Community groups offer ‘safe havens’ for kids during Chicago teachers strike

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“While I enjoy my job and can’t complain too much about my position, going to actual buildings and seeing kids passing out from the heat, I see what other teachers and other therapists have to put up with,” said Vija Reed, a speech therapist with the Chicago Public Schools who was picketing downtown. “Being overworked and having 16 schools assigned to them is not an effective and efficient use of our resources.”

Also at odds is the expressed use of standardized test scored being used as a method of grading teacher performance. This practice was recently introduced by the Obama administration, through the Race to the Top competition, along with waivers from the President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind. In the proposed contract, standardized test scores would account for 25 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.

According to Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teacher’s Union president, the district could lose nearly 6,000 teachers due to the test score mandate. She feels this is unfair due to the fact that extenuating circumstances such as poverty, living situations, and crime are all factors in lower test scores for CPS students – 87 percent of which are either black or Latino.

Groups such as Teamwork Englewood are working to help stem the tide of losing students to outside influences and one of their ways is through their African-American Male Initiative. This group reaches out to young men age 10 to 18 and acts as an after school safe haven.

“It’s easy to get into trouble and hard to get out of it out here,” said Lazarus Fleming, 17, a member of the African-American Male Initiative Program. “I’m just trying to make a name for myself in the right way instead of negatively.”

Fleming, who will be entering his junior year at Al Raby High School on Chicago’s west side, is one of 80 young men who are a part of the program that is meant to help steer young black men in the right direction. The program is one of many that Teamwork Englewood has, along with the Golden Nugget Leadership program for girls.

“I don’t think (violent crime) in Englewood is as bad as it has been portrayed,” said Michael Tidmore, the head of the African-American Male Initiative. “A lot of times Englewood is the first to be labeled a bad community, but in a lot of instances, it’s no different. It’s not like a danger going to schools.”

Tidmore noted that CPS normally has security personnel along the main routes to local schools, and nearby churches also act as safe havens for kids to go after school. He also makes himself available to the boys if they are in need of anything.

“I try to be there to lend a [sic] ear and try to give them the support that they need,” Tidmore said. “If it’s something in terms of gangs or pressure or even if there’s some personal stuff at home with their parents, they know I’m always available. They have my phone number and they can call me 24-7. This is more than just a 9-to-5.”

The group is one of many around the city that will have to help keep kids out of trouble and on the right path as long as this teacher strike goes on and, in a lot of cases, even after school goes back in session. In Englewood, it’s seen as another chance for a group of young men to better themselves and stay out of trouble.

“I’ve been in this program a long time and they’ve watched me grow since I was a shorty,” Fleming said, noting that he wants to eventually become an attorney. “You can live in the hood, but don’t let the hood be in you. You can get away and escape from the negativity in Englewood by coming or by going to school.

Follow Jay Scott Smith on Twitter @JayScottSmith