A lot of buck passing, but no paychecks
Youth workers get the shaft amid finger-pointing foul-up
After hearing from an angry parent, I reached out to "Queen Sister," a colorful activist who has been at the forefront of rallies to stop the violence near Fenger High School.
It's not surprising that Queen Sister's mailbox is full.
Last time I saw her, she was outside Fenger yelling through a bullhorn.
Since the fatal beating of Derrion Albert -- a tragedy that was captured on video -- activists like Queen Sister have been in great demand.
And since U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised millions of dollars to quell the unrest around this South Side high school, community activists have popped up all over Roseland.
Queen Sister, a passionate woman who often attends school board meetings, has been at the microphone for a long time.
She is founder of It Takes a Village, a community organization that is supposed to put young people to work guarding the streets in Roseland -- although that effort has not stopped teens from killing each other.
At this point, it is unclear whether Queen Sister is working with Chicago Public Schools or against it.
On Monday, the mother of one of the teens who took part in a summer program Queen Sister ran last summer called to complain that her son had not been paid.
"None of the kids have been paid," Ida Johnson told me.
"They worked the whole summer for nothing," she said.
Johnson said when she talked to Queen Sister, the activist blamed CPS Chief Ron Huberman and Michael Scott, president of the Chicago Board of Education, for holding up funding.
"I called down to CPS and was told that the Board of Education did not have anything to do with Queen Sister's organization," Johnson said.
My attempts to reach a spokesman for the Board of Education about this matter were unsuccessful.
But Queen Sister does, in fact, blame Huberman and Scott for her inability to pay the teens.
"I reached for the heart of the 'hood --the 19- to 24-year-olds. We put them to work this past summer, and when that program ended, we solicited for help to keep this program going," the activist said.
She claims school officials promised to fund her program, but reneged when she publicly criticized Mayor Daley after Derrion Albert's death.
"Ron Huberman has refused to release the money, and he has held up our program," Queen Sister said.
"What he did was go into a room with CeaseFire and put CeaseFire over the Vanguards."
Huberman did not return phone calls about this issue.
CeaseFire is a nationally known anti-violence program that was curtailed after drastic cuts to the state budget.
Vanguards is a group that Queen Sister organized in Roseland to combat the street violence.
About 80 teens in Roseland have worked with the Vanguards.
"They have worked for six weeks and never got paid. They worked four to eight hours a day," said Chester Wilson, chief of staff for Ald. Carrie Austin (34th).
Apparently a group of teens went to the alderman's office expecting to pick up their checks.
"Queen Sister has been telling them that they are going to get paid this day or that day and they never got paid," Wilson said.
People who know Queen Sister claim that she has a big heart and sincerely cares about her community.
I'm not suggesting otherwise.
Still, how can she justify not giving these teenagers what is owed them?
She should know there is a big difference between volunteer work and a summer job, and that when you work and don't get paid, it's called a scam.
If teenagers in Roseland can't trust the people who are claiming to be activists, then whom can they trust?
And if the teens were being paid to protest public officials, then that could be a problem as well.
Apparently, Huberman has refused to answer Queen Sister's calls.
"I'm upset, but the kids should not have to suffer," she said.
But what is the real relationship between Queen Sister and CPS anyway?
That's a question no one seems willing to answer.
Correction: in Monday's column, I dropped the "p" in Lt. Mike Rompa's name. I regret the error.