Parents: Fenger Is No Place for Our Kids

After recent violence, community group asks for boycott of Far South Side school

The trouble at Fenger High School seems to never end.

A Far South Side community group is joining some parents in promoting a boycott of the school after several violent incidents among students.

“It’s a shame that a child is not safe inside that school,” parent Cassandra White-Robinson told WGN9 News.

The school was in the national spotlight in September, when 16-year-old honor roll student Derrion Albert was beaten to death just outside the school. A video of the Sept. 24 killing made national headlines and urged both Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder to address the issue of violence by visiting the Chicago school.

But fights between students living close to Fenger and others living in Altgeld Gardens are still frequent.

"Another child's going to be killed or maimed or seriously hurt at the school," said Cheryl Johnson, a spokeswoman for People for Community Recovery. "The tension is growing everyday, so how can they be learning?" she told WGN.

Five students were arrested last Thursday after a fight broke out in the school’s lunchroom. The fight was just one of a dozen recent incidents, many of which happened in the school cafeteria.

Some Fenger students have been given the opportunity to attend another local school, Carver Military Academy.
 

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