In the Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Cottage Grove
Ave. serves as the dividing line between two violent gang territories, according to area residents.
And concerned community members say a Chicago Public Schools’ proposal to close John Fiske Elementary and send its students to Austin Sexton Elementary means students will be forced to to travel across the invisible barrier.
Cottage Grove, according to the proposal’s opponents, is a boundary not to be taken lightly.
“That’s
a line you just don’t cross,” said Randy Pouncy, 22, a Sexton
Elementary alumnus who said he’s been shot at too many times to count.
“It’s so dangerous.”
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Pressure is mounting against a proposal to open a for-profit immigrant detention center
in Joliet. Activists submitted 4,000 petitions against the facility to the 
Parents and members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) stormed the
steps outside the Academy of Urban School Leadership’s (AUSL) office
Thursday and raised concerns over the Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) plan to
turnaround six schools at the end of the academic year.