Hooked on Phonics gunmen violated CPS policy on private security gunmen
August 31, 2007. One of three armed private security guards Substance observed during the Chicago Teachers Union’s “Hooked on Phonics” media event at Crispus Attucks Elementary School. Despite repeated calls from Substance, the Chicago Board of Education’s security chief, Andres Durbak, failed to provide Substance with the Board’s policy on allowing armed private security people into CPS schools and properties. Off the record, Substance was told what happened at Attucks was illegal. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
'There's a man with a gun over there…'
The placing of armed private security guards on school grounds during a media event to promote the controversial “Hooked on Phonics” program on August 31, 2007, was a violation of CPS weapons policies, according to officials in the CPS Department of School Security and Safety.
After Substance reported that the “HOP Across America” Hooked on Phonics anniversary tour was accompanied, at least at Attucks school in Chicago, by three armed private security guards, we made repeated calls to the CPS Office of School Security and Safety to get the official policy from security chief Andres Durbak, a retired Chicago police officer.
Durbak never returned the Substance phone messages, but off the record a well informed source who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that the Hooked on Phonics gunmen were on school grounds in violation of CPS policy. According to the source, only Chicago Police Department officers, on duty, are allowed to carry their weapons at schools. “We don’t even let Cook County Sheriff’s Police do it,” said the source.
Read more about this story from the October 2007 issue of Substance.
