CHATHAM — A South Side school warned parents after a student was robbed on his way to school Monday.
Police said a black male with face tattoos, 18- to 22-years old and standing 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall robbed the boy at 8 a.m. in the 8200 block of South Rhodes Avenue.
The man displayed a weapon, police said, before taking undisclosed items. He then fled. An arrest has not been made.
The incident happened one block from Dixon Elementary, 8306 S. St. Lawrence Ave.
Parent Tymeka Woods, whose 13-year-old son attends Dixon, said that the victim was also in seventh grade at the school and was walking to school with friends. Woods said the man pointed a gun at the group and demanded their phones, but only one had one to give him.
She said her son normally walks to school with the group, but he was running late Monday and only caught up with the group after the incident.
“They had been calling my son telling him to hurry up, but by the time he had got to the [group, the robbery] had already happened,” she said.
A woman who works in the office at Dixon said Tuesday that a letter warning families about the incident went home with students Monday. Woods said she also received a recorded call from the school telling them about the incident.
Woods said she felt “devastated” after learning about it. She is also the mother of Michael Flournoy, a Simeon High School student who died after being shot in his head last year. Michael had been robbed by two people in a separate incident weeks before his murder, and no one was ever caught in that case, she said.
Michael "was actually robbed at the gas station right here on 81st and Cottage a month before he was murdered, so when this happened it was almost like reliving that again,” Woods said.
She wondered if the two robberies are connected, but police said they couldn't confirm any more details about Monday's robbery.
“That person was never caught, and it was the same thing,” she said. “They took his phone, and this is pretty much the same thing that happened."
Dixon Principal Sharon Dale and CPS officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
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