So the Chicago Board of Education, when given an opportunity to remove trauma inducing SROs from their schools - instead punted. It wasn’t unexpected, just disappointing after expirencing the work Chicago youth did.
The largest media coverage was around their marches, protests outside @chicagosmayor and even the BOE Chair’s home. However, the youth did some amazing work lobbying behind the scenes as well.
They researched fact based arguments rooted in academic research, they proposed alternatives to policing, they organized Zoom meetings with BOE members and worked to persuade a reluctant board to coming 1 (almost there) vote away.
I was able to sit in on several of these meetings with the youth from @VOYCEProject - they came prepared. They just ran out of runway and into some walls created by appointing a school board.
There are multiple paths forward - I am convinced one of those BOE voting no would have been a yes if there were negotiations. The BOE will get another shot at it in the next two months and the city council still has an ordinance to work with.
In the end though, it further exposes the inequity our state legislators continue to allow. Chicago doesn’t have an elected school board - and it is fundamentally unfair to the city to continue to allow an unaccountable body to have this much power. #Twill
We are beyond past time Springfield acts to right this wrong. @GovPritzker, @DonHarmonIL and Speaker Madigan need to step up and stop defering their responsibilities to a Mayor.
There is no accountability to yesterday’s vote. There will be no referendum on the Board on the ballot. The structure relies on board members beholden to the mayor to form independence. I have no doubts that several votes yesterday were influenced by that dynamic.
Now don’t get me wrong, yesterday’s vote also exposed there is a lot more work to be done by advocates. Hearing certain alderman defend SROs was disheartening. Hearing arguments that outside violence is justification for keeping trauma inducing SROs was telling.
And hearing the former progressive flag-bearer argue for SROs because he still carried trauma from being assaulted as a kid exposed that not all of the work that was needed to educate del Valle was done.
But in the end none of this changes the very undemocratic reality in Chicago. The school board is not accountable to the people. That needs to change. That change needs to come from Springfield. Stop waiting. Stop deferring. Lead. #Twill
