A great American once wrote that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. An overwhelming majority of respondents to a D181-commissioned survey wanted the board to adopt a five-day per week, in-person reopening plan for our schools. Those respondents, and the D181 community at large, were deprived of an up-or-down vote on that reopening plan. The failure to call for a vote on that plan was an injustice.
While that injustice is trivial compared to those that Dr. King faced while writing those words from a Birmingham jail cell, his call for constant vigilance against injustice must not be ignored. To that end, I am calling on my fellow D181 board members to reconsider their adoption of an ad hoc, ill-defined “hybrid” reopening plan and allow for an up-or-down vote on “in-person” reopening plan presented at last week’s special board meeting. I will introduce action items to this effect at Monday’s regular board meeting.
Justice — to say nothing of our students’ achievement of their full academic, social and emotional potential — demands nothing less of us. — Bill Cotter, Hinsdale
