Thursday, May 2, 2013

Sun-Times: Players from Payton, Brooks to meet at breakfast Friday at CPS headquarters

I've been hearing about this story for quite a while. A baseball game was cancelled but for what?
The original game was canceled last Saturday night after several parents decided not to let their kids travel to the South Side neighborhood because they feared for their safety, Payton coach William Wittleder told the Chicago Sun-Times shortly after the last-minute cancellation.

Payton Principal Timothy Devine disputed Wittleder’s explanation and said the game actually was canceled because bus transportation had not been arranged and several players had been benched for missing practice.

“The situation has slighted parents at Brooks and made Payton parents feel they are unfairly being labeled as racist,” the source said.
A make-up game is scheduled May 11th at Gwendolyn Brooks Prep on 111th/King Drive.

The excerpt is from an article where players from the north sides Walter Payton Prep and Brooks were expected to meet at CPS HQ downtown for a fellowship breakfast.

Because of what happened and as you see what was excerpted there was some hard feelings. May not necessarily be between both teams. It seems the decision to cancel this game was out of the hands of both teams.

This would be the time to ask a very loaded question, but as excerpted there are two sides to every story. The parent's wouldn't let the Payton players travel to the south side for safety reasons or the school hadn't arranged transportation to the south side. The facts may lie somewhere in the middle. At the same time who knows some parents really did get worried about their children traveling to 111th to play some baseball.

1 comment:

  1. I commend all those who worked to get this event together and hope that the players can agree to go out and play an unofficial game for the "love of the game" of baseball. I also applaud Mr DeAndre Weaver interim principal of Brooks for taking the high road in this matter. Through his tweets from various events both athletic and non athletic where Brooks students are participating he has shown his commitment to the students of Brooks. Although CPS has attempted to suppress the information. Mr. Weaver was the assistant principal of Payton up until July 2012. I don't believe that he would have allowed any student to play if the situation was unsafe and the coach, athletic director and principal of Payton could have reached out to him if they were so concerned and I believe he would have gone to Payton and addressed the parents and assured them that everything was OK. Also, for over 50 years the baseball field at Brooks has hosted baseball teams of all colors and from around the country. Both the former Mendel Catholic and Jackie Robinson West little league association have played there and Little League Baseball would have have not allowed tournaments there if it was unsafe. Lastly, this is an example of a double standard at CPS, had Simeon or Clemente did this,in both situations coaches, athletic directors and principals would have been suspended or even fired as well as the teams would have forfeited the remainder of the season.wg

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