After A Sit-In, Chicago Moms Got A Library. Now What?

For six weeks, a group of Chicago moms sat down to stand up for their children. In Pilsen, a largely Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago's South Side, moms occupied for 43 days a rundown, one-story field house in their fight to have a library for the children of Whittier Elementary.

It was a David vs. Goliath story: A group of parents going to bat for their children against Chicago Public Schools, which had planned to destroy the field house and create a field, not a library. Despite intimidation by the police, fears about retaliation and frustration at bureaucratic inertia, the parents of Whittier prevailed: In late October, the head of CPS announced that Whittier students would get a library after all.

The moms' struggle -- they had been advocating for a library for seven years before they resorted to staging a sit-in -- captured attention nationwide as the group used Facebook and other social networking tools to spread the word. More than 500 Change.org members joined in, sending letters to Chicago officials expressing their support.

But is the story over? Not at all, say the moms in the group. In their meetings with Chicago Public Schools, no specific plans were made about where the library would go, when it would be built and what, exactly, the fate would be of the rundown field house where the sit-in took place. CPS will lease the field house to the moms for $1 a year -- it's currently being used as an informal afterschool location and library after hundreds of donated books poured in.

In a recent statement issued from the Whittier Parent Committee, they told their supporters that they're going to make sure they're not making rash decisions or jumping in to any one course of action. They haven't agreed to any specific plans, they say, and they'll release their own plans to the school district when they're completed. (The actual location of the planned library is one of the questions that haven't been answered -- some parents have said that building a library inside the existing school building will make the school too crowded, but the field house needs major renovations and is currently a community center.)

The dramatic part of the moms' work is over, since the sit-in is done. But the real work continues for these parents who took a stand to save 'La Casita.' They'll need strength, stamina and support to wade through red tape and city politics.

If you'd like to follow the Whittier moms and support their work, they continue to update saveourcenter.com. There's a way to donate to their work on Paypal as well. 

Photo credit: Whittier Parent Committee via Facebook