Chicago Public Schools (CPS) principal Troy LaRaviere faced the media Thursday morning to speak out against the "politically motivated charges" leveled against him by the district.
Last month, CPS removed LaRaviere -- an outspoken critic of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS -- from Blaine Elementary School in Lakeview and reassigned him to his home with pay until the disciplinary process is complete.
CPS has 12 total dismissal charges pending against LaRaviere involving insubordination, dereliction of duty and ethics violations.
LaRaviere's removal comes as he runs for president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, the election for which is currently underway and ballots will be counted next week.
"When I was a lone voice, the administration tolerated me," LaRaviere said this morning at the Wishbone Restaurant on Lincoln Avenue. "But when faced with the prospect of an organized group of education leaders speaking as one on behalf of students, they've moved with haste and reckless abandon to prevent that from happening."
Parents and education activists protested Wednesday morning outside Illinois Senate President John Cullerton's office, urging him to advance pending legislation for an elected Chicago school board.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is coming under fire from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders after an outspoken Chicago Public Schools principal was "reassigned" by the district Wednesday.
Roughly 20 CPS teachers and parents rallied this afternoon on the West Side outside the now-shuttered Robert Emmet Elementary School. Emmet, located in the Austin neighborhood near the corner of Central Avenue and Madison Street, was closed in 2013 as part of the massive round of 50 school closings.
CPS teacher Tammie Vinson, who worked at Emmet before it closed, is now a special education instructor at nearby Oscar DePriest Elementary School, also in Austin.
Vinson said teachers are hitting the picket lines to call for fair-share revenue solutions to pay for increased education and social service funding.
"The message, really, is tax the rich," she said. "Bring in what we need so that we can fully fund our schools, we can fully fund our communities. We're here now to show the disinvestment on the West Side ... Even when you get to the commercial areas of the West Side, that money doesn't stay in our community. The money that comes here goes right out ... We don't have a firm tax base, so the services that we need are not here."
Forty-four percent of private sector workers in Illinois, or more than 2.1 million individuals, cannot earn paid sick days, shows a recent report by the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Southeast Side Chicagoans and environmentalists claim the city has not met its March 31 target to set limits on the allowable amount of petcoke stored in Chicago.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) principal Troy LaRaviere faced the media Thursday morning to speak out against the "politically motivated charges" leveled against him by the district.
Roughly 20 CPS teachers and parents rallied this afternoon on the West Side outside the now-shuttered Robert Emmet Elementary School. Emmet, located in the Austin neighborhood near the corner of Central Avenue and Madison Street, was closed in 2013 as part of the massive round of 50 school closings.