Nick L's blog

Friday, September 24 is day ten of an sit-in at the Whittier Elementary School field house in southwest Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Residents of the predominantly Mexican, working class neighborhood have a long history of struggling for their rights. Like many of those struggles, this occupation came to a head after many years of organizing and fighting. Parents at Whittier Elementary school first got organized in 2003 and have been working to improve their school ever since.

In addition to putting up a fight against everything from unsafe levels of asbestos and lead to overcrowding at school, the parents at Whittier have worked hard to build a strong learning community by having programs for both students and parents.

The field house has been an essential part of this effort. At "La Casita" as it is called, community members could take free English classes, GED classes, and get other important family support. With a school that didn't even have enough space for a library, this was also the only place where parents could meet and organize. So when the Chicago Public Schools announced that it was going to demolish rather than fix up the field house, parents decided they couldn't sit back and allow all that they had worked for to be taken away.

It seems to be an average day in the bustling