LJ Juarez often retreated to the Peace Room at Hyde Park Academy when she felt angry or hurt, like when a 16-year-old classmate was shot and killed last month just across the street.
He was one of three students who died this spring.
In the Peace Room, LJ could flop down on a bean bag and pull aside a trusted adult.
“I was in there every day talking to them, telling them how I felt,” the junior said at a press conference held outside the school Thursday. “They were the only ones in the building helping to calm me down.”
LJ and other students are dismayed that two established community groups that checked in with students and held peace circles were abruptly removed from the school two weeks ago.
The students and CPS officials disagree over whether the Peace Room is even open anymore.
The teens say it’s locked and dark. But the principal told CPS officials that it’s open and the school’s restorative justice coordinator can use it to run circles with students, according to a district statement.
But one thing is clear: Students feel the school has not done enough to help them grapple with the deaths of their classmates and other stresses. And the loss of the staff from Good Kids Mad City and Southside Together just made them feel more alone.
Southside Together had a longstanding presence at the school. The organization helped develop the school’s safety plan, which became required once the district stopped stationing police in schools. And they’ve been instrumental in helping Hyde Park use restorative practices, such as peace circles.
In a statement, CPS officials said the principal determined these groups “no longer align with the specific needs of the school community.” It wasn’t for budgetary reasons — the staff are funded by grants and don’t charge CPS for their services. Hyde Park Principal Rosette Edinburg did not respond to questions via email. When WBEZ went to the school to speak with her, staff said she was not in the building.
Sophomore Peter Brown said the removal of the community groups adds to a feeling among students that the school failed to step up in the wake of multiple tragedies. After Eric Billups was killed in mid-April, Peter said students were told that therapists would be available and additional security guards would monitor bus stops.
But he said he couldn’t figure out how to access the therapists and the extra security is inside the school taking away cellphones and clearing the hallway, rather than outside where the shooting took place.
“The school got way more strict since the student got killed, but nothing they are enforcing makes us feel safer,” he said. “It feels like we are being punished, rather than comforted.”
Junior Zaynah Soyebo wore a button with a picture of Lania Smith, one of two students killed in separate hit-and-run incidents in April. Zaynah said she was still shaken by that tragedy when Eric was killed.
Shortly after a balloon release to honor Eric, Zaynah said the principal started talking to students about keeping their grades up.
“How are we as teenagers supposed to do work after we just got through a traumatic experience?” she said. “We need time to process.”
Zaynah and other students believe that their complaints about the school’s response and demands for more resources spurred the removal of the community groups.
Earlier this month, student leaders working with Southside Together got the school to hold town hall meetings during the school day, she said. When the students started speaking up, Zaynah said the principal took the mic and sent the students back to class. She said the students felt “disregarded and belittled.”
“Instead of trying to be emotionally available to the students that come here every single day and are trying to go to college and figure out what we want to do after high school, we have to worry about: Is our school even safe enough? Do they have the right resources?” Zaynah said.
Yvette McCaskill worked inside Hyde Park Academy’s Peace Room through the community organization Southside Together. The group and Good Kids Mad City were abruptly removed from the school after the principal decided they “no longer align with the specific needs of the school community.”
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Two days later, staff from the community groups were escorted out of the school, said Yvette McCaskill, a youth organizer from Southside Together. She said Southside Together has been working in the school for about 15 years.
In response to questions about the groups’ removal, CPS officials said that partnerships with community organizations play a “vital role” in addressing students’ unique needs, including by expanding access to mental health services, mentoring and family support that the district “cannot provide independently.”
But CPS noted these organizations “must comply with CPS policies and procedures, including vendor onboarding and employee background check protocols, to ensure student safety.”
CPS said one of the groups working in Hyde Park Academy did not have all its paperwork filled out, though its staff had been in the school all year before that was raised as an issue in mid-May.