Homeless Students

There are 52,000 Plus Homeless Children in Illinois:

Some Solutions for CPS Students

By Thomas Hansen, Ph.D.

 

There are over 13,000 homeless students in Chicago.

The results of being homeless, moving from school to school, and not knowing where they are going to sleep are clear on children: “Continuously falling behind in education makes children experiencing homelessness four times more likely to show slow development, and two times more likely to have learning disabilities” (https://atlantamission.org/the-impact-of-homelessness-on-education/#:~:text=Continuously%20falling%20behind%20in%20education%20makes%20children%20experiencing,affects%20the%20child%E2%80%99s%20social%20development%20and%20their%20self-esteem.).  This in turn negatively impacts the child’s social development and their self-esteem.  A huge number of students nationwide face the challenges of homelessness – and many students in Illinois face those difficult challenges also.

The 2017-18 Illinois school data from the US Department of Education shows “that an estimated 52,978 public school students experienced homelessness over the course of the year” (https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/il/).  On that web page, we learn also that the numbers divide out, showing “467 students were unsheltered, 5,140 were in shelters, 2,037 were in hotels/motels, and 44,875 were doubled up.”  Let’s break this down and look at what those terms mean—the “nitty-gritty” of the total 52,000 plus kids in Illinois who do not have a home. 

“Unsheltered” means there are children and young adults who are sleeping somewhere that is not meant to be a domicile, not meant to be slept in or on.  Examples are: dumpsters, abandoned cars, alleys, buses and trains, back corner of an all-night diner, back room of a hardware store that is closed for the night.  That such locations can be terribly unsafe is an understatement. 

Why these spots for sleeping?  In some cases, children, and/or their parents, prefer such locations for sleeping for privacy issues.  Sometimes, the family is avoiding going to a shelter because they have had a bad experience there.  In other cases, homeless persons are not aware of other options because of language or cultural differences.  In still other cases, persons are avoiding certain people (e.g., a father who is attempting to find the mother to harm her and the children are swept up in the mix, or a parent who is trying to kidnap children away from the other adult, or a parent is hiding the children from people who want to separate the family or harm the unit in some other way).  

Note that most of these (all of these?) locations have no bathroom, no sinks, no showers for the people to use.  The children, therefore, travel the city often with unkempt hair, dirty clothes, no showered body.  The “grime” is not chosen but is rather a result – and a symptom – of living in conditions that are less than ideal.

“Shelters” are locations—funded and managed through a variety of organizations and agencies—where homeless families, children, and adults spend the night.  These locations are meant to provide sleeping, bathing, and toiletry accommodations for persons.  This is the standard place homeless people are referred to.  Said one homeless person I asked about shelters, “some are not terrible, others are not great, but I am still afraid to go.”  When I pressed Alice (not her real name) for more information, she explained that in a huge city like Chicago there is too much chaos involved.  “I just will never go,” insisted Alice.

“Motels and hotels” that are inexpensive do actually exist within and near the city.  They range in cleanliness and affordability, of course.  Some attempt to not allow homeless people to book and secure rooms in them.  Homeless people will tell you of the huge discrimination out there, of the dirty looks from the bus drivers who see the passengers attempt to board with several bags, and the typical responses like “We have no more rooms open for the night.”   

“Doubled up” means there is an “extra” family living in the house or apartment.  Some family member opens their home to a sibling’s partner or spouse and children.  Sometimes the extra people wind up sleeping in the basement and make areas or “rooms” there among boxes or old furniture.  Sometimes the extra people sleep on the couch and are gone each morning when the main family wakes up and heads to the kitchen for breakfast.  Still other times, the extra people live in an extra bedroom or den or a porch.  In some neighborhoods that tent you see in the backyard is not for kids to play in… in summer months there might be two parents and two children sleeping there.

There are in fact various ways to get help.  There are many good resources available, but families must go from one agency to another to find them.  One agency might provide housing options and a clinic, another offering food, another clothing, and still another offering counseling and job services.  What happens to the children?  How do they survive?  Find food?  Find education?

This is a huge national problem.  In New York City schools, for example, most recent figures show almost 21,000 homeless students there.  These students lag behind other students and have difficulties getting their homework done and learning to function socially and academically.  It has also been “found that homeless students achieve proficiency on New York State standardized tests at roughly half the rate of housed students” (https://www.voa-gny.org/impact-of-homelessness-on-education).

What about in in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) specifically?  There were 16,451 homeless CPS students during the 2018-19 school year, the most recent period for which data is available.  Solutions vary—and CPS parents are hoping the new mayor will do many of the things she said she would do.  For example, she said she would make taking care of homeless people – including children – a priority of her administration.

CPS has an actual policy for assisting and educating homeless students in its schools (https://policy.cps.edu/download.aspx?ID=128).  Homeless students must receive free education just as housed students must. 

One plan that has emerged from intensive discussions about homeless students in Chicago – and wound up also in the CTU Contract – is the idea of hiring homeless advocates for CPS students  https://www.chicagohomeless.org/homeless-student-advocate-positions-now-open-at-14-chicago-public-schools/).  In this program, run by the Office of Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS) advocates for homeless students in 14 different buildings are providing a variety of essential services  (https://www.cps.edu/services-and-supports/crisis-support/students-in-temporary-living-situations/).  Schools with more than 75 students who appeared to be STLS kids are the buildings with funds for the advocate positions.

How do students get the special services?  There are a variety of ways, according to Claire Bohmann, Resource and Training Coordinator for the STLS Program.  Bohmann explained that some students or parents may notify the STLS advocate about the living situation, or a teacher or other staff person may notify the STLS advocate of a student's living situation.  There are also liaisons and other school staff who “are trained to recognize signs of homelessness and proactively identify students in temporary living situations and offer services,” according to Bohmann. 

            How many students in CPS have been receiving the services from the STLS Program?  Bohamnn states, “Last school year there were 13,843 students enrolled in the STLS program across the District.”  She goes on to explain that there is no data available yet for this school year.  There are several high schools where the STLS Program works, including Bowen, Clemente, and Fenger. 

The STLS Program provides assistance in removing barriers faced by STLS kids.  These include providing transportation, school uniforms, school supplies, fee waivers, and referrals to community resources.  To find out if students and their family members are eligible for STLS services, contact the STLS Liaison at your school. Every CPS school, including charter schools and options schools, has an STLS Liaison.  For other questions about the STLS Program, please call 773-553-2242, or fax at 773-553-2182, or email  STLSInformation@cps.edu.

The idea that there are so many children who are homeless might make you wonder just how great the economy is.  The numbers and the reality of homelessness in Chicago and the rest of Illinois are alarming concepts.  However, the good news is now there are policies and solutions in place for helping homeless kids to get them on track to succeed in school and in life.

HOD Oct.

Delegates Endorse Biden & Harris at HOD

By Jim Vail 

The CTU endorsed Joe Biden & Kamala Harris
for President and Vice President.

The Chicago Teachers Union delegates voted 89 percent - 11 percent in favor of endorsing Joe Biden (D) for President against Donald Trump at the October 7 House of Delegates meeting.

The first delegate speaker questioned why the CTU would want to endorse someone who championed the 1994 Crime Bill which gave rise to the racist attacks by law enforcement on black people and who is against Medicare for All. Another delegate said candidates should earn an endorsement, and Biden who teamed up with President Barack Obama and Arne Duncan to viciously attack public education and teachers unions and promote charter schools under the Race to the Top program did not earn that right.

But other delegates said the CTU endorsement was important to help defeat the openly racist and some would say borderline fascist leader in the White House who refuses to denounce white supremacy. 

"This endorsement is very important to stop a fascist takeover," said Beatrice Lumpkin, a 102-year-old retired teacher delegate whose photo of her voting in complete anti-Covid gear was the talk of social media tweets and retweets. 

Lumpkin always implores her fellow delegates to vote for the democrats, marking a time when unions and democrats were once a solid team. Fewer than 10 percent of American workers are members of a union today, resulting in a catastrophic income gap.

CTU VP Stacy Davis Gates, who always jumps into a conversion she feels needs her direction, said that the teaching force in Chicago has become more white, so the ticket with VP candidate Kamala Harris, a black female, is important.

"This is about survival," she said. "Trump has to go."

In her opening speech to the delegates, Gates said it is up to white women in the unions to vote out a president who is making a "mockery of our country."

President Jesse Sharkey stated once again that if teachers can stay out of the building, to stay out. 

"I understand it can be convenient, but if you can stay out, stay out because we are in a fight with the board to stay out," he said on video camera.

Union officials cannot say whether or not the Chicago Public Schools will reopen schools in November, but they are dead set against it. Sharkey noted that 100 schools in New York City had to shut down after students and teachers were hit with the Covid-19 Virus.

Sharkey said it is worrying that CPS refuses to bargain with the union.

"Members shall work under safe conditions," he said. "What does that tell us about CPS to keep our workers at home and CPS won't bargain with us. They are undermining our ability to stay out of the buildings until it is safe."

The CTU is against going back to the classroom because the virus is still present and is predicted to get worse as winter approaches. The union won a grievance that stated the clinicians like clerks and speech pathologists should not go back to the schools, but CPS does not want to follow the ruling.

The union said the teachers should have more remote learning PD and planning and less online screen time for the students.

Sharkey said there are lot of privacy issues with google and online learning and he believes CPS is in agreement. He said teachers do not have to record their sessions, and who's to say google is not recording instructors in order to train AI to do what we do. He said teachers should know when an administrator is observing their online instruction, and to report to the union if they are being watched or observed without their knowledge.

Chris Baehrend with the charter division said Acero (formerly UNO Charter) layed off 26 of their 52 special education teachers, not because of funding, but because they had no work. 

CTU political coordinator Kurt Hilgendorf, who made his presentation alongside his toddler, stated once again it is important that all CTU members vote Yes to change the Illinois Constitution so that a Fair Tax, or graduated income tax, is implemented. Multi-billionaires like Ken Griffin, the richest man in Illinois, has spent more than $20 million attack ads to vote against the measure that would tax him and others who make more than a million dollars a year. Griffen had asked former Mayor Rahm Emanuel to close 150 Chicago public schools. The former mayor then closed 50 schools in 2013, the largest school closings in the history of the country.

Pension Woes

Chicago Teachers Pension Fund in Turmoil?

By Jim Vail

CTPF President Jeffrey Blackwell and former CTU President Karen Lewis

Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) President Jeffrey Blackwell complained that the pension board is being pressured to hire lobbyists close to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and accused the fund of "a culture of intimidation, intentional misinformation, discrimination, slander, misogyny, fear-mongering, blatant racism, sexism and retaliatory actions."

Blackwell's letter was first made public in the minutes of the Aug. 20 board meeting that a former teacher uncovered. Crain's Chicago Business and Capitol Fax have reported the contents of this explosive letter.

Madigan is big news today because he is under attack for demanding jobs and payoffs in return for favors. Commonwealth Edison has paid a $200 million penalty for illegally paying the speaker and awarding jobs to his associates in return for favorable regulatory actions, including raising utility rates. A class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of rate payers against ComEd and Madigan under the RICO Act, which is usually used to prosecute the mob.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and many other unions are close to the speaker because his support is considered crucial to getting any favorable teacher or pension legislation passed. 

The CTPF which oversees $12.3 billion in retirement monies has been in turmoil ever since trustees have accused the fund's executive director Chuck Burbridge of racism and harassment. They have also questioned why he was hired to run the fund from the start.

Burbridge just announced his resignation, and it is not clear if it is in relation to Blackwell's letter. One trustee said it could be related to him having cancer, but they are not sure.

Jeffrey Blackwewll

Blackwell's letter could be a game of politics. One fund insider noted that previous CTPF President Jay Rehak tried hard to become the executive director of the fund until Burbridge was hired. It could be that Blackwell is angling for a position in the fund and this is a power play.

The insider noted that Blackwell has turned off the mic when fund trustee Tina Padilla would try to speak during the pension meetings. 

In terms of racism, there are Latinx and African American trustees and employees. An investment fund manager is from Nigeria, and there are a number of black employees at the fund.

"There is a hidden agenda here somewhere," the source, who wanted to remain anonymous, stated.

Blackwell and Padilla are members of CORE, the current CTU party that heads the teachers union. The majority of pension trustees are affiliated with CORE, two retirees and six teachers. There are also two Board of Ed trustees and one principal.

Tina Padilla told Second City Teachers she will not make a comment  until she knows the whole story. She is running in the next election on the CORE ticket.

It is difficult if not impossible for members of a party to go against the party line and expect to maintain support from their party to get re-elected. Blackwell's action appears to have crossed CORE's line which is to support Madigan.

It is difficult to beat the ruling party to become a pension fund trustee. The next pension fund election will pit two Members First candidates Mary Esposito-Usterbowski and Phil Weiss against CORE candidates Cathy Cunningham-Yee and current trustee Tina Padilla. Members First has run candidates in past elections only to lose. Electronic voting will take place November 2nd thru 6th.

CORE became a force when Jay Rehak and Lois Ashford won the election to become CORE pension fund trustees, while the UPC ran the union with President Marilyn Stewart. 

The October 15 pension fund meeting will determine who will be named the interim director.  

The Professor

Teaching the Invisibles

By Jack Seeker

A former CPS teacher documents his experience working in a public high school in this book. This is Chapter 4 about education classes to become a teacher.

Chapter 4

A Great Education Professor Finally Appears

I guess every bushel of rotten apples will have a good one from time to time, and Professor Peterson was definitely a bright, shiny one. He was young, brilliant, loved by the students, and good luck getting into his classes.  

He hadn’t been there for very long and already he was complaining about the paperwork and insipid rules he had to contend with. The anal-retentive school marms running the department had him in their jealous crosshairs, and he wasn’t going to last for long. 

But anyone could see why they’d be jealous, his lectures were like symphonies. They’d begin with the dry, useless text book and from there he’d go into rising crescendos of the origin of man, segue into delicate filigrees of the latest in human behavior, the limitations of memory the Swedish court system takes into account but ours doesn’t, and then wrap it all up with a superb ending on the fallacies of global education statistics. 

And while he was mesmerizing to listen to, the curriculum of the course was of course fucked, being last designed in 1952 and then never updated. We had bullshit group reports on what high school age students were listening to in music, totally useless if you’re a nineteen or twenty year old listening to the same music. And yet another useless observation paper he didn’t bother to read. (Observation papers involved sitting in a class for twenty hours taking notes. It’s akin to watching a carpenter for a few weeks and then  trying to remember what he did as you jump into a room addition. Teaching is best learned hands-on, so of course, that’s why student teaching lasts all of ten weeks or so.) 

He had taught at Northwestern University, but came to this lowly, out-of-the-way state school where he could really make a difference, although I thought he still had to be a star there. He had gone to Africa several times and lived in native villages on anthropology trips. He had started teaching second grade at age sixteen in Oregon because of a severe teaching shortage there, where he had tried unsuccessfully to save an abused seven-year-old girl. He dramatically shared how parents should plunk down a lawyer’s card when a school hemmed and hawed on providing special education assistance for their son or daughter because of the school’s limited budget. What if the parents didn’t really have a lawyer? Not a concern, “You don’t have to pay for a lawyer; you just drop his card on the table and tell them you have one. The school will start jumping.” 

Finally, he had originally self-trained as a teacher by reading over 700 education books subject, and written three books of his own, and he was only thirty-three. 

For my small research report, he directed me to the top expert’s academic paper in the field of role modeling. In short, he was a leader everyone naturally fell in love with, and that was the inspirational theme of his course: As a teacher you can’t help but to make an impact on your class, so make it a good one. 

Unfortunately, the positive influence of Professor Peterson did have one conspicuous flaw. He had a habit of missing every third class. We’d come in at eight a.m., sit there for fifteen minutes, then leave. But during those fifteen minutes a rumor about his absences surfaced. He was fighting bone cancer. He had chemotherapy the day before and didn’t have the energy to make it today. Next class he’d say he wasn’t feeling well and everyone nodded in understanding. We were all thankful he was providing content in an otherwise content-less program, as he made his two-hour classes seem like twenty-minutes. 

When I ran into an old classmate after graduating, I naturally wanted to know how Peterson was doing. 

“Haven’t you heard? He committed suicide,” she told me.

“Oh, God, what happened?” 

“He took a job with the Department of Education job designing national high school curriculums. On a business trip out in Connecticut, he parked his rental car at the beach, entered the water, and kept swimming straight out.  He left behind a young wife and thirteen-year-old daughter.”

“So the bone cancer got to be too much, right?” I asked. 

“It may have,” she replied. “The school isn’t saying anything.”

I went on the Internet to see if I could bring up an obituary. Before that though I thought I’d look up his three books. The public library had no listings, so I checked the Library of Congress. No mention of his name. If there were books, they had to be in the Library of Congress. I then Googled his name. His obit came up in the local paper.

Odd since he wasn’t even locally famous. But there it was. I’m guessing university professors get longer write ups if there’s room. A reporter had called out of town to his sister about his death. She said her brother suffered from manic depression but disliked the side effects of the medication and refused to take it.  

From having a relative with the disorder, I know the “too alive” feeling of mania can be extremely enjoyable and hard to give up. But after weeks of not eating or sleeping, the mania can spiral out of control and the painful crash of depression sets in. The depression must have made him swim out until he was too tired and too far from shore. 

Everything was hindsight clear now. His talking a mile a minute, all the missed days, the field work in Africa, his writing three books in three different fields, teaching at Northwestern, all dreams of a bipolar. I felt like I had just lived through a twisted ending of an O’Henry story. 

And yet, all his lies and absences and promises of help not kept, did nothing to dim my appreciation of him. When he came into the room he wanted to teach. And while he covered what he needed to cover, he packed in uncountable connections from anthropology, psychology, evolution and physics and joy. He had us chasing and discovering new ideas like children chasing fireflies. He made us witnesses to the wonder of life. His final lesson, his influence, was whatever your talents and abilities for teaching, it all starts with caring about other people. He left it to us to realize he was talking about more than just the classroom.    

Attack on Journalists

PROTEST OF ANGST AND DESPAIR 

RUSSIAN JOURNALISTS UNDER ATTACK & PUSHED BEYOND

By Stephen Wilson

 

Irina Slavina a Russian journalist burned herself
to death after police harassed her.

            "Have you heard about the latest news? A journalist felt under so much pressure because of harassment by the police that she took her life. They had been harassing her for ages and raided her house taking away all her computers and equipment. That is like depriving somebody of their means to a livelihood. If this person was poor they couldn't afford to buy new equipment. I can understand why she was driven to take her own life. I mean if this pressure from the authorities comes day in and day out, it does something to your psyche. I can understand why she did this," stated a teacher to me who had also done a stint in journalism. I don't have permission to name this journalist and will simply call her 'Marina'.

But Marina, who expressed a lot of empathy about the journalist, told me she thought that the journalist had practically been pushed beyond the limits not to mention being placed on some sort of blacklist. It is a grim story. A Russian journalist, Irina Slavina, an Editor in Chief of Koza press News, went to a police station and burnt herself to death in protest against relentless police persecution. She had declared in a statement published on Facebook that, 'For my death I ask you to blame the Russian Federation.' 

The police had raided her apartment the day before her suicide. She complained that, "They took away what they found - all the flash-cards, my laptop, my daughter's laptop, the computer, phone,and not just mine, but also my husband's. A bunch of notes was taken. I'm left without a means of production.'

This police raid seemed to be the last straw. In an act of abject despair she killed herself. Well before this the police had often raided her home looking for any brochures, leaflets or invoices linked to the pro democracy movement of the exiled Mikhail Khodorkovsky. She also faced charges of 'disrespect for the authorities', and promoting 'Fake News'. {where have we heard this so many times? In Trump's America!} It was not just the raids, but the manner they were accomplished. They were done in an arrogant and humiliating way designed to demean her. Vladim Osechkin, a human rights defender, stated. 'The blood is on the hands of Putin and his officials. This raid obviously drove her to suicide. The fact this is a complete crime under article 110 of the Legal Codex.'

 

A WORSENING ATMOSPHERE

 

Doing serious political journalism in Russia is highly problematic. It is true that countless people in Russia criticize Putin and the authorities. But it is one thing to express such opinions and another to openly print a sharp criticism in the press. A journalist can be easily targeted, harassed, threatened, fired and in the worst cases, murdered by poison or guns. What has made the atmosphere in Russia more tense this Autumn are three major events:

1. The new sentence of historian Yuri Dmitri of Memorial to 13 years imprisonment on alleged charges of sexual abuse which had been previously refuted by courts.

2. The poisoning of Navalny, the opposition candidate that Putin has intimidated.

3. The recent suicide of the journalist Irina Slavina. 

And those incidents are just the most well-known cases. If you investigate further you will hear of constant examples of physical attacks, detention and harassment of opposition figures. All those attempts are designed to psychologically disorientate and demoralize any form of questioning. The aim is to foster 'a strategy of tension', in a war of nerves'. If people live in such fear, they will be loathe to express any disagreeable opinion never mind join any opposition movements.  

 

ENDLESS EX-JOURNALISTS

 

What you can't help noticing is the endless number of 'ex-journalists ' in Russia. Despite having trained as a professional journalist, they have given up or abandoned it. I have never encountered so many ex-journalists as in Moscow. There are so many that I wondered if it was some kind of stepping stone to another aspiring career. For example, one woman who trained as a journalist, Alesia Losminskaya, does not currently do journalism. Instead she makes toys and teaches Yoga. She once told me, "I don't want to work in a profession where I just have to write what others demand of me." And 'Marina' who has worked in journalism and stated political journalism was too dangerous. She also mainly teaches.

 

Doing any kind of investigative journalism here is hardly easy. When I try to interview people I often come across a lot of fear. "Don't mention my name. No I don't want you to write about me in relation to this case." For instance, when I tried to interview a supporter of the wrongfully imprisoned music teacher Konstantin Chavdarov who had been sentenced to 9 years imprisonment on allegations of sexual abuse, I was practically stonewalled. The person seemed so distrustful and paranoid that I felt I had met someone from another planet. She would not mention a single word about the case. I explained, "I'm a Scot working for a paper in Chicago," but was met with an incredulous, "How can that be? How can someone who is Scottish be working for an American newspaper?" It was a lost cause. 

And this is hardly the only reticent response. The standard answer is often, "A foreign journalist can easily leave, but we have to stay here". Well, I'm not sure it is that simple. Part of the deeply rooted fear is readily explicable because of the legacy of Soviet repression where so many walls had ears. The fear still goes on especially among the older generation. I recall all the difficulties in trying to arrange getting a new room in 1994 in Kishinev. The kindly old Russian kept whispering in cafes and preferred to talk loud only in secluded places. I was only wanting to rent a room, but this man was scared of being overheard and arrested for simply talking to a foreigner. You have to be born or have spent a long time in Russia to comprehend such fear. Andrei a Russian journalist told me that the relatively free press in Russia of the 1990's had largely disappeared. It is far more difficult to do any reporting in Russia than then.

 

MYTH OF PRESS FREEDOM IN AMERICA

 

A constant problem is that the western press oversimplifies the narrative of abusing the press in Russia. The crude presumption is that in contrast to lack of press freedom in Russia, you have press freedom in the West. As if Russian officials are the only ones to repress journalists. But in America, journalists have already been targeted for their 'fake news' and dubbed 'enemies of the people". Look at the fate of two Journalists who worked in Russia called Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames. Their genre of satire was not only eventually repressed in Russia, in 2009, but they have been even more viciously attacked in America. They have been accused of sexual abuse without any real concrete evidence or reference to facts. The journalists who made the allegations did not even carry out any investigation. The real reasons for a mass campaign of smear against the journalists is because their work sharply exposed the relentless corruption and abuse of corporate interests in both America and Russia. 

Those journalists did not take kindly to Matt Taibbi's work 'Hate, Incorporated, How and why the press make us hate one another'. Taibbi wrote 'Media is entertainment, and is designed to make us hate one another. Hate's a profitable business, by the way'. If satire is not a legal defense in Russia, it is hardly forgiven or so tolerated in 'the land of the free'.

Marina told me "Perhaps we can get away with writing on culture or safe subjects". Which might be one of the reasons why it is difficult for a Russian journalist to obtain a job covering film reviews or performances at the theater. Practically every journalist would relish such an opportunity.

 

Perhaps it is easier for Russians to write articles about local weddings or fishing trips in the village! Most of the former Russian journalists I have met have been working for marketing agencies or as teachers of Russian!  It is a bit safer than courageous and critical journalism. That is why we need to hold up a candle to tragic fighters such as Irina Slavina!

She was one of a kind!

CTU Win!

CTU wins legal battle to protect workers in unsafe buildings as two new schools report COVID cases — and one tragic death

By failing to listen to stakeholders or work with the Union to plan a safe reopening, Chicago Public Schools is impeding student learning at the same time the district has no plan for safe return.

CHICAGO, Oct. 2, 2020 — An arbitrator ruled today that Chicago Public Schools buildings are not safe for workers — primarily school clerks who the district forced back into buildings beginning on August 26. Today’s ruling comes amidst reports that CPS has instructed principals throughout the city to prepare for a hybrid return to classroom instruction.

The arbitrator’s ruling finds that the district’s half-measures are failing, in addition to its failures to share case reports with the public and the Chicago Teachers Union. This has forced rank-and-file CTU members to contend with both physically unsafe buildings and the fact that their employer is compounding the danger by downplaying the current risk in buildings.

CPS has consistently rejected Union demands to lay out its plans for contact tracing and universal rapid testing, which are essential components of any effort to mitigate the risk of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic in schools and the community at-large.

The Union also learned this week of COVID-19 cases at a total of four schools — Lane Tech High School, and Canty, Mt. Greenwood and Funston elementary schools.

Funston teacher Olga Quiroga had gone into her building just before the beginning of the school year and worked through Sept. 10 to help distribute supplies to families and complete other duties. Her family took her to the emergency room on September 11. She passed away on Thursday, Oct. 1.

“It’s tragic that this ruling — which irrevocably establishes that CPS schools are not yet safe to reopen — has come too late to have helped protect Olga’s life or protect other workers from COVID infection,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said. “We expect CPS to move immediately to protect the rest of our members in buildings by allowing them to begin working remotely today, as those workers did effectively from March through August.”

“The path to a truly safe reopening of our school buildings is through engagement with parents, talking to school communities and negotiating with the educators who know these schools best,” President Sharkey continued. “There are no shortcuts, and CPS' 'go it alone' attitude is reckless and inherently unsafe in the midst of a global pandemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the U.S. alone."

The CTU spent two days in trial on this grievance two weeks ago, presenting more than a thousand pages of evidence, hundreds of pages of testimony from rank-and-file CTU members forced back into buildings, and extensive expert witness testimony. The arbitrator ruled that CPS violated article 14-1 of its contract with the Union by failing to provide safe working conditions for its employees. The ruling included a finding that the poor condition of CPS buildings increases the risk of catching COVID-19 for workers and others, and that CPS has not done enough to mitigate risk of contracting the deadly disease.

Amongst the arbitrator’s findings was the following: “Although the Board has made efforts to mitigate the risk, subjecting these employees to increased risk of COVID-19 infection for work that can be performed remotely does not fulfill CPS’ contractual promise that its employees work in ‘safe and healthful conditions.’ On this record, it cannot be determined that each school building is safe and healthful[…] it is better to err on the side of allowing remote work, where feasible, since the extent of the inherently hazardous conditions presented by COVID-19 is each school building is unknown.”

The arbitrator’s ruling that CPS buildings are “not safe and healthful” was built on extensive evidence of grave deficiencies in school buildings, 60 percent of which have no central HVAC system. Less than 5 percent of schools have any air purification system installed, 50 percent have non-functional critical components of their air circulation systems, and only 9 percent of CPS schools have air filtration systems that meet public health recommendations for COVID-19 safety (i.e., MERV 13 or portable HEPA filters). (NOTE: A fact sheet on the evidence around building safety can be found here.)

CPS and the CTU now have two days to come to an agreement on which duties cannot be performed remotely and must be performed in person. If no agreement can be worked out, the parties go back to the arbitrator for a more detailed remedy.

The Union has challenged CPS and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to put any return to buildings on hold until the district has remedied unsafe conditions in schools, and continues to demand that CPS reverse its refusal to bargain with the Union on safety, and instead, come to mutual agreement on necessary safety protections.

Good ventilation is key to protecting staff and students from airborne transmission of the virus, even as health officials are increasingly concerned that six-foot distancing in closed spaces is still not enough to prevent virus transmission under poor ventilation conditions. CPS, however, has refused to craft a plan to address grave facility failures in its rush to reopen.

“CPS could have avoided the tragedy of illness and death in our schools if only they’d agreed to bargain collaboratively with us as ISBE has proposed, and other districts across the state have done,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said. “It’s way past time for CPS to listen to us, agree to work with us, and finally put safety first and ensure that every building is equipped to protect our children and the educators who serve them."

Teaching the Invisibles: Chap. 1

Former Teacher Writes Book about What it's Really Like to Teach in Chicago

Second City Teachers is publishing a series of chapters from the book Teaching the Invisibles by former high school teacher Peter Nerad. It is a raw, funny, cynical and truthful account of what it is like to teach in the rough and tumble Chicago public schools. We begin with Chapter 1:

Teaching the Invisibles

A personal account of what really goes on in our inner city high schools

 Chapter 1

 

Going from alarming tragedy—to sheer stupidity—to skepticism—to verifying the heartbreaking occurrence—to numbness—to questioning the meaning of life.

And that was just Monday

 

Teaching in an inner city school or for that matter just walking around in one is to suddenly be an eyewitness to the rape of Nanking.  Your sense of common decency and basic respect for others will be assaulted at least a dozen times, and you’ll quickly discover that even the wittiest of gallows humor won’t prevent the emotional draining at the end of the day.

But sometimes I got hit with a tragedy so devastating it was like being tasered with your back turned. In the beginning of the year, a counselor gave me a head’s up that a sixteen-year-old student would be coming late because she was dropping her child off at daycare. It wasn’t ideal, but getting her caught up on what she missed wasn’t a problem because I soon saw she was serious about class and really a neat kid.

From what I could learn, she had two kids already, and surprisingly was very honest about being a lesbian. She came late quite a bit, but she’d also dig into the work and get it done. The class was a forty-six minute period of writing, reading, and grammar skills in addition to their regular literature class. A good idea since the average reading scores of our incoming freshman were at a fifth or sixth grade level.  

Brittany was a year older than the rest of the class and her extra maturity helped her discuss topics intelligently as well as thoroughly. One of the best times was when we were reading a story about a teenage mother, and she started sharing exactly what it was like. I figured it was a good warning seeing how the school’s “Mother’s Club” wasn’t an adjunct to the PTA but pre- and postnatal care for teenage mothers.

I remember her saying, “What it’s like? Are you kidding? My childhood is gone. I don’t have time for anything else except school and child care. I don’t hang out with friends.  I don’t have any time for myself.…”

When I tried sharing this moment with some coworkers in the lunch room, and believe me, when these moments happen you want to savor them, one of the young female teachers, of which there is always preponderance, immediately launched into a revealing discussion she had. In relating to other teachers in the school, although you barely saw them, you quickly realize everyone is not only competing with one another, they’re also running a continual public relations campaign that always ends up the same way, they’re all God’s gift to teaching. They’ve been around long enough to know that the “weak sister” teacher is the one the principal will go after when money gets cut or the board wants to know if the principal is firing the “bad” teachers. But most of the time it’s usually just a “hey, you’re not the only great teacher at the table here, mister.”

Brittany’s candor made our discussions much more interesting because the kids could definitely relate to what she was saying. The whole class liked her, which made her feel so at ease she began showing us her baby pictures and taking the students around her under her wing and helping them when they got stuck on an assignment. In the parlance of class management, she was a leader.

It was my favorite class of the day, and I suspect everyone else’s in there, and it was due to the luck of having not only Brittany, but also five smart and diligent kids whose energy rubbed off on the whole class.  Even the one student who was disruptive soon got reassigned to a special education class where she belonged.

But all of these factors wouldn’t have mattered a rat’s intestine if they’re had been thirty students instead of the twenty-two I had. Hit thirty and you hit the law of “critical mass”. Now there’ll be the proverbial “gang of six” that will feed of each other and fuck it up no matter how fun and entertaining you make it. Each one thinks they’re comically brilliant, and even after you separate them, put them in the front row, boot them from class several times, they’ll lay low like out-of-town mafia enforcers after a hit, until the coast is clear and they can begin again. 

But this small class was so cohesive I could even get them to do grammar exercises, the wolf bane of every adolescent. Even when I told them we were about to do it their groans were polite.

And oops, I almost I forgot. The students were on the same level of ability. I could teach and the smart kids wouldn’t get bored and the below level kids wouldn’t get frustrated and lost. And because there were only three special ed students who weren’t all that below a regular level, I could spend more time with them, and by the end of the year I could see a real leap up in their skills.

A class like this is unheard of. The usual class of any subject has a wide assortment of reading and writing levels stretching from sixth grade to sophomore competencies, with a smattering of special ed students, ESL kids, (ESL stands for English as a second language. Education loves acronyms more than the military.) a few ADHD kids and maybe an autistic. I even had one undiagnosed gifted boy who knew the class material better than I did.

This all begs the question as to why they don’t test the students beforehand and then form classes according to academic levels. That way whatever the teacher is doing actually helps everyone. Colleges do this. You take your English and Math tests at the start and then sign up for the right class. In the case of high school, the kids wouldn’t even know which class grouping they were in.

Only honors classes have everyone at the same level, so these classes can zip along and get something done, especially because honors students will do homework, and students that don’t get bounced down to regular classes.  For all practical purposes though, honors classes in Chicago are really a regular class anywhere else. But what time an honors class started was important. Fifty percent of the first period honors classes are flunking because they can’t get there on time.

Okay…a very round-about way of saying the class was a love fest. So much so that we used to meditate about once a week for twenty minutes at the start of class to help everyone concentrate better. (Once when I was getting frustrated, the kids told me, “Mr. Seeker, you better meditate.”)

But there was no way to prepare for the morning Brittany, the young mother, knocked at the door of the classroom in tears. She motioned me into the hall for privacy.  

“You broke up with someone, right?” I asked right away.

“No, Mr. Seeker, my baby died last night.”

“What!”

“My baby died last night.”

“Oh my God.  Look, go right down to the counseling office. Somebody can help you there.”

“I just came from there. They said they were all busy and that I should come back around noon.”

“Jesus Christ. Stay here for a minute. I’ll get a security guard to watch the room and we’ll go down there.”

She wasn’t lying. Liars go into profound detail to convince the listener. She never did. Her baby died. She came to school because she had nowhere else to go and her friends were here to support here. She went to the funeral. No details. The truth comes without them.

When I was student teaching, a teacher remarked one day that he had an old Irish aunt that told him God never gave a person more than they could handle. He used to believe that until he started working in that school. “Some of the stuff these kids go though nobody could handle.”

Now if this was a movie, the self-sacrificing, I’m-going-to-raise-holy-hell teacher would enter the counseling office and would raise holy hell. At the funeral there’d be a shot of the baby’s coffin and the weeping teen mother, but the teacher would be the main focus at the funeral helping everyone cope.

But this was real life. I took her down to the counseling office and explained the situation to the shocked secretary who told her somebody would see her right away. I was drained. I talked to more experienced teachers. They wondered if it was really the truth. I started wondering myself. I barely knew any of them. I only saw them in the classroom.

The baby, I learned, was her second child and lived with the father. He had come into town for a visit.  The baby was on a motel bed surrounded with pillows and had turned over and suffocated. 

I later started to understand how much assistance the school could provide in social services when I attended a state funded presentation for recognizing mental illness in teenagers. Great. This is good. After going over symptoms and other information, the major surprise being that adolescents with depression, unlike adults, actually get more energetic and begin acting out, I asked where we referred students for help.

“Well, unless they have insurance, the wait for the few county and city centers is several months, maybe more,” the speaker said.

“Couldn’t the student commit suicide by then?”

“Well, hopefully, they’ll get help before that happens.”

And how many students need some kind of therapeutic help? I learned the answer in a teacher’s workshop on essay writing. I merely asked during the session about good ways to have students write about their personal experiences, a common enough assignment. He answered adamantly, “Oh God no. Don’t do that. You’d have to refer the whole class to the school’s social worker.”

Chapter end note:  

My first class of the day was a likeable bunch too….when they were there. First period started at 7:50 am, usually there were only five out twenty on time. I called the fifteen homes of the habitually tardy. Twelve phones were disconnected, the other three didn’t have answering machines.    

Every year out of my five classes, I would have a charming class, two likable ones, one disengaged one, and one dreaded, “snake bit” group where they didn’t like me and I didn’t like them. In there, they hit me every day with hostile teenage comments and contempt, and I made little disparaging comments in return, I hate to say. The antagonistic class leaders dragged the rest of class down until I finally accepted it would be a long, painful journey.

 

You can order the book on Amazon Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Invisibles-Jack-Seeker-ebook/dp/B00C8GBB98