Students’ protests go viral on Youtube while human rights advocates’ protests go international to the United Nations.
There has been a lot of news this week concerning the hotly contested school closings in Chicago. The group Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools (CSOSOS) made their grievances known at a BOE meeting held on July 24, where they stood up one by one and asked that the BOE listen to them as people rather than their ID numbers. After being physically escorted by security out of the meeting, students continued to protest school closures outside the building. You can also read the students’ speeches on the group’s Twitter and Facebook pages.
Human rights activists have become increasingly concerned with the Chicago school closures as well. This week, Chicago-based human rights advocates sent a request to the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights urging the UN to look into the school closures. They believe that closing the 49 schools may violate children’s human rights as outlined by the UN. For more details, please read this news piece on the request to the UN. You can alsodownload the letter of allegation here.
