14 Students allowed back in Morton West

Crossposted at DailyKos

The Superintendant of Morton West High School District has allowed 14 students to return to classes today. The others will be allowed to return on Friday. No students will be expelled.

Rita Maniotis, President of the PTO said that it is “wonderful news” and that “it’s not like our kids are walking away with nothing.” Especially since most of the students have served most of their suspension time. At least they will not be up for expulsion hearings which would have occurred in December.

A victory for “Freedom of Speech”!

Both the ACLU and Operation Push were involved in this action by the J. Sterling Morton High School District. And cooler heads have prevailed.

“No matter how one viewed the incident … none of what happened really merited an expulsion,” spokesman Ed Yohnka said.

The Chicago Tribune has an article here:Trib

      Sorry about the link, it looks as if you have to register to access it.

Taken into perspective, the District experienced a gun threat about 2 weeks ago in which the Superintendent refused to “lock down” the school because the student who witnessed the displaying of the gun in a washroom was a “Special Ed student” and, therefore, not credible. While students who demonstrate peacefully in the student cafeteria by refusing to go to classes are such a threat that there is a lockdown!

Although the “Special Ed student” proved to be correct and the suspected student did actually have a gun two days later, no apology was given. (SOP in the world of Education.) No lockers had been searched but the suspected/actual perpetrator confessed to bringing a gun into the school.

Students expressing their right to free speech (in a Republican controlled community)are more dangerous than a gun in the school.

It is interesting that Cicero and Berwyn are Republican considering their demographics and income level, but, then, Cicero has a long history of intolerance and prejudice as the era of Civil Rights marches and protests once proved. Although Hispanics and Black do reside in the community now, the people in control are all from that era which explains the controversy at Morton West.

J.Sterling Morton High School District #201 is a large district comprising of an East Campus, a West Campus, and a Freshman Center. The student population is about 8,000 students and predominantly Hispanic. The Administration of the school and the School Board are predominantly white and from Cicero.

In fairness to the School District here is the opinion of the Superintendent:

“Some with political agendas have tried to cloud the matter with politically charged appeals about policies over which this district has no authority,” Nowakowski said in the statement. “It is unfortunate that they would seek to use children to advance their political agendas. The fact is that Morton students are encouraged to think for themselves and to express their views, whatever those views may be.”

and Dan Proft, the District spokesman and the spokesman for the Town of Cicero who also coaches Little League there and who is a regular Republican pundit with regular commentaries on the local radio station(WLS) and on Bruce DuMont’s “Beyond the Beltway” program:

Punishments had to be given on an individual basis because some students were more disruptive than others, he said. Those penalties ranged from 5-day suspensions to 10-day suspensions.

Although a teacher at the school said “there was no disruption” to the classes except that which occurred by the lockdown.

I am glad that “Freedom of Speech” has had this victory in the Public School system of Cicero and Berwyn. However, I do think that with the present Repblican leaning and influence in the two communities, this type of problem will occur again.

To read my other diary on this topic at the big orange : here