On Wednesday, September 22nd, Chicago Public Schools renewed once again an intergovernmental agreement with thePolice Department worth $11.1 million This contract vote is not worth celebrating – it is not progress. Shame on CPS for prioritizing funding for police in our schools instead of real safety and healing for Black and Brown students. Agreeing to support the presence of police in our schools after various Local School Councils voted to remove them, shows that Chicago Public Schools does not care about community input. CPS is adapting and using our language only to show face without real action. 

The Board of Education refused to listen to Black young people as we took the streets, took over the media, showed up to their homes and shared our experiences at CPS Board meetings. We are disappointed that our board is made up of adultist individuals who only care about being Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s puppets. Imagine having Black and Brown young people take action in their city, schools and communities and not be inspired by them? 

We have made our demands clear since 2015. We do not need police in our schools. We do not want police in our schools. The Board of Education had the opportunity to reflect on their decisions in this last year of mourning, illness, and harm students have faced due to the lack of investment and care in our schools. – they failed.

CPS ran a sham community process with community organizations that created no change or impact in the lives of students at our schools. This decoy of a community process dismissed and de-valued the work of Black young people who have been demanding police free schools. 

We say NO to creating a separate police force for our schools. Having police in our schools is not a real form of safety.

Safety looks like transforming our schools with resources for mental health, understanding and solving conflicts as part of the curriculum and culture of our schools, resources for housing, food pantries,