A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are made for. —John A Shedd
Chicago Public Schools opened their doors for students Monday, and there were no shootings or other noteworthy violent crimes reported on any of the routes that have been established as “Safe Passage” routes for children to get to school.
A security worker and police patrol a Safe Passage zone on the city’s west side.
(All photos © Bill Healy/WBEZ via Flickr/chicagopublicmedia)
The number of routes more than doubled after the 47 elementary and middle schools were closed before the school year started, the New York Times reports. City officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, also changed a few things to make the routes safer: they demolished dozens of worn-down buildings that criminals could use for cover, pruned trees to make it easier to spot criminals who would seek to harm children, and beefed up the patrols, both with sworn police officers and people who were hired for $10 an hour to walk the Safe Passage beats.
The closure of 47 Chicago public elementary schools still stands as the largest one-time school closure in American history. Various writers and photographers have been documenting the closure, and I’m sure more reports and photojournals will surface in the weeks, months, and years to come—reports of the shuttered buildings, of kids walking to school all but under police escort, and playing with people their parents, not that long ago, would have told them not to play with.
One of the most inspired collections of photos from the shuttered schools can be seen on this Tumblr feed by Brian Cassella.
Take a look at this interesting picture at the right. The little girl encounters two police officers on her way to school. Some kids say this makes them feel safe and protected. Others say it makes them scared.
But whatever short-term or long-term effect it has on this little girl, one thing is certain: lives for Chicago children have changed. Many of them go to different schools, many see police officers every day on their walks to and from school, and many of them have had to make other adjustments in their personal lives.
The Times quoted the director of one agency that hired 14 Safe Passage workers as saying that families from different schools had been holding meetings, working out old disputes. “This is the kind of place where you once had adults telling the kids not to play with each other,” he said. “This community has to heal.”
And perhaps that healing is what’s coming. For now, we have hundreds more police on the streets watching kids walk to school. Good or bad, we probably should hold off on judging, but this is now the way of the world if you live in Chicago. And then, getting to and from school isn’t even half the battle. What ultimately counts is what they do in school and in their classrooms.
Which brings me back to my quote at the top of this post. Kids are naturals when it comes to play, when it comes to school, and when it comes to being with friends. All of these natural activities—those things kids were born to do—are taken away if they aren’t safe, but safety isn’t really supposed to be what they focus on. The public school situation in Chicago has changed their focus away from those activities and thought patterns in which they would naturally engage; thoughts are now being focused on safety. And although it’s hard to do any of those more kid-natural activities if someone’s threatening to open fire, my hope is that the neighborhoods, families, communities, and children recover from this temporary focus on safety and get back to the first order of business. Soon.