President @stacydavisgates opens public bargaining by calling for a “benchmark”: schools shouldn’t need a ‘friends of’ to hire a music teacher. Brenda Delgado, CPS parent, talks about driving 100 miles each week so her children could experience fine arts and world language instruction. @CTULocal1 wants opportunities (w/o massive commutes & intense admissions processes) for every student, every school, every neighborhood.

It’s been ten years since the only systemwide book ban attempt in my 25 years of teaching in Chicago. Been thinking about that weird week in March of 2013 a lot lately. Here’s what happened when CPS tried to come for Persepolis, the graphic novel memoir by Marjane Satrapi. (🧵) The 2013 attempt to ban Persepolis in Chicago was about so much more than one book. It was about the power of comics to teach memoir, knowing our rights and demanding our autonomy as teachers and students, and the clear, urgent importance of librarians and local journalism.

Taft High School is considering allowing a chapter of Turning Point USA. Here are a few links discussing this org’s affiliations with white nationalism and why it’s a terrible idea to allow a chapter in any of our schools. (🧵) Here’s a good rundown of TPUSA’s history, whom they tend to attract, their ‘professor [and teacher] watchlist,’ and the company they keep: splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018…

The Niles-Maine District Library is experiencing a terrifying takeover on their Board by three ultra-conservative trustees. (🧵) For those not following the bizarre new culture war, libraries are second only to school boards when it comes to right-wing extremists grabbing and flexing power over what our kids can learn about.

I coach junior roller derby. For the five years I've been coaching, we have welcomed trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming skaters. We might have been the first youth sport to do this. Here's what I've seen: (🧵) Parents have openly cried when they find out there's a sport their kid can play without hiding or minimizing who they are. Literally stood in the middle of a roller rink and wept.