'There's a man with a gun over there...'... Hooked on Phonics gunmen violated CPS policy on private gunmen
The placing of armed private security guards on school grounds during a media event to promote the controversial “Hooked on Phonics” program on August 31, 2007, was a violation of CPS weapons policies, according to officials in the CPS Department of School Security and Safety.
After Substance reported that the “HOP Across America” Hooked on Phonics anniversary tour was accompanied, at least at Attucks school in Chicago, by three armed private security guards, we made repeated calls to the CPS Office of School Security and Safety to get the official policy from security chief Andres Durbak, a retired Chicago police officer.
Durbak never returned the Substance phone messages, but off the record a well informed source who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that the Hooked on Phonics gunmen were on school grounds in violation of CPS policy. According to the source, only Chicago Police Department officers, on duty, are allowed to carry their weapons at schools. “We don’t even let Cook County Sheriff’s Police do it,” said the source.
