A speech that changed the nation, touched the world
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St. Louis American See page B13
The
CAC Audited January 14 – 20, 2021
Serving, empowering and advocating equity in St. Louis since 1928
Vol. 92 No. 42
stlamerican.com
COMPLIMENTARY
7 schools slated to close after delayed SLPS Board vote Board tables Sumner decision until March By Sophie Hurwitz Of the St. Louis American At a St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, a motion was passed to close seven schools out of an initial list of 11 proposed by Superintendent Kelvin Adams as part of a consolidation plan. The seven schools now slated for closure are Clay, Dunbar, Farragut and Ford elementaries;
Fanning Middle School; Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC, and Northwest High School. Carnahan High is to Kelvin be converted to a middle school, and Adams Cleveland’s ROTC program will be moved to another school. These changes will go into effect at the end of this school year. They were based on analysis by an outside consulting group, Emerging Wisdom, as well as analysis of enrollment data and build-
ing capacities and conditions by Adams’ team. The vote was initially slated for mid-December, but was postponed due to community outcry. Since then, Adams said, he has participated in “some 20 meetings with nonprofits, alumni organizations, other organizations, and elected officials.” This “opportunity to pause,” he added, “was incredibly important.” The issue, as Adams put it, is “school saturation:” too many school buildings, and not enough students. SLPS has closed 47 district schools and 15 charter schools since 2003. The district currently operates 68 buildings, many of which house fewer than 200 students.
Calls for Sen. Hawley to resign echo throughout MO after Capitol riots
This plan, Adams said, will redirect money toward better extracurriculars and AP classes, and make it so that multiple schools no longer have to share the same school nurses and counselors. Three schools which were part of Adams’ first proposal were, after debate by the Board, at least temporarily, removed from the list of schools to be closed. Hickey and Moore elementary schools were taken off the list entirely. Sumner High, which has received a particularly high level of public support since the plan to close it was introduced, has been granted a onemonth reprieve. See SLPS, A7
U.S. House votes to impeach Trump ahead of Biden inauguration By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American
would oversee the investigation. Local media outlets reported the dispatcher used the n-word to refer to a north St. Louis County precinct officer. This comes months after Barton fired a contract instructor for the St. Louis County and Municipal Police Academy for allegedly uttering racial slurs during a class on Oct. 20. “We are tired of hearing remarks from our
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump on one count of “incitement of insurrection” after Vice President Mike Pence refused to activate the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power. Activating the 25th Amendment would have declared Trump incapable of executing the duties of his office and would allow Pence to immediately exercise powers as acting president. Ten Republican representatives voted to impeach Trump along with all 222 Democratic representatives. Voting against the resolution were 197 n “What does Republican representatives. Four it mean when representatives they boo the did not vote — Black congress- there are currently two vacancies in woman the House. Several media denouncing outlets reported white Senate Majority Leader Mitch supremacy?” McConnell, - U.S. Rep. R-Ky., indicated Cori Bush, D-Mo. he would not reconvene the Senate early in order to take up the impeachment articles, meaning Trump would not be impeached before his term expires Wednesday, Jan. 20. U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., spoke during the House’s debate before the vote on impeachment. “If we fail to remove a white supremacist president who incited a white supremacist insurrection, it’s communities like Missouri’s 1st District that suffer the most,” she said. “The 117th Congress must understand that we have a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives. The first step in that process is to root out white supremacy, starting with impeaching the white supremacist in chief.” Her 30-second speech ended with “booing” from several people. “What does it mean when they boo the Black congresswoman denouncing white supremacy?” Bush wrote on Twitter shortly after. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., voted against impeaching Trump.
See Slur, A7
See Impeach, A7
Photo by Wiley Price / St. Louis American
Eugene Martin and Michael Meredith on Tuesday Jan. 12, stand in support of members of the American Federation of Government Employees Locals 96 and 2192 and other labor groups in front of the Thomas Eagleton U.S. Courthouse at 111 S. 10th Street. The unions are calling for the resignation of Senator Josh Hawley for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. By Dana Rieck Of the St. Louis American It’s been a week since rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., continues to face public criticism for his support of the rioters and his objection to Joe Biden’s Electoral College win.
Hawley was the first senator to object to Biden’s Electoral College win Jan. 6 and was captured in a photograph acknowledging the protesters with his fist in the air before they stormed the Capitol building that afternoon. Hawley wrote Jan. 7 on Twitter he lost a book deal with publishers Simon & Schuster due to his vote and public support of the
protesters, calling the publisher’s move “Orwellian.” In that same tweet, he blamed the left for censoring his right to free speech. “Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute,” Hawley wrote in the tweet about his See Hawley, A6
St. Louis County police dispatcher uses racial slur on radio, ‘relieved of duty’ pending investigation By Dana Rieck Of The St. Louis American An internal investigation is underway after a St. Louis County police dispatcher used a racial slur on the police radio Saturday evening. The NAACP said in a media release the employee is St. Louis County Police Chief Mary Barton’s brother-in-law; however, Barton has not publicly responded to this and the department has not released the dispatcher’s name.
“As I have said in past, discrimination, by word or deed, shall not be tolerated by any of us in the St. Louis County Police Department. We have, and will continue, to hold one another accountable,” Barton wrote in a prepared statement County police spokesman Sgt. Benjamin Granda wrote in an email the dispatcher was “immediately removed from the radio and relieved of duty.” He confirmed the department’s deputy chief of police, listed as Lt. Col. Kenneth Gregory on the agency’s website,