support, no administrative support---who needs it. They are all switching careers----and for less money, and they don't care! They were tired of the abuse. Good luck finding someone to take over. These were seasoned teachers--doubt those little college graduates can pull off what they couldn't.
I agree. Universal brekfast
I agree. Universal brekfast is no more than cereal and a milik and some juice. Once in a while it is a pancake or soemthing descent. Howeve, it is litterally prison food. Chartwell claims to take food from farm to the school! Are they growing food at the Keebler Farm ??? The breakfast was also supposed to CURE any behavior problems and academic problems. If rahm would just take 20% of his energy and criticize the parents ....maybe they would wake up and take care of their kids? He has only emboldened them more and the kids. Teahcers have such a low status now at CPS that I even have parent volunteers telling me what to do? I dont get it...Rahm talks about how the city was "worng in the past" and CPS wasnt run well before...yet DUNCAN is his buddy and DUNCAN was part of the machine. Why doesnt rahm put 20% other energy in ripping on the federal government and Duncan policies that destroyed our schools??? No it's easier just to put 100% in slamming the teachers
crony capitism
Another crony scam to steal tax dollars for connected city contractors
Lowering Suspension Rates
Another example of a Politician do what he can to keep his name in the news.
I never hear them talking
I never hear them talking directly to the students about thier bad behavior? I bet teachers would take a lower salary if they didnt have to deal with this VIOLENCE.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/10/13/sisters-charged-with-attacking-gi...
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