“If I had a dollar for every time some privileged, clouted white guy called me stupid I’d be a bazillionaire,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “This has got to be about getting our kids back in school.”

“Our kids are used as pawns in a political battle over power and control,” one parent said. “These decisions being made are affecting our babies, not just CTU and CPS.”

While the three communities joined in on the mandates, several suburban towns opted to defy the order.

Nearly half of Chicago’s highest cash-generating speed cameras were on the South Side. Two, including the top $3.1-million camera, are hitting Ward 20 Ald. Jeanette Taylor’s low-income constituents with fines she said they can’t afford.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker reportedly offered access to SHIELD tests, but the district declined, saying it felt swabbing is more appropriate than saliva testing because saliva testing would require children not to eat, drink or have anything in their mouths for an hour before the test is completed to get a valid result. Testing is the root cause of the CPS-CTU stalemate.

Among people detained at the jail, 430 have tested positive, county data shows. In addition, 453 Cook County Sheriff’s Office employees at the jail have also tested positive, according to the data. Cases at the jail have spread quickly despite testing, and the availability of vaccines and booster shots to detainees.

Even in the midst of a standoff between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, teachers and parents at Mt. Greenwood Elementary took matters into their own hands by reporting for school. One mother, thrilled to be dropping her child off for in-person learning, acknowledged there could be consequences for the teachers who are defying the union. “I worry about these teachers a lot, because they are here for the kids,” she said.

Longtime police reform advocate Adam Gross will be the first executive director of a newly created civilian board tasked with overseeing the Chicago Police Department. Gross is an attorney and public safety policy expert who helped a coalition of grassroots groups negotiate with the Lightfoot administration to create the new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.

Along with Chicago, two other Illinois cities were ranked in the top 50 – Champaign, which came in at No. 13, and Peoria, which was ranked at No. 45.

According to one Northside parent, “These work stoppages have never and will never be about the children. In fact, the frequency of the CTU’s strikes and votes for returning back to distance learning suggest to me that the union has blatantly disregarded all of the data that shows the gaps created by distance learning, not to mention the anxiety, depression and other social ills facing our kids with the switch to remote learning.”

Don Villar, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor, said local organizing has picked up after sustaining a blow early in the pandemic; Organizers have been busy at health care enterprises, charter schools and cannabis growers and shops. In the burgeoning warehouse sector, union and worker rights organizations have improved outreach to temporary workers, he said. The saving grace for unions has been their strength with government workers. Villar said public-sector unions are branching out to organize nonprofits. The Art Institute campaign by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is one example.

Several parents said their school communities are divided over the issue, and some are afraid to speak out because they don’t want to be viewed as criticizing their child’s teacher. “It feels like we are caught in the middle of a custody war,” said parent Vanessa Chavez.