This is in response to “School’s fence fires up old rifts in neighborhood” (Metro, Oct. 16), by columnist Dawn Turner Trice. I am writing to commend Trice on her insightful column concerning the rift over the fence going up at South Loop Elementary School. I have a 6th grader who started at SLES in the kindergarten. When he started it was apparent that there was an element in the Dearborn Park neighborhood that looked upon most of the SLES students as interlopers.
Upset because of unkept promises that were supposedly made to them by Chicago Public Schools, these people have been harboring ill will toward SLES and the students who attend.
I am currently serving my third term on the SLES Local School Council, and I am the LSC chairperson. We have worked hard and fought numerous battles to make SLES the wonderful school that it is today. A lot of the fighting has been with these very neighbors who for some unknown reason do not seem to want the school to succeed. They have refused to send their children there and pitch in to work to help make the school a success. I believe this is mainly because they did not want their children attending a school with project children and now that their children are long past the age of attending an elementary school, they do not want the school to prosper.
This fighting to prevent the school from being fenced is just another way for them to say that the neighborhood belongs to them and that SLES and its many diverse students need to get out. I hope that CPS, the Chicago Park District and the mayor’s office will not let them hinder us any further and give us our fence so that our children can safely have the recess they not only deserve but so desperately need.
As for Ald. Madeline Haithcock (2nd) giving them her support, is it her contention that she should only serve these few dissenters or will she finally do the right thing and support the safety and well-being of the SLES student population and support the fence going up?
