New & Important Advances for Senn H.S.

There have recently been some important advances on the path to keeping Senn High School open as one general community high school that has excellent programs for all of its students, and that has need to regain use of the entire building.

1. CEO of schools Arne Duncan has announced publicly, at the Board of Education meeting on October 22, that Senn High School will remain open in the fall of September 2009. This announcement enables Senn High School to continue development of new and expanded quality programs, and to recruit new students to the school.

2. The increased popularity of Senn High School and its programs has been shown by the 200 students who came to the school over and above the projected enrollment by the Board of Education. Programs within the school such as AVID and the International Baccalaureate Program are expanding, with highly motivated students.

3. The overcrowding of the existing space that has been allowed for Senn High School by the increase in enrollment is an important argument for the Naval Academy to leave the building. As our readers may know, the Naval Academy was inserted into the Senn building over the objection of students, parents, faculty, and community. One of the objections was that Senn High School needed its existing space, and was already putting it to good use.

4. The Senn Strategic Planning Committee has been meeting regularly with a motivated group of community people, teachers, and students. It has been making specific plans for improvements at the school after input by over 2,000 people.

One example of the great plans for the future of Senn High School is the development of a Green program at the school that will focus on environmental sustainability and justice. This program will deal with issues such as global warming, and prepare students to take up the “green” jobs that are coming into the economy and local tasks needed as realization of the importance of Green issues takes hold.

This initiative builds on the strengths of Senn High School’s diverse population (from at least 60 countries) by planning from an international perspective arts and design, including technology, on the issue of sustainability– preserving or reusing the earth’s resources. The focus highlights how environmental concerns are of global importance, and that solutions to the planet’s problems will be achieved through international innovation and cooperation.

The Senn Strategic Plan Committee has been contacting environmental leaders from around the city, including CPS, to let them hear about Senn’s past environmental work, the Strategic Plan, and the vision of a Green theme in connection with the arts, sciences, technology, and other subjects at the school. The people contacted are excited about participating in the planning along these lines for Senn High School, and up to 30 will gather at a special kick off event later in November. (Excerpts from the invitation are printed on page 2.) One goal is to launch a Green Advisory Committee for the school so that financial, technical and other resources are identified to support this initiative.

In a related note, Dr. Connie Doyle, a science teacher at Senn, has started a Green Club with students.

Let us continue in our struggles to Save Senn.

Excerpts from the invitation to kick off the Green Senn initiative

The end of November State Senator Heather Steans is hosting an event to kick off the Green Senn initiative. We will be imaging Senn High School’s green future with artists, Senn students, administrators, and teachers, community members, business owners, foundations, and local elected officials.

This event will support a new curricular initiative at Nicholas Senn High School, a Chicago Public School in Edgewater—Green Global Arts and Design. The “green” theme will begin with small steps but eventually will be woven throughout all Senn’s subject areas and programs, through three strands:

• Arts and Design Education for Sustainability • Green Jobs and Technologies • Global Environmental Awareness

In keeping with Senn’s vision of its students as the intellectual and creative leaders of the 21st century, this initiative builds on the strengths of its diverse, student population (from at least 60 countries) by engaging sustainability arts and design, including technology, from an international perspective. The focus highlights how environmental concerns are of global importance, and that solutions to the planet’s problems will be achieved through international innovation and cooperation.

Important Speaker Against the U.S. War in Iraq After School Today

Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi architect and citizen who writes about the war and the politics surrounding it, will be speaking to students at Senn today Friday, November 14th, after the school day in room 105. Raed Jarrar is Iraq Consultant to the American Friends Service Committee and blogger at www.raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com. He has a law suit pending from the time in August 12, 2006 at John F. Kennedy International Airport when he was refused boarding on a JetBlue flight while wearing a T-shirt with the text “We will not be silent” in English and Arabic. Jarrar founded Emaar, an NGO that carried out humanitarian work in southern Iraq.

OPT OUT– STOP MILITARY RECRUITERS FROM CONTACTING YOU AT HOME–OPT OUT

Send a letter like the following opt-out form (or this form) to Office of High School Programs, Chicago Public Schools, 125 S. Clark St., 9th floor, Chicago, IL 60603— I request that the name, address, and telephone number of the following student not be given to the military for recruitment purposes.
Student’s name______________________________ Student ID number____________________
Parent/guardian OR student signature__________________________

Presentation for the Board of Ed, Oct 22

My name is Neal Resnikoff. I’m representing the Save Senn Coalition.

We are very concerned that your recent failures to take two actions are hurting the quality of education at Senn High School, and other schools as well.

First, Senn High School is a quality general community high school, open to all. Through long range planning, strong programs such as IB and AVID along with new AP classes continue to expand, while new initiatives such as the development of a Green Curriculum are in the works with tremendous community support. In order to continue this positive growth, Senn needs to spread the word through the recruitment of new students from the feeder schools and other schools. But you will not confirm that Senn High School will be open as a general, open enrollment high school in September ‘09. Why are you creating insecurity and instability in this way, as you are doing with other schools as well? Senn needs the support of CPS and the Board of Education, not the lack of commitment and obstacles You installed a military academy over the objections of students, teachers, parents and the community. Then you allowed two years of work by the Senn Strategic Plan Committee to be threatened because the Alderman decided to secretly drop out of the Committee and devise her own plan to present to you behind closed doors, a plan to break up Senn High School. Despite all these unjust obstacles , the students, staff, and community have done well to sustain, improve, and push ahead with the Senn Strategic Plan. Why are you creating unnecessary stress by not confirming the school continuance for the ’09 school year so proper recruiting can take place?

Second, Senn High School is so well regarded these days, that more than 200 new students have enrolled beyond what the Board had predicted would be the case. Yet the Board has not seen fit to send additional teachers to promptly deal with this increased enrollment. The result has been overcrowded classes, and classes meeting in places that are not classrooms. How can this be good for education at Senn High School? Won’t the school still be held accountable even if the students fall behind as a result of this Board foolishness? We know the Board has a reserve fund. Why hasn’t it been tapped to bring on the needed teachers? Is the Board of Education interested in the quality of education of the students or not?

And, to add to the irony, the military academy that was forced into the Senn High School building is under quota and has a lot of empty classroom space, only 8 students to every classroom, while Senn is twice as crowded. Isn’t this inequality in favor of military recruiting? Isn’t this typical of the contrast between Mayor Daley’s Rennaissance 2010 schools and schools left to warehouse students?

What do you say Mr. Williams[President of the Board] and Mr. Duncan[ CEO of Chicago Public Schools]?

Mr. Williams and Mr. Duncan said they did the best they could to provide teachers for the extra enrollment. The lack of promptness was challenged as a problem that could have been solved, using reserve funds if necessary.

Mr. Duncan stated that the school would remain open in the fall of ’09, and said that what he said was enough, that it did not need to be put into writing. He said that the head of Elementary Areas and Schools would see to it that feeder schools were informed. Ms. Flavia Hernandez later confirmed that she would do this.

Welcome Back to School Issue Why Is the Save Senn Coalition Still Active, and Inviting You?
A number of issues have been facing Senn High School. While there are signs of progress on some of the problems, nothing has been fully settled. So, the struggle must continue, and we encourage you to be as active as possible. What are the issues?

1. Good News: Senn High School remains open! There has been a threat to the existence of Senn High School as a general community high school with its current diverse student body, a school open to all. A meeting was held on July 11 with Mr. David Pickens of the Board of Education, Alderman Mary Ann Smith, and representatives of the Senn Strategic Planning Committee. No definite statement was made about Senn being open one year from today, but a call is being made to the Board and Alderman to ensure such a commitment be made so that outreach and recruiting for the freshman class of 2010 can begin now.

2. There has been a continuing lack of democratic process around Senn High School by the mayor, alderman, and Board of Education. This was reflected on July 11 when concerned Senn students and others were not allowed into the meeting to voice their opinions when the Board of Education personnel met with Senn committee members about Senn’s future. The decision to put the military academy inside the Senn High School building was made by the military, Senator Durbin, Mayor Daley, Alderman Smith, and the Board of Education in an undemocratic way. The decision was made despite the widespread opposition of students, faculty, parents, and the wider community. The opposition to the naval academy or any school not part of Senn in the Senn building needs to be listened to now. This is supposed to be a democracy.

3. The Save Senn Coalition is concerned that the naval academy will continue to have a negative impact on an improving and already high quality Senn High School. Programs have been crowded, with favoritism shown toward the naval academy– with its smaller classes, more up-to-date equipment and ample facilities, and RNA cadets allowed to be in the halls of Senn while Senn students are not allowed in the RNA section of the school.

4. The Save Senn Coalition is also concerned that there is military training of youth and that the presence of the military academy is improper recruitment of high school youth for a military sent to fight in illegal and aggressive U.S. wars, such as in Iraq. This is another reason the Save Senn Coalition advocates having the Rickover Naval Academy removed from the Senn High School building.

5. With room to grow, and if the kind of money spent on RNA were instead devoted to the plan proposed by the Senn Strategic Planning Committee, Senn’s programs could quickly expand to include environmental initiatives, extensive fine arts specializations and a spectacular World Studies program. Instead, Senn is crowded into a small space by a separate entity which is given resources as Senn is deprived of them.

   You are invited to join with us in the campaign to further develop the quality of Senn High School as a general community high school, to remove the naval academy from the school building, and to oppose the militarization of youth. Please submit a short article for Anchors Away or be interviewed for an article. Let us Save Senn!

WORDS TO THE WISE

Government regulations state that JROTC “should create favorable attitudes and impressions toward the Services and toward careers in the Armed Forces” (Title 32, 542.5, 3c). What is the problem with a career in the armed forces? When you hear ideas favoring having you join the armed services, we think you should consider the words of these Iraq vets about problems with the military today:
– from Iraq Veterans Against the War (www.ivaw.org), an organization of vets which represents the thousands of men and women who have served or are still serving as part of the Iraq war, but have turned against it.
Ten Reasons for Opposing the War in Iraq 1. The Iraq war is based on lies and deception. 2. The Iraq war violates international law. 3. The war dehumanizes Iraqis and denies them their right to self-determination. 4. Overwhelmingly civilian casualties are a daily occurrence in Iraq. 5. Service members are facing serious health consequences due to our government’s negligence. 6. Service members are being forced to fight in an illegal war. 7. The War in Iraq is tearing our families apart. 8. The Iraq war is robbing us of funding sorely
needed here at home. 9. Corporate profiteering is driving the war. 10. Our military is being exhausted by repeated deployments, involuntary extensions, and activations of the Reserve and National Guard.

What IVAW Demands: • Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq. • Reparations, and other compensation, for the destruction and corporate pillaging of Iraq so that the Iraqi people can rebuild their lives and control their future. ● Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health care), and other supports for returning servicemen and women. If you signed up for the Delayed Enlistment Program into the military, you do not need to go–
If you signed up for the Delayed Enlistment Program (sometimes called the “Delayed Entry Program”), you can still legally get out of joining the active military. Under the DEP, you have up to a year before reporting to basic training. Signing the DEP does not legally obligate you to join the military, no matter what a military recruiter may tell you. You have the right not to go! One way to get out of the DEP is just not to report. Some people choose to write a letter stating their decision. In either case, the results are the same: you do not have to go to into the military on the ship date. There are no consequences and no records as a result of withdrawing from the DEP that currently have any effect on things like employment or your legal record. This is the case for non-citizens as well as citizens. You don’t have to write on

any employment application that you have withdrawn from the DEP, and there is no question on employment forms about that. Do not be intimidated by a military recruiter into going if you do not want to. Take note of this story from Democracy Now on August 6: “Army Recruiter Suspended for Threatening High School Student with Jail Time… The recruiter from the Greenspoint Recruiting Station in Houston was suspended after a recording of his threats…warning eighteen-year-old Irving Gonzalez that he would be sent to jail if he decided to go to college instead of joining the military, even though Gonzalez had signed a non-binding contract that left him free to change his mind before basic training.” (http://www. democracynow. org/ 2008/8/6/armyrecruitersuspendedforthreatening_high)
Sexual Assault of Women in the Military

 A 2004 study of veterans from Vietnam and all wars since found that 71% of the women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while serving (by psychotherapist Maureen Murdoch , published in   Military Medicine). 
 In 2003, a survey of female veterans from Vietnam through 

the first Gulf War found that 30% said they were raped in the military (by psychologist Anne Sadler and colleagues, published in American Journal of Industrial Medicine). (from Helen Benedict, “Why Soldiers Rape,” In These Times, August 13, 2008)

Prepared Statement of Craig B. Mousin Before Chicago Public Schools Board of Education August 27, 2008

Good morning.  My name is Craig Mousin.  I am a parent of CPS students and a volunteer in Chicago elementary and high schools.  I have previously stated my opposition to Rickover Naval Academy and the Chicago JROTC programs.  Although I oppose these programs for many substantive reasons, I return to ask you to stop your ongoing recruitment of students and your sponsorship of violence through your partnership with Chicago JROTC.  I have provided you with an op-ed article that I wrote for the April 17, 2008 News-Star which points out how your JROTC programs violate fundamental principles of public education.   This morning I focus on how JROTC, by its very nature, constitutes recruitment. 

Although you deny recruitment takes place, your own words, web sites, and activities betray you. One year ago, I asked you to remove the free downloads accessible through the Chicago CPS JROTC website for “America’s Army,” a first-person shooter video game that the Army uses to recruit young boys and girls in our schools.

Although I was pleased that CEO Duncan wrote a letter to the Army requesting removal of the game, I have not heard how the Army responded to his request. I note that my child—any Chicago child with computer access at home—can still play the game through links on the Chicago JROTC website or download it free for their home use. Just last night, I found the offer of free downloads of this game through live links from the Chicago JROTC website.

I can only conclude that this first-person shooter game’s continued access through the CPS website provides the Army’s answer. In addition, a guardian of a CPS high school student also complained that her student received an actual copy of the game provided by recruiters at Amundsen High School during the last school year.

The Army’s thus continues to recruit through your cooperation. I draw your attention to an article by Michael Reagan, “US Military Recruits Children: “America’s Army” Video Game Violates International Law” Reagan writes, “To make the connection between the game and recruitment explicit, the “America’s Army” web site links directly to the Army’s recruitment page.” He later adds “The game records players’ data and statistics in a massive database…which records every move a player makes….” This system allows the Army to track “overall kills [and] kills per hour.” We all oppose violence in our schools yet you allow the Chicago JROTC website to access a first-person shooter game that tracks “kills per hour!” How tragic.

In addition to the grounds that I argued why you should remove this game over a year ago, I now bring your attention to Mr. Reagan’s article and a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, entitled “Soldiers of Misfortune.”   In that report, the ACLU alleges JROTC programs and the use of the first-person shooter game, “America’s Army” in our public schools violates international law which our nation has adopted.  The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (Optional Protocol) seeks to protect children from military recruitment.  The U.S. Senate ratified the Optional Protocol in December 2002 .  According to the ACLU, “[R]ecruitment of youth ages 16 and under is categorically disallowed in the United States.”   The report documents how JROTC programs and the distribution of “America’s Army” first-person shooter games to youth under 17 violate international law as adopted by the US Senate. 

Your own websites and sponsorship of the JRTOC academies provide evidence of your own complicity in violating these protections for our youth.  For example, look at the website for the Naval JROTC at Corliss High School and the pictures of many students who appear to be younger than 17 as, “Two Professors of Naval Science, CAPT K. Flowers of Southern University and CAPT T. Jones of Savannah University touted the benefits of becoming a Naval Officer.”   A captive audience being influenced with the promises of scholarship money!  See also the Chicago Tribune picture when Admiral Mullen, now head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Rickover cadets to tell them about “careers in the Navy.”   Talk about undue influence over youth!

This partnership with JROTC must end.  Rickover must be closed.  How will you avoid violating the law?  How will you end your encouragement of youth violence with your permission to play such violent first-person shooter games through the Chicago JROTC website?  Please end these JROTC programs.

P.S. I am still waiting for your response to my January FOIA request on the budget, income and expenses of the CPS Military Office. Is there more information there that you do not want disclosed that shows how integral recruiting is to the JROTC program? Why the delay in responding?

Si Se Puede! It Can Be Done! Yes, We Can! Signs of Hope in Our Struggle?

 There are signs of hope for our struggle-- if students, parents, faculty, and the community stay strong and keep our eye on the ball. 
 The Save Senn Coalition has had two main aims--

 ● One aim is to have the naval academy removed from the Senn High School building, so Senn can grow and flourish. Anchors Away. 

 ● Another main aim is to maintain Senn High School as a general community high school with its current diverse student body, a school open to all.   

Important statements have been reported recently to the Senn Strategic Plan Committee, which has been meeting regularly for two years, with strong attendance and participation  from the community, teachers, and students. The reports suggest we may see a let up regarding the stone walling on the issue of removing the naval academy from the Senn building, and finally respecting the wishes of the majority of the community. And we may see a let up on the maneuvering to replace Senn High School with smaller selective entrance schools. 

This hope is supported by an article in the May 8th News-Star. Lorraine Swanson reports in a lead article on Senn that Alderman Mary Ann Smith has “seemed to back off an alternative plan that she supported earlier calling for closing Senn as a neighborhood school…”

The article reports that “Smith also announced that because of the success of Rickover Naval Academy…the academy may eventually be moving into its own separate building.”  That sounds good to us. Declare victory, and leave.  

 Not that we are forgetting the third main aim of the Save Senn Coalition--opposing militarization of youth.

 We will not be forgetting to raise the issues of the current illegal and unjust U.S. wars with cadets--and   the students of Senn H.S.-- even if  the naval academy does move. 

 And, we will continue to educate students, faculty and the community against the direction CPS has taken with its entire militarization program--one it boasts is the largest in the land, and that devotes   1/3 to two times more resources per student to JROTC programs than it does to general community high schools.  Why is the Board of Education  subsidizing the Pentagon's JROTC programs when the Chicago public schools  are so short of funds and resources for all our students? See the News-Star   One View op-ed on April 17 by Craig Mousin,   "Funding of military academies deprives general public education" (www.chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID= 49&subsectionID=164&articleID=4690)

  One other important point that is coming up is about   ensuring that political power remains in the hands of the elected Local School Council (LSC). Mayor Daley and the business community have been doing all they can to undercut the power of parents, teachers, students, and the community in the Local School Councils.  Mary Ann Smith is reported in the article by Swanson to have said that she will recognize the Senn LSC as having a major say in the plan that is adopted to improve Senn. Since the LSC has been the initiator of the Senn Strategic Plan Committee, which favors strengthening the general community high school that is Senn High School, this sounds very good. 

 We all need to keep our eyes open and our organizations  active to make sure that the positive words and plans for a further developing and growing Senn High School are achieved. 

A Victory Against Military Recruiting Posters at Senn

 As you may know, activists against militarization of the Chicago Public Schools have managed to get some guidelines passed by the Board of Education restricting military recruiters in the schools. 

 One recent result of this success is that military recruitment posters have been taken down from various walls in Amundsen and Whitney Young High Schools, and now from Senn High School as well. 

  If you see military recruiters violating the guidelines to stay at a table and not rove around and actively solicit  students., please let us know the time and date. Also, if you see   military recruiting posters around, either in Senn   or Rickover Naval Academy, outside of the counseling offices, 

please let us know that too. Please be specific about where they are.

Since we support  efforts to end all forms of trying to recruit youth into the U.S. military, we urge you to assist in making this happen. One of the reasons we take this stand is because we oppose the military carrying out illegal orders to engage in aggressive wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, and to now threaten  Iran. Based on U.S. and international law (since the U.S. government signed the UN Charter) the U.S. is not allowed to attack another country that has not attacked the U.S. or to militarily threaten a country unless they have threatened the U.S. Neither Iraq nor the government of Afghanistan nor Iran attacked or threatened the U.S. with attack.   

Many Senn H.S. Students Participate Successful Rally & March May 1st For the Rights of Immigrants & All Workers

 Thousands and thousands working people and students, including immigrants struggling for immigrant rights, marched once again in Chicago on May Day, International Workers Day, on Thursday, May 1. The day of marching and boycotting work and school also took place in over 30 other cities across the U.S., and in nations across the globe. 

Among those marching was a contingent over 70 from Senn High School.  Many other schools and colleges also had contingents.

Front and center in the march and rallies was a   vision of a world where workers’ and immigrant rights are guaranteed. This   can be seen in the many slogans for this year’s actions: No One is Illegal! Defend Immigrant Rights! Defend Workers’ Rights! Stop the Raids and Deportations! Stop Funding Wars! Fund Reconstruction and Social Programs! They say go back, but we say fight back! and many more.  

 The West Coast longshore workers called a strike for May Day, expressing   opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq, and against racism and repression organized by the government. 

We need to build on the spirit of all for one & one for all, of unity on the basis of defending the rights of all.

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Free Film and Discussion Program

On Resistance in the Military to the Illegality and Injustice Of the Conduct of the U.S. War in Iraq The documentary film “Breaking Ranks” shows four resisters and the reasons they have refused to continue on in the U.S. military. Instead, they went to Canada. In Canada they have gained support from the people for their resistance and legal efforts to remain despite apparent knuckling under by the Canadian government to the U.S. government.
There is an issue for us: What stand and action should we take on this? Is there is a role of support that we should take up for these four resisters and for many others like them who have remained in the U.S. including in Chicago? 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 14 at the Edgewater Pubic Library, 1210 W. Elmdale, at the corner of Broadway

The film (55 minutes) will be followed by discussion. ALL views are welcome.

Co-sponsored by Neighbors for Peace and the Save Senn Coalition