Statement to Press on Introduction of “Safe Schools, Healthy Students” Ordinance

July 5, 1989

Today I introduced the Safe Schools, Healthy Children Ordinance that calls for the City of Chicago to supplement the Board of Education’s ability to protect our children from crime and violence and to ensure that our children are healthy enough to learn.

The recent rise in crime on school grounds, and recent studies that tie school absenteeism to health care barriers highlight the need for this ordinance.  The ordinance calls for a full-time nurse to be assigned to each of the 250 public schools with the highest rate of absenteeism and for the city to fund 50 Chicago Police Officers to act as coordinators of the state’s Safe School Zone Act.

Each coordinating officer would act as both an enforcement and prevention officer acting as both a liaison between the public schools in the ward they are assigned to and the police districts that serve those schools.  More than just a liaison, these officers, because they will be full-time, can also work with the Board of Education and the individual schools in designing preventive and alternative programs to derail crime and violence before it happens.