Protesting Parents Continue Sit-In At Whittier Elementary School
CHICAGO (WBBM) - The latest sit-in at the Whittier Elementary School, in Pilsen, is in its third day, as protesting parents formulate a response to a warning from new Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.
Brizard wrote the parents' group Friday, warning that if they fail to end their sit-in and allow workers into the school by Tuesday, Whittier will not get a new library.
The board has insisted that all sides agreed to convert a second-floor room in the school, at 1900 W. 23rd St. But parent Gema Gaete said that has never been the case, and that members of the parents' group have gone monthly to Board of Education meetings to restate their opposition.
"He's saying that he's looking for the best interests of the students, but we see the spirit of his letter as 'his way or the highway,'" Gaete said.
The board insists that it has no intention of tearing down the fieldhouse on Whittier's playground, which parents have converted into a library and community center. But a demolition permit covering the fieldhouse issued May 31 remains on file with the city of Chicago.
Gaete said the letter being drafted by the parents' group is expected to renew the group's call for Brizard to meet face-to-face, and to say that the parents will continue to block construction workers' access to the school and the fieldhouse.
The sit-in at the school is the second in less than a year. Last fall, a 43-day sit-in resulted in a decision by then-Schools CEO Ron Huberman to lease the dilapidated fieldhouse to the parents' group for $1 a year.
The parents' group has converted half of the fieldhouse into a library containing more than 2,500 books. Another 500 books are in reserve. They use the other half of the fieldhouse as a community center
The parents' group call the fieldhouse "La Casita," which is Spanish for "Little House." They have donated architectural plans to rebuild the fieldhouse for similar dual use, as well as an offer of donated labor.
