Youth win on Chicago Public Schools guards, grievance process
Jul 26, 2010
from the article by Curtis Black on communitymediaworkshop.org:
In a victory for two youth organizing drives, CPS has agreed to establish a grievance procedure for students experiencing violence, harassment or discrimination, and to pilot a program training security guards to use principles of restorative justice in their work.
Both campaigns promote the restorative justice approach – emphasizing accountability as an alternative to zero tolerance and punitive discipline – as a more effective approach to reducing violence, said Sam Finkelstein of GenderJust, an LGTB student group that protested at CPS headquarters and at CPS chief Ron Huberman’s home to demand a grievance procedure.
....Last week, Blocks Together Youth Council announced an agreement with CPS to pilot restorative justice training for security guards in five or more high schools. The West Humboldt Park youth group has organized for years against security guard misconduct and policies that criminalize youth.
The two groups supported each other and worked together at various points over the past year. Southwest Youth Collaborative also worked on the security guard issue.
