The start of the 2011 school year for Urban Prep West students should have been a joyous one, with the relocation of the school to a bigger, more private space on the Near West Side.

Instead, the first couple months of school have been filled with safety concerns for the students. Ever since a Sept. 20 altercation involving students and other teenagers, school staff and community leaders have been focused on improving student safety and bettering relations between the residents of the ABLA housing projects and their new neighbor.

Deverra Beverly, president of the ABLA Local Advisory Council, is one community leader who has been working to resolve the issues between the students and residents. She places the school at fault.

“We were not informed they were coming,” Beverly said. “Had we known, as a community, we would have met with the principal.”

Since the attack, Beverly has put together several meetings where the school staff and parents, as well as ABLA residents, were able to sit down and talk about the problems together. New routes were established for the students, so they would avoid walking through the housing development, something the residents saw as an invasion of their home.

“When you have guests in your house, you like to know they’re coming,” Beverly said.

Urban Prep West is not only working with CHA to protect students, but also with Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Police Department, and Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd).

“There is a joint effort going on between those four parties, and of course Urban Prep, to make sure that we come to some type of resolution with regard to these issues,” said Kelly Dickens, vice president of institutional advancement at Urban Prep West. “It’s up to everyone. It takes a village. You can’t really say one party is responsible.”

The main solution that has been imposed is a new safe route for students to and from school.

“We are instructing them to take a particular route. Instead of taking the old route, which is down Loomis Street toward Roosevelt, we are instructing all of our students to go toward Blue Island. That is considered our safe passage,” said Dickens. “We are being very deliberate and direct about how they are to approach and leave the school every day.”

Parents have also gotten involved with transportation, since some students are still on edge when it comes to getting home by themselves. Victoria Hildreth, the mother of Urban Prep West freshman Reginald Hildreth, has been working to make her son more comfortable with his commute. Reginald was one of the students involved in the September 20 attack, which resulted in a trip to the hospital and stitches in his mouth.

“He’s a little paranoid at the moment,” Victoria said. “I’m trying to make arrangements where he gets picked up every day.”

Fioretti believes that with this new route, the situation has already changed for the better. His office has been trying to increase police presence, possibly with the help of the University of Illinois-Chicago police force, and he plans on staying involved with the safety of the schools in his ward.

“We’re here to strive to help everybody,” Fioretti stated. “We’re here to increase the opportunities for all of our kids.”

With the new safety route and the collaboration of these parties along with the students and the parents of the school, Urban Prep West is sure that there will be few if any problems down the road.

“I think we are going through growing pains; new kid on the block syndrome,” Dickens explained. “I think that in a year from now, we won’t even remember this story. As with any neighborhood, people are very territorial. This too shall pass.”

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By Shannon from Near South, formerly lived on Loomis
Posted: 11/29/2011 11:18 AM

I couldn't agree more with Kristin's comment. Telling public school kids that they can't walk down a public street in their school's neighborhood is a pathetic solution to a serious problem. The focus should be on crime control, integration and civic relationships.

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By Kristin from Near South
Posted: 11/29/2011 9:55 AM

The most important thing is that all parties will continue to work toward a solution that works for them! That said, I was shocked by the solution to have students avoid walking down streets. This form of segregation would not be tolerated if different neighborhoods wanted 'guests' to announce themselves or were told to avoid walking somewhere. Society wins when we show our future more patience and teach how to respect neighbors instead telling them the answer is to avoid them. Rethink it.