Failure meets failure: Occupy trespassers want to block "turnaround" of a dud Chicago grade school

Brian Piccolo Elementary School been on academic probation for five years. The Chicago West Side school, which is named after the Chicago Bears fullback who died of cancer in 1970 at the age of 26, is one of ten schools slated for a turnaround by the Chicago Public Schools. That means all of the teachers and administrators at Piccolo are getting fired. The Academy for Urban School Leadership, a not-for-profit that already runs 19 other Chicago schools, will take over.

In a statement, CPS said, "We need to make difficult, but necessary, decisions to boost student achievement throughout the district and put their needs before all else."

In response to this common sense move that is truly for the kids, Occupy Chicago and other local Occupy groups are trespassing in front of and inside of Piccolo. Yes, the tents are up. On Twitter, the Chicago Teachers Union is endorsing this lawbreaking. Yes, I have to repeat this: We moved to the suburbs in 1999 so we wouldn't have to subject our daughter to these employment programs masquerading as schools.

Chicago's unionized high schools graduate just 56 percent of their students.

The trespassers are demanding a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is a proponent of turnarounds. Rahm should show up--with cops at his side so they can arrest these squatters.

UPDATE 4:15pm CST: On its Facebook page, the Chicago Teachers Union says because they will have a meeting with an unnamed Chicago Board of Education vice president, the occupation trespasing stunt is over. No face-to-face with Emanuel, but in true Alinsky-ite fashion, they are declaring "victory."

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