Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she was pleased that elected Local School Councils will continue to have the power to decide if they want police officers in their buildings.
That was the outcome of Wednesday’s vote by the Board of Education, which narrowly defeated a measure to end its $33 million with the Chicago Police Department to provide school-based officers.
The board, whose members were appointed by the mayor after she took office last year, fended off weeks of calls from protesters to end the practice of putting officers in schools, as other cities have done since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
City and school district leaders in Chicago have said they will continue to allow the Local School Councils to decide the matter for their campuses, as was the case for the school year that just ended.
The mayor said Thursday it’s not for her or Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson to dictate to schools what they need; that has to be based on unique local circumstances. CPS’s Office of Safety and Security will provide the Local School Councils with information to make informed decisions, officials said.
“Really, the vote yesterday was about allowing that process to continue,” the mayor said.
On defunding police, a common rallying cry at protests in recent weeks, Lightfoot said: “What I hear from folks beyond the hashtag and the slogan is that they want more resources in their communities.”
She said she’s talked to people who say they support defunding, and she has asked if they really want all the police out of their neighborhood or ward.
“I have yet to hear one person that says, ‘Yes, that’s it,'” Lightfoot said. “I know they exist, because there are some people who truly believe reform is not possible and we are wasting our time. I don’t share that belief. But most people I’ve engaged in conversation with around this question are really saying, ‘Don’t starve us for resources,’ and I agree with that.”
Lightfoot spoke during a news conference at Evergreen Academy Middle School on Thursday, where she announced a $50 million initiative to provide free internet access to 100,000 schoolchildren and their families.
![A Carpentersville man remains in Lake County Jail as Thursday, held on sexual assault charges after he reportedly groped a co-worker. According to a Lake Zurich Police Department news release, officers responded April 19 to the 600 block of America Court on a call of a sexual assault. Officers said a man at the assisted living complex, who was identified as Everado Cardenas, of the 100 block of Bolz Road in Carpentersville, was accused of “[grabbing] the breast and genitals of another employee of the business without her consent,” according to the release. Cardenas, 53, was arrested at the scene. […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2018/08/23/7XZEANKDMZBJLMO6IIT6OFUP6M.jpg?w=535 "A Carpentersville man remains in Lake County Jail as Thursday, held on sexual assault charges after he reportedly groped a co-worker. According to a Lake Zurich Police Department news release, officers responded April 19 to the 600 block of America Court on a call of a sexual assault. Officers said a man at the assisted living complex, who was identified as Everado Cardenas, of the 100 block of Bolz Road in Carpentersville, was accused of “[grabbing] the breast and genitals of another employee of the business without her consent,” according to the release. Cardenas, 53, was arrested at the scene. […]")
![A jury acquitted a Gary man on all counts Wednesday in a child molesting trial. Olalekan McNeary, 51, was charged in August 2021 with seven felonies, including two counts of child molesting, and two counts of rape. The victim, now a young adult, testified Tuesday that McNeary molested them at age 4, then later sexually assaulted them as a preteen and for the final time on March 27, 2021. The victim said they were only able to say what happened in May 2021 after eating two marijuana edibles. A Gary police report was made on June 4, 2021. DNA evidence […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Post-Tribune.jpg?w=620 "A jury acquitted a Gary man on all counts Wednesday in a child molesting trial. Olalekan McNeary, 51, was charged in August 2021 with seven felonies, including two counts of child molesting, and two counts of rape. The victim, now a young adult, testified Tuesday that McNeary molested them at age 4, then later sexually assaulted them as a preteen and for the final time on March 27, 2021. The victim said they were only able to say what happened in May 2021 after eating two marijuana edibles. A Gary police report was made on June 4, 2021. DNA evidence […]")