By Phil Rogers
NBC Chicago
CHICAGO — As the debate continues over guaranteeing the safety of Chicago school children whose elementary schools are being eliminated, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has quietly assigned Chicago firefighters to assume security functions which many contend they are ill equipped to handle.
Almost immediately when the city announced the closing of scores of schools, parents raised red flags about the prospect of children crossing gang boundaries to get to their new school buildings. The mayor and police Supt. Garry McCarthy pointed to so-called “safe passage” routes, designed to give students added security and a protected path and heavily staffed by police and Board of Education security teams.
Now, NBC5 Investigates has learned that Chicago firefighters have been quietly ordered to join in staffing those routes beginning on the first day of school August 26 and continuing for the first three weeks of the school year.
Full story: Firefighters Ordered to Provide Safe Passage for Schoolkids
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