When the freedom to read and learn was threatened. And, no. It wasn't in Florida.
My photo of a student from 2013 popped up on my Facebook memory this morning.
The student was carrying a hand made sign which said, “Freedom To Read, Freedom to Learn.”
If it weren’t for the fact that I took the picture I might have thought the student was in Florida or some other state where book banning has become the thing and astroturf groups like Mom’s for Liberty are demanding that school library shelves be emptied of books they find objectionable.
But my photograph was taken at the corner of Addison and Western in Chicago in front of Lane Technical High School.
The student, part of a group of several dozen, were fighting to keep Chicago Public School officials from banning the award winning graphic novel, Persepolis, by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi.
On the evening of March 14, 2013 I received a DM from a teacher at Lane.
The teacher wrote that CPS officials were at that moment directing Lane administrators to confiscate all copies of Persepolis that were in the library or classroom or any student desk.
It had already been removed from the LRC.
Teachers were told to turn in classroom copies. Any student who had checked it out of the library was ordered to return it. The DM to me was followed up with a copy of a memo from Lane Principal Christopher Dignam.
First published in 2000, Persepolis was a commercial and critical success. The book is an autobiographical account of author Marjane Satrapi’s childhood, set against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian revolution, her adolescence in France, and her eventual return to Iran. The 2007 film adaption of the book was nominated in the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards.
But it was, in the language of Ron DeSantis, too “woke” for then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked school superintendent, Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
I remember Byrd-Bennett defended the book banning by saying that Persepolis contained graphic language and images that are not appropriate for general use in the seventh grade curriculum.
And there was a drawing of a man being tortured and it showed his penis.
It was a decision Byrd-Bennett made unilaterally and in spite of the fact that the book was included in the districts approved curriculum.
A lot of us have been appropriately outraged that in Florida one person can complain and have a book removed from a school’s book shelves.
But here in Chicago one person, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, could do exactly the same thing.
Byrd-Bennett, 70, began serving a 4.5-year prison sentence at the minimum security Alderson Federal Prison Camp in August 2017, nearly two years after pleading guilty to one count of mail fraud for steering more than $23 million in no-bid contracts from CPS to her former employer, SUPES Academy, in exchange for $2.3 million in kickbacks.
Admitting she was "terribly wrong" for arranging $2.3 million in kickbacks to steer a contract to her former employer while running the Chicago Public Schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett blamed the "overwhelming" pressures of the job as she was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison on Friday.
Byrd-Bennett, 67, pleaded guilty in 2015 to one count of mail fraud, just days after she was indicted for steering more than $23 million in no-bid contracts from CPS to her former employer, SUPES Academy, in exchange for $2.3 million in kickbacks. However, Byrd-Bennett never pocketed any proceeds from the scheme.
At Friday's sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang sentenced her to 54 months in prison. He also fined her $15,000 and ordered her to pay restitution. Byrd-Bennett must report to prison on Aug. 28, and Chang said he will recommend she serve her time in the Amderson prison in the Alderson federal prison in West Virginia.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of up about 7 ½ years in prison, while the defense asked for 3 ½ years.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Megan Church said Byrd-Bennett's emails with SUPES co-owners Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas were damning evidence of "naked greed," in seeking to profit from a "near-bankrupt school system."
Florida’s Ron DeSantis may, for the time being, be sinking in the polls.
The threat to the freedom to read and learn seems to have more traction than ever.
His anti-woke bullshit didn’t start with him in Florida.
We had it right here in deep blue Democratic Chicago.