Chicago City Wire

A recent memo from Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez reassuring staff about the safety measures employed by the district failed to include contacting the police when threats of violence arise.

The Dec. 19 Martinez memo was posted on the CPS website in the wake of a threat by a student at an Uptown elementary school to “shoot all the teachers [he] didn’t like,” according to a police report of the incident obtained by Chicago City Wire.  The memo also comes in the wake of the shooting deaths on Dec. 16 of two teenagers in front of the Benito Juarez High School on the West Side. Two teens were also wounded in the incident. The mass shooting was cited by Martinez in his memo, entitled “Responding to Tragedy and Supporting the Safety of Our School Communities.” 

The shooting threat to the teachers, not cited in the Martinez memo, occurred at the Mary Courtney Language Arts Center. On Dec. 14, a school security officer confronted a student who the day before told some fellow students of his plan to shoot teachers, according to the police report. After refusing to be searched, the student was brought inside to a guidance counselor’s office where he relented to a voluntary search and “reached into his sweatshirt pocket and handed them an extended 30 round capacity magazine loaded with an unknown amount of live rounds.”

Pedro Martinez

Police were then contacted. Responding officers placed the student in custody and upon a search of his backpack found a “brown in color P80 frame Polymer80 ghost 9 mm semi-automatic firearm with a 4.5 barrel length, unknown serial number, containing an unknown amount of live rounds in the magazine along with a live round inside the chamber.”

In response to a Chicago City Wire inquiry as to why the police weren’t notified when the school first learned of the threat, a spokesperson for the district sent a copy of a Dec. 14 letter from the interim principal addressed “Dear Courtney Families.” The letter said that the police responded quickly and “took possession of an unloaded gun.”

CPS spokesperson Sylvia Barragan added that they would have no further comment on the matter at this time.

The Martinez memo lists eight safety measures employed by the schools. Among them: “school-specific safety protocol plans (standard operating procedures); school-specific emergency response plans; professionally trained security staff.”

The last measure on the list, the memo says, is “incredibly important” – “Partnering with Safer Schools Together to monitor worrisome behaviors, including threats made against school communities, especially on social media.”

“If you know of a threat against a school community,” the memo states, “including on social media, contact the school’s administration immediately with as much information as possible and, if on social media, collect screenshots to share. If it is after school hours, please also submit the information as soon as possible to the CPS Student Safety Center at studentsafety@cps.edu.”

The police warrant a mention only near the bottom of the memo in a section discussing “when violence occurs.”

In July 2022, the Chicago school board approved a $10.2 million contract for police officers at 40 campuses to cover the current school year. The amount was a $800,000 decrease from the prior year.

Reporting on the contract, Chalkbeat Chicago noted that “the decision comes as dozens of campuses have voted in recent years to shift funds away from punitive discipline measures and toward more restorative practices, such as healing circles and alternative interventions.”

Chalkbeat Chicago also reported that any police officer selected must undergo training that includes restorative practices, and that they are not permitted to intervene in school disciplinary actions.

In August 2020, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and then CPS CEO Janice Jackson announced “reforms” at the schools -- 17 of the city's public high schools will no longer have Chicago police officers in their buildings.