Pilsen parents occupy field house to protest demolition

Several dozen parents are staging a sit-in at a Pilsen elementary school field house, protesting the planned demolition of the dilapidated structure.

"We want it turned into a library, that's what we want," said Araceli Gonzalez of the Whittier Elementary school field house, 1900 W. 23rd St.

Gonzalez, who has a 10-year-old daughter at Whittier, had staked out the field house and surrounding playground with about 30 other parents and community members to stop the demolition of the building. Parents said they had been camped out in the field house since Wednesday.

The field house -- paint peeling, roof warped -- had been set to be destroyed this fall after a CPS engineer found it to be structurally unsound, said CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond. But the demolition is not happening this week, as permits have been delayed, Bond said.

Although parents have lobbied for the building to be repaired or rebuilt into a library, Bond said the district lacked the money.

"(With) the budgetary constraints we are under, nothing is going to happen," Bond said. "That building has to come down."

But community members said they hired their own engineer who came to a different conclusion. Pilsen resident Gema Gaete said their engineer determined that the building could be salvaged with minimal investment.

While nobody has been arrested, the sit-in at times has become tense. Police this morning pushed the doors of the field house open, but did not try to enter the building.

"Why are you treating us like criminals?" Gaeta said when school liaison Sgt. Ramone Ferrer pushed the door open. "Go fight the real criminals."

"I'm asking you guys to step out so we can talk," Ferrer said, during the heated conversation.

"You cannot take control of the building," he said.

The parents, who said they have been asking for a library for years, refused to move.

Although the school has classroom libraries parents said they are too small, their book collections incomplete.

"Our kids are missing out," said parent George Merga. "They want to read books, they don't have a place they can come and sit down."

Along the outside of the building, signs read "Mr. Huberman don't wreck our dreams" and "re-polish don't demolish."

Under the noon sun, the protest continued. Parents shouted, "Queremos Biblioteca!" CPS officials milled around outside the playground fence.

Police are working to facilitate a meeting between parents and school officials, blocking others from entering the school property.

"The residents want for their children, a library, a library that is dearly needed in this community," said 10th District Commander Scott Ruiz. "Hopefully both sides will get together and they will talk."

from the Trib