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Park District Cracks Down On Kids Using Field Behind Old Town School

By Mina Bloom | September 18, 2015 6:08am | Updated on September 22, 2015 10:06am
 The field is located directly behind the grade school, 363 W. Hill St. The park district says it is apart of nearby Seward Park.
The field is located directly behind the grade school, 363 W. Hill St. The park district says it is apart of nearby Seward Park.
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DNAinfo/Mina Bloom

OLD TOWN — For the past five years, the cross country team at Immaculate Conception School has practiced at an unmarked field behind the school without incident.

But last week, toward the end of one practice, a Chicago Park District security officer started "screaming" at the team to get off the field — which is directly behind the Old Town grade school, 363 W. Hill St. — saying they were trespassing, according to coach Kevin Noonan, who has two daughters on the team.

"It was without any explanation. We assumed it was because the grass was [recently] re-sodded," said Noonan.

Then it happened again this week.

This time, Noonan said, the officer threatened to arrest everyone in the park, including the grade schoolers on the team, a father and son playing catch and some kids playing football. He even made calls in which he mentioned getting a police wagon, Noonan added. But the police never came.

"I thought, 'Are you kidding me?' You're threatening elementary school kids for using park district property?" 

Noonan said he was taken aback by the officer's emphatic tone.

"It frightened our young kids. They're being yelled at," Noonan said.

Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said the field is considered a part of the nearby seven-acre Seward Park. When DNAinfo Chicago visited the field Thursday, there didn't appear to be any signs indicating that the field was apart of Seward.

Maxey-Faulkner said the team was kicked off the field for not having a permit that is required for all organized sports activities park district fields. The policy has been in place for years, she said, with other nearby schools like Walter Payton College Prep, 1034 N. Wells St., and Jenner Elementary Academy of the Arts, 1119 N. Cleveland Ave., paying to use the field.

But she said a permit is not required for "passive games," meaning the kids playing football and the father and son playing catch should not have been asked to leave.

"The security guard who mistakenly asked the father and son to leave the field believed the field was still under construction, and therefore prohibited from use," she said, adding that the supervisor "immediately apologized to the family for that error."

She couldn't say why the cross country team was allowed to practice on the field so long without a permit.

"The Chicago Park District is not aware of any continued use for this purpose without the issuance of a permit," she wrote in a statement.

To Noonan, the incident is one example of a cash-strapped city looking for ways to fill the gaps.

"It's just another way the city will nickel-and-dime you. I think that's simply ridiculous to charge 10, 11 and 12 year olds to run around the field."

Noonan said the school won't apply for a permit "on principle."

"It seems contrary to what the park district is all about: Encouraging youth to go out and play," he added. "We were simply running. That's all we were doing."

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