Demands for school halt board meeting May 24, 2001 BY ROSALIND ROSSI EDUCATION REPORTER A crush of protesters--including some hunger strikers--brought a Chicago Board of Education meeting to a standstill Wednesday with chants and demands that officials fulfill a promise to build a new high school in Little Village. More than 100 demonstrators swarmed School Board headquarters for its monthly meeting, but most were relegated to a 15th-floor "overflow" room. Those allotted seats in the board's fifth-floor chambers blasted school CEO Paul Vallas and brought board business to a halt for at least 10 minutes with thundering chants demanding, "Daley, Vallas, keep your promise!" The protest leader, Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd), charged that Vallas had used money that could have built a new Little Village high school to instead build college prep magnet schools "to attract other kinds of parents." "There is no money left for a new high school for Latino children," Munoz said. "The administration decided to rob Pedro to pay Paul." Munoz said Vallas had verbally "attacked" nine Latino mothers and three men who have waged a hunger strike since Mother's Day over the system's failure to build a high school on land purchased in 1998 at 31st and Kostner. Vallas countered that he never criticized mothers. Turning to Munoz, he said, "I criticized you because you've been hiding behind mothers"--a remark that drew boos from protesters. Board President Gery Chico said he still supports construction of the Little Village high school at 31st and Kostner, but community differences over whether the site should hold an elementary school instead have allowed "those communities with far less controversy" to get school buildings first. The biggest disruption occurred as the group surged for the door. Security personnel held them back temporarily, apparently because more protesters blocked the other side of the door. Hunger striker Linda Sarate fell to the floor. Some said security personnel pushed her, while others said she fainted. She sat on the floor, weeping, while other protesters chanted for 10 minutes straight and complained about what they called rough security tactics. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
