Chicago City Wire

A school parent the Chicago Teachers' Union claimed caught COVID-19 from a student and died in fact drank herself to death.

That's according to a Cook County Medical Examiner's toxicology report obtained by Chicago City Wire.

It said Denisha Henry, 32, died last September at Stroger Hospital of chronic ethanolism, not COVID-19, as was widely cited by CTU last fall as evidence schools were not safe and should remain closed.

Stacey Davis-Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union | Youtube

Henry was the mother of an eighth grade student at Jensen Elementary Scholastic Academy, 3030 W. Harrison Street in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood.

After she and fellow Jensen parent Shenitha Curry, 44, died of pneumonia, CTU staged a rally at the school claiming both parents caught COVID-19 from their children.

A school source told Chicago City Wire that Jensen leadership knew last October that Henry's death wasn't COVID-19 related, though they weren't admitting it publicly.

"She did not die from COVID. We all know that’s not true," the source said.

A CPS parent who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution told Chicago City Wire that CTU should be ashamed for misrepresenting the mothers' deaths.

"My God, the burden they placed on those young children who lost their mothers. Telling them basically, you killed your mothers by going to school," the parent said. "Shame on them! This proves they’ll stop at nothing to get what they want."

Chicago media widely reported the deaths as caused by COVID-19.

CBS 2 Chicago reported that “parents are demanding more information and more testing after learning two mothers of students at a Chicago Public School in Lawndale died last week from COVID-19.”

It promoted a Go Fund Me for Curry, who had diabetes and high blood pressure, soliciting donations because she “was faced with no choice” but to send her kids to school because “CPS mandated children return to school for (the) 2021-2022 academic school year.”

“Her three children are faced with burying (Curry) because they were forced to go to school,” it says. “This could have all been avoided if proper safety protocols and/or given the option to send your child back to school were in place as they are in suburbia educational districts.”

Curry's family said she hadn't received a COVID-19 jab.

As of March 6, the Go Fund me had raised $6,805 from 146 donors.

Last Sept. 28, Chalkbeat Chicago covered the CTU -organized “Speak-Out for Safety” rally at Jansen. 

CTU’s press announcement said “COVID claimed the life one 47-year-old school mother, and a second 32-year-old mother died,” blaming children at the school for infecting them.

“One mother complained bitterly on social media that she was never contacted by a contact tracer. Within a week she was dead,” the CTU release said.

Chalkbeat repeated the CTU claim that the mothers died “from COVID-19,” reporting that “according to the (Chicago Teachers’ Union) and parents at the school, the mothers who died each had children who had been quarantined at Jensen.”

Chalkbeat’s report said parents “described heartbreak at the deaths of the mothers in their community and said they were outraged” that the school wasn’t testing asymptomatic students.

Father Shauntee Colston “spoke outside the school with his daughter, Saraiah.

“Close the school. Deep clean the school. I want my daughter to come home from school, safely."

A CPS employee told Chicago City Wire that “the only good to come out of this is that we now have COVID testing for our students and teachers.”

Jensen has 355 students— 341 are black and 13 are hispanic, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. 

According to the 2021 Illinois Assessment of Readiness, 341 Jensen students — or 96 percent— failed to meet state mastery standards in English. In mathematics, that number was 99 percent— or 351 students.

The principal at Jensen is Chinyere Okafor. According to CPS pay records she earned $195,815 in 2021.

She is the aunt of former Jahil Okafor, the former top NBA draft pick who now plays professionally in China. Okafor starred at Whitney Young H.S. and Duke University. He last played for the Detroit Pistons in 2021.