Oak Lawn Students in the Slammer

By Timmy Watson in News on Mar 24, 2007 8:41PM

Middle school was quite the awkward time for us, our memory of that time is a little hazy due to the mass amount of time we spent thinking about girls. We also had quite a crush on our Math teacher. We have gone to bat for her like these kids at Simmons Middle School in Oak Lawn did for their teachers. The only difference is, they were truly standing up for something.

On Friday the entire 8th grade class, 250 of them, staged a protest to the firing of teachers. After they finished lunch, which as we remember started at about 10 a.m., the students sat in the hallway of the 2nd floor. When the students wouldn't move the police were called and six students who wouldn't move were arrested.

The teachers were fired due to budget issue, the superintendent indicated the district is proposing a tax increase and may be able to reinstate some of the teachers if it is passed.

ABC 7 Chicago said that many of the students are currently taking a class on civil disobedience. Superintendent Jandes had this to say, "They learned a number of lessons from this. Number one, that in a public middle school, protesting is probably not going to go very far without authorities coming in and putting a stop to it." He then yelled "skin-ner!" We say bravo to the kids.