To the Local School Council Members of Lane Tech, 

We, the undersigned students, alumni, and current parents of students at Lane Tech College Prep, demand that the Local School Council terminate the school’s contract with the Chicago Police Department and remove all Student Resource Officers immediately. 

With the recent violent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery at the hands of the police, unprecedented peaceful uprisings of millions of people have spurred across the United States in response. 

This uprising has moved from justified outrage and anger, to organized and concerted demands. These demands include the demolition of statues of slave owners, and genocidal historical figures, but most principally, the defunding of local police departments, and the severing of contracts between public schools and police departments and the removal of police officers from those schools.

Black and brown students and alumni of Chicago Public Schools can tell you first hand the stories of abuse, and feelings of fear and intimidation that the existence of police foster when present in school. School districts across the country have already severed ties with police including Minneapolis, Minnesota; Charloettesville, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; West Contra Costa Unified School District and many more. 

Right here in Chicago, Local School Councils have taken up the mantle and are leading where the Chicago city council has failed to act, and are severing police ties in their own schools. As of July 10th, Northside College Prep, and Clemente High School have both voted to remove SROs from their schools. 

The signers of this petition do not simply believe in the removal of police from schools, but more importantly in the investment of money to go to true methods of safety for our students in the form of resources. Psychologists, nurses, therapists, go a much further way in preventing students from danger than a police officer, which is a reactionary option to public safety rather than a preventative one. 

CPS spends $33 million to keep cops in schools. Lane Tech Local School Council, it’s time to lead our school district and do the right thing. Vote to remove SROs from Lane Tech College Prep in your next local school council meeting

Local School Council Members: 

Emily Haite – Chairperson · Anne Lokken – Secretary · Benjamin Wong · Matt Beaudet ·​Patricia O’Keefe· Laura Symons

 

Below are resources for the Local School Council and petition signers to learn more about the harm that school resource officers, and police in general cause to students in the public school system. 

Resources 

1. On the School-to-Prison Pipeline:
   What is the School-to-Prison Pipeline and how does it target BIPOC students? https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2013/the-school-to-prison-pipeline
2. AJ+ reporting on the School-to-Prison Pipeline in the United States https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04pcSyzwoTg
   NAACP and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
   https://www.naacpldf.org/wp-content/uploads/Dismantling_the_School_to_Prison_Pipeline__Criminal-Justice__.pdf
3. ACLU infographic on the School-to-Prison Pipeline
   https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/school-prison-pipeline-infographic
4. On Police in Schools
   1. Why There’s a Push to Get Police out of Schools https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/881608999/why-theres-a-push-to-get-police-out-of-schools
   2. NYTimes article on the negative effects SROs have on Black and Latinx students
   3. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/schools-police-resource-officers.html
5. ACLU on Police Targeting BIPOC in schools
   1. https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/police-in-schools-continue-to-target-black-brown-and-indigenous-students-with-disabilities-the-trump-administration-has-data-thats-likely-to-prove-it/

 

       6. On the Negative Effects Zero Tolerance Policy have on Black and Latinx students
       VOYCE report on policy that prevent Black and Latinx students from graduating              https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/216318-voyce.html 
 

On the Intersectionality of Education and Race (books)
Bree Picower and Edwin Mayorga’s What’s Race Got To Do With It? How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Inequity
Chrisopher Emdin’s For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Ya’ll too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education
Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo’s Is Everyone Really Equal: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education 
Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race
Resources on Instagram (Educators, Activists, Poets to follow for more education)

@AdvancingJusticeChicago - Org of Asian American Communities for BLM
@annika.Izora - Poet who creates toolkits on BLM
@blactina - Media that amplifies Afro-Latinx and Afro-Caribbean stories
@SoYouWantToTalkAbout - creates content that explores various topics on -isms.
@SonyaReneeTaylor - Author/Poet who educates the public on manifestation of white supremacy
@naacp - National civil rights organization 
@BlackLivesMatter - IG account of BLM

This petition was drafted by Ugo Okere and Cecilia Hernandez, for any media inquiries, please reach out to ugookere@gmail.com