Summary

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 17070
Story Slug Boat Ride Flap (06/09/1997)
Location Chicago, Illinois
Format Pkg*
Date 6/9/1997
Archive Time 6:00
TRT 2:02
Supers Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois Logandale Middle School, West George Street Brown Elementary School, North Hermitage Avenue Blondeen Davis, Chicago Public Schools James Dean, Chicago Public Schools Andre Jackson, Telsa Jr. High Mike Monseur, Reporting
Video Description Boat on lake, ship in harbor, different shots of boat, sot, people on the deck of the boat, sot of woman, exteriors of schools, kids in school, reporter standup, walk shot of school officials, sot of school official, sot of man, Spirit of Chicago, sot, students walking off ship
Script LEAD: Imagine this. Booking a cruise for your graduating students then being refused to board the boat you paid to be on. That's just what happened to a group of kids from Brown elementary school. Reporter Mike Monseur has the story. (Take Pkg) SCRIPT: Every year thousands of students sail the waters of Lake Michigan. It's a graduation tradition. But that tradition was broken for at least one group of kids from Brown Elementary school. The ship captain wouldn't allow the African American kids to board, even after they paid. That doesn't sit well with school board officials. Sot .especially when the contracts from two other schools were. What happened is... the principal from Logandale School, a mostly Hispanic school, didn't want the African American students from Brown Elementary to go on the same cruise as his kids. He feared that gang members from both schools would clash. The decision made by the principal to insist that the other school not be allowed to come was certainly not a good one. SOT Now since the incident, the principal allegedly responsible for what happened has been called on the carpet by the School Board and faces disciplinary action pending an investigation by the Board. In the meantime that same principal has sent a letter of apology to the students here at Brown. But many say that doesn't make it right. That's why school officials and officials with the Spirit of Chicago are meeting. We caught up to them at Navy Pier. SOT Vallas, the head of Chicago's Public Schools is already taking action. He's fired off memos to all 557 Public Schools ordering them not to book any future cruises on the "Spirit of Chicago". That message apparently didn't reach many groups already here. They took the cruise and had a good time. SOT Not one of these groups we spoke with disagreed. All have heard about what happened and say the problem is with adults in charge from both sides, but the victims are the kids caught in the middle.
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