‘THIS IS NOT THE END’
Ruby Martinez showed up because Lafayette Elementary isn’t just where she works or sends her own kids, it’s her family.
Brandon Lee rode a bus to the rally, angry that his school whose doors are open seven days a week to students like him is closing.
And lunchlady Takeeva Thompson sat on the freezing asphalt of La Salle Street “because children deserve to know somebody cares.” That is until police removed her.
Protesters descended en masse onto Daley Plaza Wednesday to denounce a historic number of schools closing, mainly on Chicago’s South and West Sides, an act that resulted in more than 100 protesters removed and ticketed.
Last week, schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced she wanted to close 54 schools and 61 school buildings come June. Wednesday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel held his ground, saying the consolidation is necessary and is going to happen.
The mayor called it intolerable that a school system with a 61 percent graduation rate for all students, graduates just 44 percent of black males.
“I understand and appreciate the difficulty. But, locking kids into a . . . school that, year-in and year-out, is failing their full potential — is unacceptable. It’s unacceptable to those children and unacceptable to this city,” he said.
Wednesday afternoon, thousands of people and several unions said they would not yet give up on the closings that will affect 30,000 students and 1,000 teachers.
As some protesters pounded on drums, hundreds of signs bobbed over heads clad in winter hats.
A Chicago flag with a teacher’s twist — four red apples instead of stars — fluttered overhead.
The Bridges family skipped a spring break trip to Lake Geneva to support Betsy Ross Elementary, where Aaliyah is a fifth-grader and mom Versie volunteers daily. The family hopped a bus to the rally with at least 25 others from Ross and posed for photos before the speakers began, saying not “cheese” but “save our schools.”
Brandon Lee rode with them because he’s angry about losing a safe space where children can play.
“I’m mad,” the 14-year-old said. “It’s open on weekends and we can go up and play ball,” he said of Ross, explaining that neighborhood playground courts don’t have rims.
Ciera Wilson lives right near Ross. She’ll have to walk blocks and blocks next year to Dulles for eighth grade.
She’s said she’s afraid what happened to “that girl Hadiyah” could happen to her, referring to the daylight shooting of Hadiyah Pendleton near her school. “My mom is going to be more stressed because I’ll have to walk 12 blocks.”
Elementary education expert and professor Bill Ayers — whose ties to President Barack Obama sparked controversy beacuse of Ayers 1960s radicalism — was in the crowd in support of teachers and kids like his granddaughters who attend CPS schools.
“The assault on public education and abandonment of these communities has to be resisted,” Ayers said. “How can we abandon public education at this point in history and move away from the one thing that’s going to give people hope for the future, and that is a solid powerful education?”
Ruby Martinez is heartbroken about Lafayette Elementary in Humboldt Park, home to more than 100 autistic children.
“It’d be very hard for our autistic students to change environments,” said Martinez, 41, a teacher’s assistant who also has kids at the school. “I’m hoping that Emanuel has a heart and