Rousemary Vega gets emotional when she walks down Augusta Boulevard in Humboldt Park. It’s hard for the mother of five to see the former Lafayette Elementary School with its signs now touting the Chicago High School for the Arts.
“They closed Lafayette School and gave it to another school. Do you know how fucked up that is?” she asks. “Me and my children have to walk past it every day. And now that building is not open to the community. They have great programs in there that the community cannot benefit from. How unfair is that?”
Vega has been asking a form of “How unfair is that?” for more than a decade. When then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 49 elementary schools in 2013, Vega was one of the most vocal opponents. So vocal, in fact, she was banned from Chicago Public Schools meetings. Read article