Chicago teachers demonstrate to remove police officers from schools

Chicago Teachers Union members and hundreds of supporters march through the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020.

About 500 demonstrators who want police officers removed from Chicago Public Schools marched in the Loop Wednesday afternoon.

Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, which organized the march, said the $33 million contract CPS has with the Chicago Police Department to assign officers to schools should be terminated and the money instead spent on additional school counselors, psychologists, nurses and social workers.

If cops are needed, 911 will suffice, she said.

“Every school community has a functioning phone,” she said, and there already are security guards in every school.

“Black children are not criminals, they’re children,” she said.

Youth activists dance in front of Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home in Belmont Cragin to demand an end to police presence in schools, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education is set to decide whether to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull out police officers from schools. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Chicago Teachers Union members and hundreds of Black Lives Matter supporters rally in Federal Plaza in the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Chicago Teachers Union members and hundreds of supporters march through the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Lanessa Young, 18, draws around Haroon Garel’s, 40, body during a teach in outside Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home in Belmont Cragin to demand an end to police presence in schools, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education is set to decide whether to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull out police officers from schools. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Laurentio Howard, who has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after his daughter was shoved and dragged by a Chicago Police officer stationed at Marshall Metropolitan High School, speaks during a Chicago Teachers Union rally in Federal Plaza in the Loop, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The union and supporters are calling for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Jennifer Nava, 18, a graduate of Thomas Kelly College Prep, chants during a teach in outside Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home in Belmont Cragin, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education is set to decide whether to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull out police officers from schools | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Youth activists stage a teach in outside Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home in Belmont Cragin to demand an end to police presence in schools, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education is set to decide whether to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull out police officers from schools. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, speaks during a rally in Federal Plaza in the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Students protested outside Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home last year in an effort to remove police from schools.

A police officer walks by as Essence Gatheright, 16, writes “Fund our schools” outside Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education is set to decide whether to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull out police officers from schools. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Chicago Teachers Union members and hundreds of supporters rally in Federal Plaza in the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Anna McCullom, 17, looks up an officer’s misconduct records during a teach in outside Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle’s home in Belmont Cragin, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Board of Education is set to decide whether to end Chicago Public Schools’ $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department and pull out police officers from schools. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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Chicago police officers keep watch as Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters participate in a car caravan around a rally in Daley Plaza in the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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(From left) Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, activist Eric Russell and Laurentio Howard, whose daughter was shoved and dragged by a Chicago Police officer stationed at Marshall Metropolitan High School, lead hundreds of supporters on a march through the Loop, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. The union and protesters are calling for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Marchers took to the streets as the Chicago Board of Education was holding an online meeting at which it would vote on that issue.

Board President Miguel del Valle was met with jeers outside his home when he told a few dozen protesters gathered there that he would be voting against removing officers from schools.

“I want you to know, I am voting no on the resolution. I don’t hide. I don’t hide from my decisions,” he said. “I disagree with you. Respect my opinion.”

That opinion held sway, narrowly, as the board voted 4-3 Wednesday afternoon to keep police in the schools.

Alyssa Rodriguez, a CPS social worker who was demonstrating downtown, said “even if police have the best of intentions, their presence is not necessarily the most reassuring to students because students don’t always view them as trustworthy people in their communities.”

Money, she said, should be spent on solutions that “are more proactive than reactive,” she said.

Demonstrators’ chants included: “Show me what democracy looks like. This is what democracy looks like.”

Marchers followed a parade float affixed with a gazebo that was occupied by a CTU leader who led the chants over a loud speaker.

The march began at Federal Plaza about 12:30 p.m., headed for Daley Plaza, and got rained on a bit along the way.

Laurentio Howard was one of the leaders of the march. Howard’s daughter is Dnigma Howard, who was shoved down stairs and tased by Chicago police officers stationed at Marshall Metropolitan High School in January 2019.

Del Valle, historically a progressive advocate for equitable public education, asked protesters outside his house to keep the noise down because it was scaring his 86-year-old mother.

Chicago police showed up a few minutes later, and seven officers stood guard in front of del Valle’s home as loud chants continued. A Chicago police spokeswoman confirmed CPD received a call around 10:20 a.m. to the block in Belmont Cragin where del Valle lives “regarding protesters causing a noise disturbance.” It wasn’t clear who called the police.

The youth-led protesters watched an online stream of the board meeting and yelled every time del Valle spoke.

Protesters played loud music and sang along to NWA’s “F--- the Police” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.”

“We are out here to get police out of schools,” 19-year-old Jermaine Wright said. “As a lot of Black and Brown youth we feel underrepresented, we feel scared when we walk into schools and we have police in there that are killing our people.”

Wright graduated from Kenwood a year ago and now is pursuing a marketing degree from the University of Tampa, but that isn’t stopping him from advocating for the removal of police in schools.

“It’s was so traumatic for me even when I went to school because I know that these people took away my aunts, my uncles, my cousins and I was scared,” Wright said. “At one point I stopped going to school and then I got the police called on me for doing that. It’s like I couldn’t get away.”

Students even called into the board meeting from outside del Valle’s house, urging the board to listen to their demands.

“We are here to demand the defunding of the police to get CPD out of CPS to eliminate CPD,” the students said in unison when they. called.

“We as a youth don’t feel safe with police in my school. Police are not meant for schools. Police do not belong in schools. You’ve got the power. You’ve got the choice. Make it right.”

Manny Ramos is a corps member in Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of issues affecting Chicago’s South and West sides.

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