A group of 15 people remained inside Brian Piccolo Specialty School in Humboldt Park, according to police, a Chicago Board of Education spokeswoman said this morning.
The protesters were among an estimated 60 and 100 people who staged a sit-in overnight at the school, with most outside, according to police. This morning, 15 people, one of them believed to be a parent, remained inside the school, after one person left, said Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler.
Piccolo, 1040 N. Keeler Ave., is one of 16 schools that CPS wants to “turnaround” because of poor academic performance. About a dozen people, including some camped around the school, remained outside Piccolo this morning.
Protesters said they intended to stay inside Piccolo until they are granted a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. As of late this morning, police were not allowing anyone in or out of the school and also were not allowing any food to be brought into the school.
The demonstration started about 5 p.m. Friday No one had been arrested by about 10 a.m.
The protesters include Occupy Chicago members, who are using the group’s Twitter account to broadcast news and post links to videos from inside the school.
“Piccolo has failed because CPS has refused to invest in public education,” protesters said in a statement early today. “The school has struggled for years but you have taken out all the programs, classes and opportunities to learn.”
Schools officials point to the low performance of the school, which has been on probation for five consecutive years, as the reason the school needs to go through a restructuring.
The school has “failed its students year after,” Ziegler said.
However, “We respect the concern that parents have for their children’s education,” Ziegler said.
Ziegler said that no decision has been made about whether to ask that those involved in the sit-in be arrested.
CPS security officials and Chicago Police were at the school, “handling this situation in a professional and safe manner,” Ziegler said.
The Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 also used its Twitter account to voice its support but a spokeswoman for the organization didn’t respond to an email seeking information.
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