1,000 cases of sexual abuse in Chicago Public Schools.
1,000
Where is the outrage? Where are the Lifetime movies and HBO documentaries? Where are the protests, walkouts, media scrutiny?
The Chicago Board of Education is paying Dentons LLP a quarter of a million dollars to review 1,000 cases of sexual abuse in CPS and barely anyone is talking about it. According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, “they could identify trends and past failures. The review could also uncover people who might still threaten student safety or victims who need support.”
So there are children who everyday go to schools that may still employ their abuser? Not to diminish the alleged trauma and abuse suffered by victims of celebrities like R. Kelly and Michael Jackson, but where are the activists, political leaders, and State’s Attorney looking out for the children at CPS?
The systemic failure at Chicago Public Schools to protect children is appalling. The political leaders in the city and state are offering no alternatives to families in Chicago who want to escape a predatory, failing school system.
Both mayoral candidates, Lightfoot and Preckwinkle, support a moratorium on charter schools. Preckwinkle even went as far to say she is willing to work with anyone who is in support of “ending school privatization and charter expansion.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues his push to eliminate the statewide opportunity scholarship program, which has been one of the only highlights of legislation in years coming out of Springfield.
It’s time for politicians to put children first and protect their best interests, not those of the adults in the system. To put their ideological biases aside and scale models of education that have proven successful. To uplift struggling families out of underperforming, unsafe schools. We can no longer go along with more of the same, the fate of our children is at stake.
