West Cook News

Retired former Riverside police chief Thomas Weitzel is criticizing the Oak Park River Forest School Board for not doing enough to combat school violence.

“This is exactly what OPRF & the school board wanted - no police, no criminal charges just detention, & an atmosphere of everything is okay - and it’s not. Sweep it under the rug -What is being done to stop fights at Oak Park and River Forest High School?” Weitzel said on Twitter.

In November 2022 a brawl at the school led to a lockdown. West Cook News published a video of the brawl.

School communications director Karin Sullivan said in an email "there was a significant student fight on the third floor of the building, involving multiple students.”

"We called Secure and Teach (lockdown) in order to clear the hallways and keep everyone away from the location of the incident. We took advantage of the extra-long period that had been planned for drills to ensure that the involved students were safely removed from the building."

The community has been asking for answers.

"My grandson told me about that, and not only this school - it's just worldwide," grandmother Joeann Lawson told CBS News after a student was caught with a gun in May. "It just shouldn't be.”

Weitzel has been an advocate for community-based policing. He survived a shotgun blast to the chest while on the job in 1987 and retired in May 2021 after 13 years as Chief of Police of Riverside and 37 years in law enforcement altogether.

“As I’ve gotten older, more educated, wiser and seeing where society is going, I have realized we have to reach the kids at an early age,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I didn’t believe in that in my early career.”