PRESS RELEASE STATEMENT
Piccolo Occupation Day 2
A large group of parents, students, educators, and community members gathered at Piccolo Elementary School in West Humboldt Park Friday evening to resist the takeover by the Academy of Urban School Leadership. AUSL is a private enterprise which has taken over 10 former Chicago Public Schools and in order to stop the takeover, supporters of the schools have occupied the space in order to bring CPS into negotiations after being ignored since the announcement of school ‘turnarounds’.
Chicago Police were first to arrive at the school with over 20 vehicles surrounding the building and at least 3 dozen police officers, some with assault rifles drawn, patrolling the school grounds. Nearly 200 supporters guarded the doors to Piccolo while around 20 parents, students, and community members occupied the school building and refuse to leave school grounds until the mayor agrees to engage in dialogue with the Piccolo and Casals community to ensure their removal from the takeover list.
Officials from the Chicago Public Schools arrived and entered into negotiations around 9:30pm and will continue on Saturday at 7am. The press conference will take place at 10am.
Occupy Chicago's media team is ustreaming from inside the school:
http://www.ustream.tv/...
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