Protesters Continue Sit-In, Unmoved By CPS Promise
CHICAGO (STMW) - Despite a Chicago Public Schools promise Thursday to delay demolition of the Whittier School field house for six months, Pilsen protesters refused to abandon a sit-in because schools CEO Ron Huberman would not promise to convert the field house to a library.
Heat and hot water were working again in the field house Friday.
In a letter Thursday, Huberman agreed to the delay to "give sufficient time to meet with representatives of the Whittier community and plan the future of the building.''
"It's a slap in the face,'' Whittier parent Araceli Gonzalez said of Huberman's letter. "We want a letter, simple as that, to not demolish [the field house] and it will be a library.''
Without such a written commitment, Gonzalez said, "We're here to the end.''
"At this point, we are willing to say we won't demolish the building for six months,'' said CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond. "These are small steps, but we need to work toward a workable solution.''
Parents have been holed up in the field house at 1900 W. 23rd St. since Sept. 15 to block a CPS plan to raze the structure and put down artificial turf for kids.
A CPS-commissioned engineering report found the building "unsafe'' for occupancy, but a firm commissioned by parents called it repairable.
CPS officials earned the wrath of the City Council when they turned off the gas in the building Monday. On Wednesday, the Council ordered that the gas be turned back on.
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