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This month we’re heading on over to Chicago! Be sure to visit our city’s page for more information about serving with us in the “Windy City”.
News from the Chicago Team
It’s that time of year again here in Chicago. Backpacks are being zipped, lunches are being packed, busses are starting, crossing guards are popping up on street corners and students are flooding the halls of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) across the city.
A new school year brings with it new challenges for many CPS students and harsh realities quickly set in the first day. The tension in the air is thick as they pass through metal detectors guarding the entry points to their schools. Many teachers see new faces of students from different neighborhoods, while rival gangs stare one another down passing each other in the same hall. Familiar teachers are no longer there and class sizes have grown due to lack of funding. From these overcrowded halls and with an astronomical budget deficit facing the CPS, the new school year doesn’t seem as welcoming as it could.
Last year there were over 118 shootings involving Chicago Public School students. The $900,000,000 deficit the CPS faces is the main culprit behind many of the issues students are up against. In particular, many schools have been closed, and students are being forced to attend schools in different neighborhoods and travel long distances across rival gang territories to get to school. This is causing tension between rival gangs and has produced a 3 fold increase in violent offenses reported in the CPS throughout the past few years, since the schools began to close. One of the scary things is that violence is not limited to those in gangs or those looking for trouble; it really can happen to any student.
In order to combat this, the Chicago Board of Education is working with the Chicago police department to create a hotline in the next few months where students can report information anonymously that the police can investigate. Information regarding the hotline will be posted clearly in each school in hopes that students will help in averting the violent offenses that plague their education experience daily. Whether or not this hotline will succeed in lowering the violence levels and casualties in CPS schools this year is yet to be seen.
So, while we are zipping up backpacks and going to a school that is familiar, safe and a place to hang out with friends, thousands in Chicago are feeling quite differently. As always, prayer for Chicago Public School students is welcomed, because we know that God can break down what seem to be impenetrable walls.
-Hannah Schultz, CSM Chicago Associate City Director
Local Resources
Local News Links
- A balancing act for Chicago Public Schools August 9, 2010
- CPS student hot line must now report potential violence August 9, 2010
- Project combines craft with caring, outreach August 2010
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