TRUE NEWS USA broke this news story last week....
Glad to see the Chicago media finally picking it up....
With city officials calling on firefighters to help monitor students displaced by school closings as they travel to their new schools, the firefighters union has raised concerns that its members could be caught in the middle of street violence without proper training or equipment.
The Chicago Fire Department has in past years sent firefighters into the streets for a few days at the beginning of each school year as a show of support for nervous students and parents.
But this year, as part of Chicago Public Schools' promise to beef up its Safe Passage program in conjunction with the closing of 53 elementary schools and one high school program, firefighters are being told to have a presence on certain school routes for the first three weeks of the new school year.
"To do something like this for this length of time is certainly out of the ordinary," said Tom Ryan, president of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2. "Any time you increase exposure to a particular situation, you're obviously increasing your chances that something can go wrong."
A CPS spokeswoman said firefighters "will not and have not been asked to do any sort of policing function."
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