Column: ‘CPS, shame on you.’ Supporters rally outside school where disabled clerk is set to lose her job
A group of just over 100 supporters gathered outside Tuesday morning at Michael M. Byrne Elementary School, where clerk Judy Mahoney is approaching her final day of employment.
“CPS, shame on you,” said Desiree Alonzo, Byrne’s Local School Council chair. “We need to do better; we need to be better.”
Mahoney, a Chicago Public Schools employee for close to 30 years, was left paralyzed in 2017 when a drunken driver hit her car. Mahoney worked as a clerk at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen at the time, but that building wasn’t wheelchair accessible.
“CPS told me, ‘Ms. Mahoney, you may want to apply at other schools,’ ” Mahoney said. “I thought, ‘Why would I need to apply? I have a job. I just can’t get in there.’ ”
She did apply for other jobs, and two days before she was scheduled to return to work after the car crash, CPS told her she’d been hired as a clerk at Byrne, an elementary school on a quiet, leafy block in Garfield Ridge.
But the job was temporary. After June 2021, Mahoney was told, the position would no longer be funded.
Mahoney said she was just happy to be returning to work. She didn’t focus on the temporary part.
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“The only thing I retain from my previous life is my ability to work,” Mahoney said. “Everything else I do different. The way I get dressed, the way I drive, the way I get into bed, the way I shower. The only thing that remains the same is my ability to work.”
She’s been working at Byrne since 2018, but after June 22, she’s out of a job.
She said she has pleaded with CPS and the administrators at Byrne to extend her position, but they’ve told her there’s no money in the budget. She’s one of two clerks at Byrne, and the school will function with just one clerk going forward.
“Three years ago, the district created and funded an additional clerk position at Byrne Elementary to support this employee during a difficult time,” CPS press secretary James Gherardi said in a written statement May 11. “Like hundreds of schools, Byrne Elementary is wheelchair accessible, and could meet her needs. Recently, the employee was asked to begin applying for vacant clerk positions at other wheelchair accessible schools, with the district’s support. The district remains fully committed to continuing to work with the employee to find a new position at another school that meets her needs. Any suggestion the district has been unsupportive of this employee is uninformed.”
CPS officials have been sending Mahoney lists of clerk positions that are “scheduled to be vacant for the next school year.” Many of the schools with openings aren’t wheelchair accessible. Besides, Mahoney said, she doesn’t want to schlep to interviews and wait for calls back and change schools again.
“I had a permanent, secure position,” she said. “That’s been taken away from me because of your lack of access, not because I can’t perform my job.”
The Chicago Teachers Union launched a petition on Mahoney’s behalf and helped organize Tuesday’s rally. Teachers and staff from Whittier and Byrne attended the rally, as did Mahoney’s friends and family members. Her daughter and sisters wiped away tears as they spoke.
“I feel so devastated to see my sister going through this,” said Ema Pineda, who also worked as a clerk at Whittier before retiring. “I see her struggle. It’s not only physically, but mentally. She’s not asking for any pity. She’s asking for what she deserves.”
Alonzo emphasized the value of having Mahoney in such a visible job, especially for students of differing abilities.
“Ms. Mahoney serves as an inspiration to all of our students and most importantly our diverse learners,” Alonzo said. “Ms. Mahoney is a real-life example to these kids that a disability doesn’t hold you back, doesn’t mean that you don’t have the ability.”
Charles Rakis, whose wife works as a teacher at Byrne, said it’s disingenuous for CPS to talk about the merits of diversity and then fail to properly accommodate disabled students and staff.
“You hear it all the time — at least I do: ‘You’re such an inspiration! You’re such an inspiration!’ ” said Rakis, who uses a wheelchair after a car accident left him paralyzed when he was 18. “But on a daily basis, these kids need to see that type of inspiration. If CPS is out here screaming, ‘Diversity, diversity diversity,’ this is another example of that. Don’t say it and not mean it.”
At the start of the 2019-2020 school year, 295 CPS school buildings, out of 642 total, were accessible to students and staff with mobility disabilities, according to an August 2020 report by Access Living, a disability rights advocacy group. The majority of accessible schools are high schools, Access Living found, and a significant number of CPS schools, mostly charter and option schools, are not rated for accessibility.
“If Judy’s accident had occurred while working in an accessible school, she would not be facing joblessness today,” the CTU petition reads. “Judy is only 49 years old and still has years of excellent service and a powerful positive example of resilience and determination to offer to our students. Like every school clerk, she’s an anchor in her school community who has proven that she can do her job effectively from her wheelchair.”
Mahoney said she was grateful for the support of the crowd, but she was hoping a rally wouldn’t be necessary.
“I didn’t want it to get to this point,” she said. “But it’s my life at stake. My livelihood. I have no way out. I’m exhausted. I’m drained. I have no more.”
It shouldn’t have gotten to this point. The folks at CPS, tasked as they are with shaping and modeling for the future problem-solvers of the world, should have come up with a more humane, sustainable solution from the beginning. They’ve still got time.
“Please allow Ms. Mahoney to stay at Byrne,” Alonzo said, addressing any CPS leaders who might be listening. “Not only for her, but for our entire school. And for the shining example of hope she provides to all of us.”
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