A day after Chicago Public Schools parents bemoaned the lack of information about the city’s “Safe Passage” program, the mayor’s office on Friday released the routes thousands of students will take when school starts in a couple weeks.
According to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office, the routes were chosen through months of input from community members, teachers, principals, students, parents and police.
The map is pretty extensive with more than 60 Safe Passage routes highlighted across the city. CPS parents should receive this information in the mail soon, the city said.
“Very shortly — Monday, as a matter of fact, — Chicago Public Schools will be mailing out to our welcoming school parents a back-to-school mailer that will include the Safe Passage maps,” CPS Chief Safety and Security Officer Jadine Chou explained.
Parents like Jeanette Taylor, who has two children in CPS, remain skeptical about the program, which aims to keep a watchful eye on students as they pass to and from school.
“It’s not finished,” Taylor said. “[Officials] haven’t sat down with the parents and the people in the community to really talk out a really safe plan for these kids that are going to be walking through gangs, drugs, killings [and] prostitutions.”
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