West Cook News

Leading SAFE-T Act advocate, House Speaker Welch, himself once arrested for domestic battery

By LGIS News Service | Oct 20, 2022

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Westchester) is among the state's leading advocates for the so-called "SAFE-T Act," which protects those accused of most violent felony offenses from being jailed while awaiting trial.

Source: Venezuelan illegal aliens enrolled at Ideal Elementary in Countryside

By LGIS News Service | Sep 22, 2022

Illegal alien children who arrived at Chicago's Union Station two weeks ago are now enrolled at Countryside's Ideal Elementary School, school sources tell West Cook News.

“Why would you go to the voters if you don’t have to?” OPRF chief wants to skip referendum, force property taxpayers to fill school renovation budget gap

By LGIS News Service | Sep 4, 2022

Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 superintendent Gregory Johnson wants higher homeowner property tax bills to cover the extra $90.5 million he wants to finish a school renovation project, now over budget by some 40 percent.

From Chicago City Wire

Bipartisan PAC urges State’s Attorney Foxx to oppose SAFE-T Act

By LGIS News Service | 2 years ago

Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly M. Foxx, a Democrat, is being urged to join an effort to repeal Illinois’ controversial SAFE-T Act, which retools multiple parts of the criminal justice system, including the elimination of cash bail.

West Cook school districts divided on conforming to state’s new sex education policy

By LGIS News Service | Jun 24, 2022

Thirty-five school districts in West Cook are divided on conforming to Illinois’ new law that aligns sex education policies for grades K-12 with national standards.

Chronically absent: In Oak Park District 97 day job, OPRF school board member Gina Harris skipped work 1/3 of time last year

By LGIS News Service | Jun 22, 2022

Oak Park and River Forest District 200 school board member Gina Harris, an $81,528 per-year administrator at Julian Middle School in Oak Park, missed work at least 71 times over two school years, according to an analysis of her attendance records by West Cook News.

"Shocking:" Former Oak Park schools' superintendent Kelley draws fire in New Jersey for "ideological agendas," "cover-up" of race-based curriculum changes

By LGIS News Service | Jun 21, 2022

Former Oak Park Elementary School District Superintendent Carol Kelley is under fire in her new job, facing criticism by Princeton, NJ parents 

River Forest test scores down 20 percent, but district "equity" administrator gets a promotion, pay hike

By LGIS News Service | Jun 8, 2022

River Forest District 90 school board gave pro-"equity" curriculum director Alison Hawley a promotion Tuesday night.

Analysis: 83 percent of black West Cook third graders failed state math exam

By LGIS News Service | Jun 7, 2022

An analysis of state school test score data found 83 percent of black third graders in West Cook County public schools failed the state 

OPRF’s Fiorenza: “racial equity” student grading plan “has nothing to do with race”

By LGIS News Service | Jun 4, 2022

The administrator leading Oak Park and River Forest High School’s race-based grading program acknowledges she has created separate criteria for black and white students.

River Forest elementary school students join village "LGBTQ pride" flag raising

By LGIS News Service | Jun 2, 2022

River Forest elementary school students led a "gay pride" walk to village hall on Wednesday, where they witnessed the raising of a flag signifying "LGBTQ+ pride."

OPRF to implement race-based grading system in 2022-23 school year

By LGIS News Service | May 30, 2022

Oak Park and River Forest High School administrators will require teachers next school year to adjust their classroom grading scales to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students.

In wake of black-on-white Lyons Township H.S. student attack, school board to address "white privilege" in new discipline plan

By LGIS News Service | May 10, 2022

Ten days after student Heavyn Washington's brutal, racially-inspired in-school attack that led to battery charges, a Lyons Township High School administrator said the school plans to be more lenient in punishing non-white students for once-major transgressions, like fighting and drug use.

Tampon dispenser ripped off Lyons Township H.S. boys bathroom wall, stuffed in toilet

By LGIS News Service | May 6, 2022

A tampon dispenser for girls installed on a boys bathroom wall at Lyons Township H.S.

LT assailant Washington's grandmother warned school board: Heavyn has "permission" to "become physical"

By LGIS News Service | May 3, 2022

The grandmother of Lyons Township sophomore Heavyn Washington, arrested and charged with battery for an in-school attack last week of a freshman student, told the district school board in February that her granddaughter had her "permission" to get "become physical."Kyle Washington, 66, made 

Western Springs police arrest Heavyn Washington, charge her with misdemeanor battery over LT attack

By LGIS News Service | May 2, 2022

The Western Springs Police Department announced late Monday they would be filing criminal charges against 16 year-old Heavyn Washington, the Lyons Township sophomore who staged and had her friend film her while attacking and beating a freshman student last week.

Oak Park Health Director Chapple: time for "communities and companies" to "operationalize" their 2020 statements in favor of Black Lives Matter, "equity"

By LGIS News Service | Apr 17, 2022

Village of Oak Park Public Health Director Theresa Chapple says its time for the "communities and companies" that made public statements in 2020 in favor of Black Lives Matter and the Marxist concept of "equity" to put their money where their mouths were.

Oak Park Radio Flyer heiress, starting "#MeToo Movement" film-making career, tells a story about herself

By LGIS News Service | Apr 3, 2022

Since graduating from Northwestern journalism school last year, Radio Flyer wagon company heiress Helen Pasin has been pursuing "social justice storytelling," hunting so-called "white privilege" and "micro aggressions" in west Cook County.

After River Forest school instruction changes, students post record-low test scores in English, math

By LGIS News Service | Mar 30, 2022

When asked in 2016 by River Forest parents why their school district was dramatically changing its schools' curriculum and teaching methods, then-School Board President Ralph Martire had a quick answer.

Analysis: Nine in ten Proviso H.S. 209 students tested are below grade average in math, eight in ten below in reading

By LGIS News Service | Mar 21, 2022

Of Proviso High School District 209 juniors taking the state-mandated Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) last year, 88 percent of students scored below grade level in math, and 83 percent below grade level in reading.