By Reginald Williams Marisa Sepulveda said she sends her daughter, Karolina, to St. Francis de Sales High School on Chicago’s Southeast Side because the school offers “a true perspective on good morals and religious beliefs.” Sepulveda said the small high school, which has 265 students, enforces “a lot of discipline and teaches values and...
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In response to the number of gay teen suicides across the United States, efforts like the “It Gets Better Project” have sprung up online. Locally there are several resources available to young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (LGBT) Chicagoans. A minor who lives on Chicago’s North Side and decides to come out can find support...
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Following an impassioned exchange of words at a recent Chicago Public Schools board meeting, CEO Ron Huberman agreed to meet with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis to discuss concerns over the amount of mandatory testing conducted in Chicago’s schools. “This excessive regime is boring our kids,” Lewis told Huberman, referencing the 23 required...
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Students from the Academy for Global Citizenship, an Archer Heights magnet school, McCutcheon Elementary School in Uptown, and other schools took part in the city’s annual Peace Day in Chicago event on Saturday. Second- and third-graders from the Academy for Global Citizenship brought giant peace doves to the festivities in downtown’s Daley Plaza, while...
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The Chicago Board of Education approved the use of $25 million in federal stimulus funding during its June board meeting to implement mentoring, safety and support initiatives for at-risk high school students and communities. The new program, spearheaded by Mayor Richard M. Daley and Chicago Public Schools, will provide mentoring programs for 1,500 high...
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A news report from Curtis Black’s Newstips Blog, Community Media Workshop In a victory for two youth organizations, Chicago Public Schools has agreed to establish a grievance procedure for students experiencing violence, harassment or discrimination, and to pilot a program training security guards to use principles of restorative justice in their work. Both organizations...
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A news report from Cody Prentiss, Center Square Journal Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School (3730 N. Oakley Ave.) is about to get a new and improved playground. This week Principal Sandra Caudill and Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) broke ground on the new play lot, which will be installed by Chicago Public High School students....
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Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr A report from the Newstips Blog: As new and old reports at Catalyst and Gapers Block indicate, CORE’s victory in the recent teachers union election reflected the group’s activist orientation and commitment to grassroots organizing, in schools and with communities. “We energized the grassroots,” said one CORE member. CORE came...
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In the dimly lit gymnasium, Morton Patton’s voice echoes off the walls and envelops the group of 30 students doing sit-ups. As he walks between the students, peering at each one with his brown, beady eyes, he asks for more. “I’m not going to tell you guys again,” Patton said. “The next person that...
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By Curtis Black, Newstips Editor Fifteen students, most of them from Orr High School, sat around a storefront in Humboldt Park last Wednesday night, taking turns role-playing situations encountered by security guards in their school – and discussing better and worse ways of handling them. One student, portraying a guard, watched an argument between two...
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