CHICAGO — Jones College Prep students gathered for a sit-in Monday following controversy around a student who attended the school in a German military costume for Halloween and made gestures seen as antisemitic. The school’s lack of response to the incident prompted the protest, where students called for change in the school culture, saying administration has failed to properly address long-standing discrimination issues.
Students packed the school’s lobby, with many others watching from the second floor. A few students held signs toward the windows facing the street, some of which read, “You can’t hide the truth” and “Can you hear us now?”
The controversy led Chicago Public Schools on Friday to remove Principal Joseph Powers from “principal duties, effective immediately, pending the results” of an investigation into his response to the student. In an email to parents, Powers seemed to downplay the gestures, saying “it certainly appears this was not the intent of the Halloween costume.”
