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CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Students, parents, and politicians stood outside City Hall on Tuesday morning calling on the city to cancel a contract that stations Chicago police officers inside Chicago Public Schools.
The Chicago Public School system spends about $33 million a year to have Chicago police officers stationed inside schools.
Parent Carleel Pittman said he has three children in CPS schools and that police intimidate students more than make them feel safe.
"[His children> shouldn’t fear police officers on the streets, but they especially shouldn’t be in their schools being feared the same way," he said. Alderman Roderick Sawyer, 6th Ward, said his proposal is not anti-police, but pro-learning. He and other aldermen would rather see money going towards school counselors, nurses and case managers.
"We want police officers to support us. We do not want them to occupy us," he said.
The students, parents and politicians said the current system reinforces a schools-to-prison pipeline.
Parent Dexter Leggins said, "all the police are doing in schools is make it seems like they’re in jail in the beginning, they’re in jail in the end."
Mather High School student Caleb Reed said no student should be made to feel as he did by Chicago police.
"My sophomore year in high school, I was arrested for attending a basketball game, because I did not have my ID. I sat in the police station for six hours," Reed said.
Alderman Jeanette Taylor, 20th Ward, said people should, "just imagine how traumatic it is to see one of your classmates who had a bad day taken out in handcuffs. That’s a reality we see too often in Chicago Public Schools."
Mayor Lightfoot is not in favor of the measure.