The Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday joined the chorus of parents, leaders and activists calling on Chicago officials to help stop the violence at a high school on the city’s South Side after an honor student was beaten to death in a fight caught on camera.
The Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday joined the chorus of parents, leaders and activists calling on Chicago officials to help stop the violence at a high school on the city’s South Side after an honor student was beaten to death in a fight caught on camera. Sharpton stood alongside parents at Altgeld Gardens public housing whose children are staging a two-day boycott of Christian Fenger Academy High School because they say it isn’t safe. Tensions between students from Altgeld and those from the neighborhood around Fenger are blamed for the after-school fight that killed 16-year-old Derrion Albert on Sept. 24. Fighting has intensified since Albert was beaten to death about six blocks from Fenger as he walked to a bus stop, parents said. A cell phone video shows Albert curled up on the sidewalk as fellow teens kick him and hit him with splintered railroad ties. Three teens have been charged with first-degree murder. "This is going on even beyond his death, and we should not let the burial take the focus away from the problem," Sharpton said. "We’re dealing with a war zone mentality, and we’re having these children transported into a war zone." The boycott comes after five Fenger students were arrested last week during fighting in the school’s lunchroom. Four students were charged with reckless conduct and one with aggravated assault. Altgeld parents want Chicago Public Schools to reopen their neighborhood high school, which was converted into a selective enrollment military academy several years ago. Starting next semester, an unspecified number of slots at George Washington Carver Military Academy will be open to Fenger students who want to transfer, but they’ll still have to meet Carver’s strict entrance criteria, according to CPS officials. Altgeld parents suggest instead that half of Carver remain a military academy, and the other half revert to an open enrollment school. Students can walk to Carver but must take two city buses over five miles to attend Fenger, where parents say students from that neighborhood resent their presence. "Our kids shouldn’t be forced out of their own community to go to school," Cassandra White-Robinson said. "Our kids are not safe at Fenger High School. The system is failing them." A message left for a CPS spokeswoman was not immediately returned Monday. Parents also want CPS to ensure students from Altgeld have a safe passage to Fenger. Earlier this month, the Rev. Jesse Jackson escorted a group of Altgeld students to school to ensure their safe arrival and highlight how long it takes them to commute. Albert’s death and the disturbing footage of the beating quickly attracted the attention of President Barack Obama, who sent Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to the city to meet with Fenger students, parents and administrators. Duncan, the former chief of Chicago Public Schools, said Fenger would receive an emergency grant of about $500,000 for counselors or other programs. Altgeld parents said they don’t know how many students stayed out of school Monday, but they expect more will stay home on Tuesday. Roosevelt Hawkins hasn’t sent his son to Fenger since Albert’s death and is looking for other options. "(Education) is very important, but my child’s life is more important," he said. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.