Sit-In Continues At Pilsen School

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 20, 2010 3:25PM

The sit-in by parents at the Whittier Elementary School fieldhouse has entered its sixth day. At issue is what to do with the structure. Chicago Public Schools want to put in a soccer field while parents say they want a library to go on the site instead. Police tried to remove the demonstrators from the fieldhouse on Friday but gave up after scores more of parents - and students - joined the cause after school let out. Per the Tribune's account:

There was plenty of tension but no arrests at the sit-in on Friday. Police pushed the doors of the field house open Friday morning but did not try to enter the building.

"Why are you treating us like criminals?" resident Gema Gaeta said when school liaison Sgt. Ramone Ferrer pushed the door open. "Go fight the real criminals."

"I'm asking you guys to step out so we can talk," Ferrer said. "You cannot take control of the building."

The parents, who said they have been asking for a library for years, refused to move.

Gaeta later told CBS 2, "We've gone through too much to stop this fight now. We've been waiting for the past 20 years for CPS and Ald. (Danny) Solis (25th) to provide adequate funds that exist through our tax; through the Pilsen tax increment fund." CPS insists the building is structurally unsound and needs to be torn down but the protesters insist it can be salvaged and converted to a library at a fraction of the cost (less than $25,000) of the proposed demolition (more than $300,000).