A teacher was carjacked at gunpoint Tuesday in the parking lot of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School on the Near West Side.
The woman was getting out of her car in the staff lot in the 100 block of South Laflin at 8:10 a.m. when a teenage boy entered the passenger side of the car, Chicago police and the school said in a statement.
He claimed he was being chased and needed help, the school said.
The teen then showed a gun and demanded her phone and purse, the school said. He told her to get out the car and he drove off. The teacher, who is in her 30s, was uninjured.
Police described the carjacker as 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds. He wore a dark gray hooded sweatshirt and black pants.
Police arrested a person of interest overnight with the help of FBI agents, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a tweet. Charges are currently pending against the suspect, police said.
The high school said it requested additional police patrols and cameras for the campus.
As students were being dismissed Tuesday afternoon, three separate Chicago police patrol SUVs could be seen circling the blocks of the top-rated Near West Side school around dismissal.
An email notification of the Tuesday morning carjacking put Whitney Young students and staff on edge, according to student Isabel Coronel.
“It’s pretty scary,” the junior said while waiting for a ride home. “People are walking home in groups because they don’t want to walk alone. Everyone feels like they have to be cautious.”
It didn’t take long for students to figure out which teacher had fallen victim.
“She is really well liked. She’s a great teacher,” Coronel said.
Winston Charles, another Whitney Young student, said he was concerned but not shocked to learn of the crime, which happened in broad daylight as students and staff were arriving to go to school.
“It’s a weird, selective time to do something like that,” he said.
The selective-enrollment school off the Eisenhower Expressway is sandwiched between a pocket of pricey greystones, ritzy West Loop developments — and the police training academy.
“It’s a bold thing to do here,” Charles said.
But not altogether uncommon. Parts of the neighborhood just west of there see their share of crime, anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes said, including a handful of carjackings in recent months.
Holmes, a victims advocate, said school officials were in touch with the teacher Tuesday evening.
“She’s shaken up. She’s with her family, and we’re going to make sure she gets everything, all the help she needs.
“We’re talking about a person’s livelihood. It’s a terrible thing to go through,” Holmes said.
Walking back to his own vehicle in the same lot hours after the crime, a teacher who declined to give his name said he arrived to work about 20 minutes or so before the carjacking happened.
“It could have been me, or any of us. I’ve always felt safe around here, but you always need to keep your head on a swivel,” said the teacher, who has worked at Whitney Young for almost a decade.
Whitney Young junior Javier Goldstein put it more bluntly:
“I’ll be more careful. You have to be.”
Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Emily Bolton said the teacher was not injured in the incident.
“The district is working with the Chicago Police Department to provide additional vigilance in the surrounding area and ensure all safety measures and protocols are as strong as possible, and the district has made supports available to the teacher,” she said.
