Redistricting SICA

[TheBigHurt35]

Thought some of you who grew up in the south suburbs might find this interesting... (Link)

 

Leaders of 11 south suburban public high schools said Monday their planned split from a 35-school athletic conference had nothing to do with race.

 

But a call Sunday from a school board member's home phone to a Chicago Sun-Times reporter's voice mail raises questions about racial motives because of the language -- which included the term "poor blackie" -- used in the recording.

 

The woman on the recording did not identify herself, but caller ID indicated the call came from Lincoln-Way high school board member Maureen Jagmin's home in Frankfort. The caller phoned a reporter, but instead of hanging up, continued to speak to someone who was with her, leaving that conversation on the reporter's voice mail.

 

 

SCHOOLS LEAVING SICA

 

 

1. Bolingbrook

2. Stagg (Palos Hills)

3. Sandburg (Orland Park)

4. Joliet (2 high schools, 1 program)

5. Lockport

6. Lincoln-Way East (Frankfort)

7. Lincoln-Way Central (New Lenox)

8. Andrew (Tinley Park)

9. Homewood-Flossmoor (Flossmoor)

10. Bradley-Bourbonnais (Bradley)

 

 

SCHOOLS STILL IN SICA

 

 

11. Thornton Fractional North (Calumet City)

12. Thornton Fractional South (Lansing)

13. Thornton (Harvey)

14. Thornridge (Dolton)

15. Thornwood (South Holland)

16. Bloom (Chgo Hts/2 schools, 1 program)

17. Rich Central (Olympia Fields)

18. Rich East (Park Forest)

19. Rich South (Richton Park)

20. Kankakee

21. Crete-Monee (Crete)

22. Bremen (Midlothian)

23. Evergreen Park

24. Hillcrest (Country Club Hills)

25. Oak Forest

26. Tinley Park

27. Eisenhower (Blue Island)

28. Richards (Oak Lawn)

29. Oak Lawn

30. Romeoville

31. Reavis (Burbank)

32. Argo (Summit)

33. Shepard (Palos Heights)

 

 

 

 

The caller refers to three mostly black schools that are part of the 35-school conference, the South Inter-Conference Association, or SICA.

 

"The schools that used to be good like Rich Central, Rich East and Rich South are all failing schools," the woman said. "Why are they failing? Because of what's in 'em. One of the teachers right down the street said he couldn't wait to get the heck out from 30 years ago when he started teaching when it was just the normal kid. I mean it's a zoo."

 

Earlier, she spoke in general about black people.

 

". . . It's getting to the point where I'm tired of the welfare, tired of the mentality that poor blackie because let's give them a job so they can be supporting themselves and, be, make them work. You know, forget this I want to be a bum type of thing. I think it's a forever problem in this country, you know, it's never going to go away in this area here."

 

The caller referenced a family member by name while discussing a different issue involving Lincoln-Way, and the man she was talking with referred to her as Maureen.

 

But Jagmin, who is white, said it's not her on the recording. "I'm flatly denying it," Jagmin said Monday. "I would never say anything like that to a reporter. . . . Why would anyone say anything like that to begin with?"

 

Officials from the 11 schools -- nine of which are majority white -- said they were breaking away to create a smaller, more manageable conference where they could compete against schools that had comparable athletic and extracurricular programs. Many of the 11 schools are growing, while other SICA schools have had to cut extracurriculars because of financial problems, they said.

 

Jagmin's school board, which oversees two mostly white high schools in New Lenox and Frankfort that are among the 11 trying to break away, was one of seven boards backing the proposed split.

 

"Race in this whole thing has never been a problem," Lincoln-Way Supt. Lawrence Wyllie said at a Monday news conference held to discuss the split. "It has never been an issue."

 

Later, after seeing a transcript of the voice mail recording, Wyllie said: "That's not Lincoln-Way."

 

His board members agreed. "I think our decision was based on all the right reasons and none of those reasons that are suggested in that voice mail," said Ron Kokal, Lincoln-Way board secretary.

 

That did little to appease legislators and other officials already angry about a realignment of SICA into three divisions that was scheduled to take effect in the fall. They claim that plan would segregate schools along racial and economic lines. Two divisions would be made up of mostly white students; one is more than 80 percent black. Critics believe Monday's announcement was aimed at avoiding a legal challenge to that realignment.

 

"The school board member should step down immediately," said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), whose district includes many SICA schools.

 

The recording "only confirms our highest suspicions that the efforts to re-create the three divisions were not motivated by concerns for education, competition or fairness, but were driven by stereotypes, racial fear-mongering and animus that have no place in our nation's education system."

 

Madigan investigating

 

 

 

Added Kamala Buckner, District 205 superintendent: "This is 2005 and I thought as a nation that we would be past things like this." Her mostly black schools are in Harvey, Dolton and South Holland. "I hope this is not a universal thought, but this causes great concern."

 

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) reiterated his call for Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to get involved. A Madigan spokeswoman said an investigation of the SICA realignment is under way. Buckner plans to file a petition today to ask the Illinois State Board of Education to intervene.

 

Chris Olson is athletic director at Joliet's two public high schools, which are among the 11 in the proposed new conference, South West Suburban Conference.

 

"Joliet is as diverse as it gets," Olson said. "It's not about [race]. It's about doing what's best for our kids, preparing for the future with our growth. . . . I've never heard the race card come up. I'm pretty proud about that."

 

 

THIS IS A TRANSCRIPT OF A PHONE RECORDING LEFT WITH THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES FROM THE HOME OF LINCOLN-WAY DISTRICT 210 BOARD MEMBER MAUREEN JAGMIN

 

 

 

 

Today you can't, you can't, do that anymore because you know we're so sick of it -- you know, all the Caucasian people. How much more. I look at all the housing that came down from the city and how they set up these beautiful town houses in Richton [Park], and all in Sauk Village, you know, they cost about $150,000 to build, and these people move in and have to pay a lousy $50 to live in them, per month, and don't even pay and ruin 'em, burn 'em out. And it's just a process that how many years is this going to take, to the point where give them all a free education so we can get them all off welfare and get them into jobs, because it's getting to the point where I'm tired of the welfare, tired of the mentality that poor blackie because let's give them a job so they can be supporting themselves and, be, make them work. You know, forget this I want to be a bum type of thing. I think it's a forever problem in this country, you know, it's never going to go away in this area here. It's part of . . . I watched the neighborhoods all change. The schools that used to be good like Rich Central, Rich East and Rich South are all failing schools. Why are they failing? Because of what's in 'em. One of the teachers right down the street said he couldn't wait to get the heck out from 30 years ago when he started teaching when it was just the normal kid. I mean it's a zoo."

 

This woman was a complete idiot for saying what she did, but has a good point. I went to one of the Rich high schools back in the late '80s/early '90s and saw the quality of the student body deterioriate rapidly over those four years. And it doesn't have anything to do with race, as there was a significant amount of Caucasian trash there as well in my day. It has everything to do with parents in general not disciplining their children... and those bad apples (of all colors) have an adverse affect on EVERYONE in a school setting.

[mreye]

What was she thinking? Moron!

 

And why are they 35 schools in a single Conference? Holy cow! In Indiana we have about 8 in the conferences.

[shakes]

What was she thinking? Moron!

 

And why are they 35 schools in a single Conference? Holy cow! In Indiana we have about 8 in the conferences.

 

 

Those conferences are split up. SICA Blue, Sica Gray, etc. There are usually six or seven schools per conference.

 

I have friends who work in the districts and at schools that split off. The real reason was the other schools inabilitiy to feild teams at three levels. Freshman, JV, and Varsity. While many of the schools could provide a full lineup at the Varsity level, they could not at the lower levels. This obviously caused problems. There would then be different schedules for all three levels, causing extra buses to be deployed for three different locations.

 

It's too bad some simple-minded moron has to make these schools look racist.

[mreye]

Those conferences are split up. SICA Blue, Sica Gray, etc. There are usually six or seven schools per conference.

 

I have friends who work in the districts and at schools that split off. The real reason was the other schools inabilitiy to feild teams at three levels. Freshman, JV, and Varsity. While many of the schools could provide a full lineup at the Varsity level, they could not at the lower levels. This obviously caused problems. There would then be different schedules for all three levels, causing extra buses to be deployed for three different locations.

 

It's too bad some simple-minded moron has to make these schools look racist.

Ahhhh. OK. Makes a little more sense now. Thanks.

[YASNY]

I've been wondering how long it would take this SICA story to make it to Soxtalk. Racism has been the implied issue for weeks, now.

 

 

 

Just can't help but think that if this was happening in say, Alabama, that one of you damn yankees would have posted it on day one. You know, as an example of the way people are in a southern red state.

 

Just something to think about.