THE LOOP — About half of the now 15 Dyett High School hunger strikers returned to Chicago Public Schools' main offices Thursday to demand federal mediation in their conflict over the future direction of the school.
They occupied the lobby at CPS headquarters, 42 W. Madison St., for over an hour, demanding that the district agree to federal mediation to end the impasse.
Jitu Brown, one of the leaders of the hunger strike, now in its 25th day, called on CPS to enter into talks with the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Relations Service, also known as the department's self-proclaimed "Peacemaker" in community conflicts.
"They're willing to mediate," Brown said Thursday, adding, "Both parties have to be willing to negotiate."
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests to confirm its willingness to get involved.
The hunger strikers pressed for a meeting with CPS Chief Executive Officer Forrest Claypool or Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson to urge them to agree to mediation, but CPS sent no representative to meet with them.
"That's how disrespectful you all are," Brown said shortly before the protest broke up so the hunger strikers could return to Dyett, 555 E. 51st St., for what's become a nightly vigil and march to the home of President Barack Obama in Kenwood.
In fact, CPS rebuffed that proposal, although not to the protesters' faces. "CPS has made its decision to reopen Dyett as an open-enrollment, neighborhood school with an arts focus — a decision celebrated last week by a broad coalition of community groups, clergy and elected officials representing Bronzeville and the larger South Side community," said CPS spokesman Bill McCaffrey.
The hunger strikers have been pushing CPS to accept a plan created by the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School to convert it into a Global Leadership and Green Technology academy. That was part of a CPS request for proposals to reopen the high school next fall, but last week, in the face of heightened protests, CPS abruptly halted that process by announcing its own new plan to turn it into an arts academy.
"They didn't keep their own promise with their process," said hunger striker Cathy Dale on Thursday. "We did what the board asked us to do. We followed the rules, and then they changed the rules in the middle."
"This is a sham — a sham of a process with CPS," said April Stogner. "I don't believe they even viewed our proposal."
CPS plans to meet in the coming days with members of the Bronzeville Community Action Council, who backed its plan for Dyett, to select a principal.
Yet the hunger strikers insist that they, and not that group or other local leaders who backed the CPS plan, represent the real interests of the community.
They additionally charged Thursday that Pastor Torrey Barrett, founder and executive director of the K.L.E.O. Family Life Center in Washington Park, who appeared with Claypool in announcing CPS' plan for the school last week, had previously helped organize efforts to have Dyett "phased out" in 2012, including paying people to demonstrate in favor of the closure.
"Then you stand up, smug as can be, with Mr. Claypool and say that you are the ones that helped save Dyett High School," Stogner added. "That is in no way, shape or form the truth."
Barrett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A dozen Dyett hunger strikers have gone without solid food since Aug. 17. They were joined this week by three new hunger strikers: Brandon Johnson of the Chicago Teachers Union, Susan Hurley of Jobs With Justice and Asif Wilson of Teachers for Social Justice.
"Our bodies are weakened," Brown said. "We're having health problems."
Yet Stogner said they were unbowed, adding, "We're not coming off this hunger strike until we have our demands met."
Once Thursday's protesters gained entry to the lobby, CPS locked down the front entrance and denied access to WBEZ 91.5-FM reporter Yolanda Perdomo, although she was eventually allowed in just before the end of the demonstration.
"I've been kicked out of better places than this," Brown said as they packed up to leave.
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