A senior Chicago Public Schools official had notified Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s reelection campaign that soliciting student volunteers through their teachers was not permitted hours before the campaign publicly defended its recruitment effort as a “common practice,” email records show.
Lightfoot, who has since apologized and admitted the tactic was “clearly a mistake,” has faced heavy criticism for the misstep and is under scrutiny by the inspectors general for both the school district and the city. The Chicago Board of Ethics this week asked for full-blown investigations by the watchdogs before issuing a ruling on whether Lightfoot’s campaign violated local ethics rules.
