Middle Schoolers Call Out Hypocrisy In Laquan McDonald Case With Political Cartoons

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 8, 2015 10:00PM

The city has had a lot of explaining to do around the tragic shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer, since a disturbing police video of his death was released to the public two weeks ago.

A group of Chicago eighth graders recently drew some political cartoons to show exactly what they think of the shooting, and the web of political agendas, subterfuge and stories that simply don't add up that surround the case.

Chicago teacher Gregory Michie shared a series of drawings via Twitter that he said come from his public school classroom, where he taught students about how political cartoons can be used to comment on the disturbing case. He also shared on Twitter a resource guide for teachers on how to talk about McDonald's shooting death with students. Police shooting deaths are a challenging subject for many classrooms, especially when students have experienced racial profiling or had other difficult experiences with the police.

Some of the students' drawings depict a satire of a silver-haired Mayor Rahm Emanuel blatantly describing a twisted political agenda, like a crook in a bad soap opera. Others are more somber, depicting McDonald's death and the autopsy report that showed how he was shot 16 times.