We are working on this story to get the background of what happened. Here is what we have so far.
The Chicago Public Schools converted a closed African American school into a shelter for migrants, the former Wadsworth Elementary School, later University of Chicago Charter School, at 6420 S. University Ave.
In March of 2022 blacklisted teachers held a press conference at the closed school and talked about the harm caused to African American children when schools are closed and black teachers are fired.
“Our black students have no role models and the place they trusted threw them out. They don’t feel valued, like they are disposable.”
Woodlawn residents are frustrated with a perceived lack of transparency. But the city is telling residents the situation is fluid, and the decision to move into Wadsworth is in anticipation of more migrants coming.
“We don’t necessarily want to sit and wait and see what happens,” Nubia Willman of the Mayor’s office said at the Wednesday night meeting. “We want to be proactive.”
The Mayor’s office told CBS News on Oct. 25, “There are no plans to use the vacant Wadsworth Elementary School as a temporary shelter for newly-arrived asylum seekers at this time.”
“The city’s hiding everything instead of coming out forward to us,” said Woodlawn resident Luis Cardona.
All the beds for asylum seekers are also filled at a hotel on the Near North Side, and 260 spots are taken at a closed school in the South Loop – even though there is room for only 220.
The Mayor’s office said the capacity issue at these temporary shelters is what drove the decision to open up a facility at the former Wadsworth Elementary School, later the University of Chicago Charter School, at 6420 S. University Ave.
The school was shut down starting with a hired criminal and absconder, CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, and put in place by ultra-authoritarian orthodox politician Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
BOARDWATCH: Rahm’s going to replace Jean-Claude Brizard with Barbara Byrd Bennett… One FNG outsider is as good as another, as long as she’s been vetted by the Broad Foundation and checks off that ‘diversity’ box in the billionaire’s check list by George N. Schmdt – September 08, 2012 http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3573
Brizzard traveled around the country like a carnival barker siphoning money from public assets and converting government-owned services into private crony companies. Such as AUSL management company with politically connected Board members profiting from these privatization schemes.
Part of the same organized club of Broadie’s that included convicted CPS CEO Felon Barbara Byrd Bennett, who tried to steal 20 million dollars for herself through fake education companies.
Original Title:1344-schoolclosureguide
Uploaded by John Kugler Date uploaded on Feb 26, 2013
Description: The Broad Academy is a billionaire-funded venture that closely resembles Teach for America, but it trains aspiring school district superintendents instead of teachers. “Broadies” often come
Brizard has said these CPS projects are critically necessary to improve struggling school districts and the lives of the children they serve.
Many migrants are from Venezuela and other south and central American countries seeking asylum, from what we don’t know yet.
It is questionable why these migrants are allowed into our country since the places they are coming from are democracies.
The University of Chicago is footsteps away from this newest polarization tactic by Neo-liberal politicians in Chicago, Cook County, and Springfield.
The University of Chicago is just footsteps from where this school is located, where the birth of modern-day colonization under the Chicago Boys came to be.
The Chicago Boys were a group of Chilean economists prominent around the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of whom were educated at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, or at its affiliate in the economics department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. After they finished their studies and returned to Latin America, they adopted positions in numerous South American governments including, prominently, the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990), as economic advisors. Many of them reached the highest positions within those governments.
While The Heritage Foundation credits them with transforming Chile into Latin America’s best performing economy and one of the world’s most business-friendly jurisdictions, critics point to drastic increases in unemployment that can be attributed to counter-inflation policies implemented on their advice. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were influenced by Chile’s policies and economic reforms.
As the key economic advisors of the Pinochet dictatorship, the Chicago Boys were the forerunners of the economic policies of that government. They sponsored state run policies to decrease national spending, end inflation and promote economic growth. They promoted a policy of strict austerity and cut government expenditures substantially. Free trade agreements and the breakdown of barriers to trade were also promoted to help Chile compete in the world market.
They also privatized public companies, and utilized the free market rather than government rule to promote their economic policies.[9] This was part of the neoliberal economic views espoused by Milton Friedman, the ideological backer for their views. Friedman and his connections to the Chicago Boys was highly politicized especially after he received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976. The policies are also sometimes referred to as shock therapy based on the fact that they were projected to hurt the economy but overall be beneficial in the long run.
These policies influenced future governments and organizations tied to the neoliberal economic viewpoint such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other International Organizations and governments. However, the relations between these organizations were not always close, and rivalry between neoliberal organizations still existed.
The ideology of free market capitalism and laissez faire economics in conjunction with a strong military rule and total political control is the cornerstone of Pinochetism, in conjunction with a strong anti-communist political platform. These policies and their effects are both highly controversial in Chile and around the World, and represent a major divide in Chilean politics to this day.
(picture) News conference regarding the illegal do not hire list by the Chicago Public Schools that’s keeping black educators out of the system and helping their own communities thrive and strive. Sister Rosita Chatonda organized this event to bring attention to the lawsuit that black educators are being excluded from the public school system as part of the gentrification of the city of Chicago. (screen-grab news conference 3:00pm 03/31/22)
Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked schools ‘Chief Executive Officer’, Barbara Byrd Bennett, has a second job working for Eli Broad against unions and public schools … and the photographs of her works in Detroit show Chicago’s future, despite the rhetoric and lies during the current ‘underutilization’ fight
John Kugler – February 23, 2013
CORRUPTION CPS: Did Vitale and Ruiz extend Byrd Bennett’s current contract just before the feds raided her homes?… Can CPS fire Barbara Byrd Bennett? Check out her complete contract… Approved by the Board of Education, but a well-kept secret…. John Kugler – April 26, 2015
Chicago Teachers Union group under fire for crowdfunding trip to socialist Venezuela
By Kenneth Garger August 20, 2019 12:53am
CAUSE by John Kugler March 31, 2022
News conference regarding the illegal do not hire list by the Chicago Public Schools that’s keeping black educators out of the system and helping their own communities thrive and strive. Sister Rosita Chatonda organized this event to bring attention to the lawsuit that black educators are being excluded from the public school system as part of the gentrification of the city of Chicago.https://www.facebook.com/groups/253233944795560/permalink/4947825782002996
Migrant Death Ruled an Overdose 
Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres, 23, Venezuelan living at the Woodlawn Shelter died of comnination of Fentanyl and Cocaine … 06/02/2023 06:48:00 AM … ME2023-03318 Report … autopsy results were just made public ….
Combined Drug (Fentanyl, 4-ANPP (Despropionyl Fentanyl) and recent Cocaine) Toxicity …
Migrant Shelter is located at the old Wadsworth Elementary School building, 6420 S. University Ave on the southside of Chicago.
“foaming at the mouth and unresponsive” migrant dies inside the old Wadsworth Elementary School building on Friday pronounced dead at the scene after Police arrived … Mayor Johnson and city officials disregarded warnings from black community
Immigrant dies at shelter at shuttered Woodlawn school that stirred controversy
Though the police haven’t said any crime was involved in the death, Ald. Jeanette Taylor said the first known death of an immigrant at a city of Chicago-operated shelter will heighten community concerns.
By Fran Spielman, Tom Schuba and Michael Loria
Jun 2, 2023, 2:28pm CDT Sun-Times
An immigrant died Friday morning at a shuttered elementary school in Woodlawn that’s being used as a temporary shelter, marking the first publicly known death at a city-owned facility since large numbers of immigrants began arriving in Chicago last year.
Officers responded about 6:15 a.m. to a call of a 26-year-old man who was “foaming at the mouth and unresponsive” at the old Wadsworth Elementary School building, 6420 S. University Ave., according to an alert from the Chicago Police Department obtained by the Sun-Times.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A police spokesperson didn’t provide any additional information but said detectives were conducting a death investigation, indicating the fatality isn’t thought to be criminal in nature.
Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office, said an autopsy hasn’t been conducted yet. The man hasn’t been publicly identified because his family hasn’t been notified of his death, she said.
Andris and Jose Duarte didn’t know the man who died, but Jose Duarte, 23, said his passing shook him deeply. “It’s weird because we don’t know what happened,” he said.
The couple from Venezuela arrived in Chicago a few weeks ago with their 5-year-old daughter, Leoskylls. The mother and daughter have been staying at a temporary shelter in Piotrowski Park in Little Village, while Jose Duarte has been sleeping at the Wadsworth respite center.
He said he heard about the death from others staying there who said the man was found dead by his roommates when they got up to look for work.
“They tried shaking him several times, but he wasn’t getting up,” Duarte was told. “We didn’t even know him, but he’s a human being.”
Johan Ferrer, an immigrant from Venezuela, knew the man who died only in passing. Still, he said he was disturbed by the discovery, given how far they’d both traveled.
“One comes a long way. One comes for a dream,” said Ferrer, 36. “Passing through the jungle and everything, it’s not easy.”
The death comes as the city grapples with a growing immigrant crisis that has led to racially charged public debates over funding to support the influx of arrivals and where to house them.
Since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending immigrants to Chicago by bus and plane last August, more than 8,000 have arrived, mostly from Central and South America.
The proposal to turn Wadsworth Elementary into a respite center stirred controversy among Woodlawn residents, leading to allegations of racism against some Black residents who opposed the plan.
Local Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) said the first known death of an immigrant will only exacerbate community concerns.
“I just want to make sure it wasn’t a fight, a shooting or anything like that,” Taylor said. “But it’s a death, so people are definitely going to be concerned. And because it was there, we got to make sure that he wasn’t sick, [and] it wasn’t disease.”
A cathartic and racially charged debate in the City Council Wednesday reduced Taylor to tears as she explained how torn she was about supporting the use of surplus funds to house, feed and care for migrants when the needs of Chicago’s Black residents continue to be ignored.
“Don’t let these tears fool you,” she said during the debate. “When I have these tears, it’s usually because I’m mad as hell and I want to fight.”
After airing her longstanding grievances, Taylor declared her intention to vote in favor of $51 million in funding, saying “it’s the right thing to help other people because, as Black people, that’s what we do.”
“But when the hell are you gonna help us?” she added.
Her colleagues gave her a standing ovation as voices from the gallery could be heard shouting “traitor” and “sellout.”
Taylor is a close ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson and the mayor’s choice to chair the City Council’s Education Committee. She said she plans to meet with him on Monday to “figure out next steps toward keeping the community and migrants safe.”
“We need to be transparent and talk about what’s the real plan to get people taken care of,” she said.
“A lot of that was never discussed with me, nor was it discussed with the community,” added Taylor, who claimed former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration had kept critical information from her.
She raised questions about how the shelter at Wadsworth is being run, and that 500 men were being housed there with just 80 women.
“That’s a recipe for disaster,” she said. “I’m concerned about that. Now with this death [and] not really knowing what happened, I’m concerned about the health issues that might be in there.”
She said she plans to urge Johnson to thoroughly examine “the spaces, how we take care of them and then what actually happens there.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/…/immigrant-dies-woodlawn…
picture credit Neighbors held a memorial service June 10, 2023 at Concord Missionary Baptist Church for Venezuelan migrant Luis Alberto Aguilar Peres. Credit: Jacqueline Cardenas/Block Club Chicago
https://blockclubchicago.org/…/south-siders-preach…
#Chicago#ChicagoScanner#migrants#Overdose#Speedball
sources for report
City of Chicago and School District Caught Lying to Woodlawn residents Dec 31 2022, at 5:24 PM Video Report CBS2 News
Woodlawn residents frustrated over lack of transparency about planned migrant shelter at old school chicago
BY LAUREN VICTORY DECEMBER 29, 2022 / 7:35 PM / CBS CHICAGO
https://www.cbsnews.com/…/woodlawn-residents…
Chicago Boys
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Boys
Fired Black educators file lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools over wrongful termination organized by CAUSE
Rosita Chatonda – CAUSE – April 01, 2022
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=7745
Turnaround Schools
Jennifer Wholey | December 1, 2011 9:00 am
https://news.wttw.com/2011/12/01/turnaround-schools
Fired Black educators file lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools over wrongful termination organized by Rosita Chatonda March 31, 2022 Video Report Fox32 News https://fb.watch/hP7m84f9IU/
Modern-Day Colonization: Chicago Public Schools Caught Lying Replacing Blacks students with Migrants in a Closed School
John Kugler – January 02, 2023 http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=7943
Chicago Teachers Union adds to lawsuit against AUSL, elaborating charges of racism against the ‘national model’ for Obama administration ‘turnarounds’… Action comes after most AUSL people have been eliminated from CPS power…
George N. Schmidt – September 18, 2015
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5867
Chicago Teachers Union group under fire for crowdfunding trip to socialist Venezuela By Kenneth Garger
August 20, 2019 12:53am
https://nypost.com/…/chicago-teachers-union-group…
CTU Resolution to Oppose the Invasion of Venezuela
By House of Delegate | March 12, 2019 | News, Resolutions
https://www.ctulocal1.org/…/resolution-oppose-invasion…
Viva Maduro! The Chicago Teachers Union’s Solidarity Trip To Venezuela By: Mark Glennon* July 28, 2019 https://wirepoints.org/viva-maduro-the-chicago-teachers…/
Cawley and Vitale should be called the ‘Turnaround Twins’… Their roots are both in AUSL, Chicago’s masters of education ‘turnaround’… Do the Tribune’s editors want their ‘turnaround’ sweet hearts to take over the CPS ‘turnaround’ now on the ruling class’s agenda… by George N. Schmidt – June 08, 2015
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5690
The latest multi-million dollar lie from David Vitale! Near North High School building was never ‘sold’ by the Chicago Board of Education!… Vitale’s latest Big Lie will cost taxpayers $50 to $100 million in 2014 – 2015. But the lies of this Board began as soon as Rahm appointed them… by George N. Schmidt – June 01, 2014
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5015
AUSL? Conflicts of Interest Abound in Board Decision to Turn Around Dvorak, Gresham and McNair… Conflicts of interest charged after Board of Education votes again to turn schools over to AUSL by Valerie Leonard – April 28, 2014 https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4952
Federal prosecutors seek seven years in prison for Rahm’s corrupt former schools ‘Chief Executive Officer’ Barbara Byrd Bennett… while Tribune still supports Rahm’s power over the public schools against an elected school board!… by George N. Schmidt – April 08, 2017 http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=6732
CORRUPTION CPS: Did Vitale and Ruiz extend Byrd Bennett’s current contract just before the feds raided her homes?… Can CPS fire Barbara Byrd Bennett? Check out her complete contract… Approved by the Board of Education, but a well-kept secret….
by John Kugler – April 26, 2015 http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=5614
HISTORY LESSON: Cleveland investigation and then a Substance report showed Barbara Byrd Bennett’s history of corruption had been exposed in Cleveland long before the ‘scandal’ of the $20 million no-bid SUPES deal became Chicago ‘news’…
by John Kugler – May 01, 2017 http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=6753
Chicago teachers need to know Broad Foundation mercenaries — who they are, how they are trained, and why their mistreatment of parents and teachers are part of their mission, — and not an accident by John Kugler – April 15, 2012
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3199
Eli Broad: The billionaire behind the charter school attack on unions and America’s democratic public schools by George N. Schmidt – August 31, 2009 https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=862
DISSENT magazine exposes role of Broad, Gates and Walton foundations in attack on public education… How billionaires rule our schools by Joanne Barkan – February 06, 2011
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1991
Byrd Bennett’s ‘underutilization crisis’ was written into a script published by the Broad Foundation three years ago (and removed from the Broad website last week)…Who is Eli Broad and why does he want to destroy public education and turn teacher unions into company unions? by Ken Derstine – February 23, 2013
https://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4016
Emanuel’s handpicked schools ‘Chief Executive Officer’, Barbara Byrd Bennett, has a second job working for Eli Broad against unions and public schools … and the photographs of her works in Detroit show Chicago’s future, despite the rhetoric and lies during the current ‘underutilization’ fight by John Kugler – February 23, 2013
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4017
With Ohio residency and voter registration… Barbara Byrd Bennett lectures Chicago on how to close Chicago schools — and what’s ‘best’ for African American kids in Chicago — while officially living and maintaining voter registration in Ohio in violation of Chicago residency and ethic rules by John Kugler – April 03, 2013
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4139
Original Title:1344-schoolclosureguide
Uploaded by John Kugler Date uploaded on Feb 26, 2013
Description: The Broad Academy is a billionaire-funded venture that closely resembles Teach for America, but it trains aspiring school district superintendents instead of teachers. “Broadies” often come
