This is not what I wanted my final farewell to my neighbors— my constituents— to be about. My term ends today, as I move out of my district.

But 2 weeks ago, a child at our school was in a situation where they felt necessary to bring a gun which the child had access to due to negligence of the parents— and although it was at an unintentional time, the gun went off.

1 child was hurt, but not seriously.

And report after report shows how ill prepared CPS is for the worst case. Not even every door at every school can be locked for safety and protection.

It continues to be absolutely unacceptable that CPS is claiming nothing happened just because they may have gotten incredibly lucky that the gun may not have gone off when the student who brought it had intended.

Luck should not be a policy when it comes to our students’ and school workers’ and teachers’ safety.

A gun was in our school.

It went off.

A student was grazed. And yet, had that graze been a millimeter to a side- we would be discussing Chicago’s first elementary school shooting.

Instead, CPS blames the media for overstating the issue.

Please, be rational. There was a gun in our school. A CPS school.

Which brings me to my true point:

Disney held a town hall for Disney parents and teachers and staff to discuss how to keep Disney safe.

These situations are dire and dangerous.

The idea of school by school protocols for student safety is disappointing to the say the least.

CPS needs a uniform system for Code Red that is more than just barricade the door drills.

It needs to be coordinated with CPD, for example.

How long was the response time? Did they know how to locate an administrative office that may have access to security features of the building like cameras? Are school floor plans strategically marked so that responding officers can be trained in maneuvering the myriad CPS school floor designs?

Do the doors lock from within the classroom and is there a trained way to barricade the door? Or alert the rest of the school if a shooter is in a classroom?

These are the matters that a school board should be addressing immediately and holistically.

Their typical inaction only furthers the argument for an elected school board.

They never thought about these questions. Discussions with neighbors brought these questions.

But CPS does not do listening tours. They do traveling seminars as if professor guest lecturers at universities, with too much knowledge to know what they don’t know.

And yet, they don’t ask for help.

It has been an amazing four years at Disney to serve, and I am grateful.

The Local School Council is passionate and dedicated and I am so grateful for the opportunity to have served with them. It was a great, albeit incredibly arduous, time.

I am proud of the part I played.

I had the honor of making the motions that allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to our diverse learning program and the hiring of new social workers and support materials, as I personally understand the value of special education environments.

It was personally enriching to build relationships with local businesses, residents like dog walkers, and our school.

I really feel that together we accomplished something.

We made the neighborhood a tiny bit better.

Community Rep. Out.