Gage Park High School
| Gage Park High School | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Address | |
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5630 S. Rockwell Street Chicago, Illinois 60629 United States |
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| Coordinates | 41°47′28″N 87°41′22″W / 41.7911°N 87.6895°WCoordinates: 41°47′28″N 87°41′22″W / 41.7911°N 87.6895°W |
| Information | |
| School type | Public Secondary |
| Motto | “To Reject Making Peace with Mediocrity.” |
| Opened | 1939 |
| School district | Chicago Public Schools |
| CEEB code | 140835 |
| Principal | Brian L. Metcalf |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Gender | Coed |
| Enrollment | 293 (2016–17) |
| Campus type | Urban |
| Color(s) |
Maroon White |
| Athletics conference | Chicago Public League |
| Team name | Owls |
| Accreditation | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
| Website | gageparkhs |
Gage Park High School is a public 4–year high school located in the Gage Park neighborhood on the south–west side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1939, Gage Park is operated by the Chicago Public Schools district. Gage Park serves students living within three neighboring communities: Chicago Lawn, New City and West Englewood.
Gage Park High School opened in 1939. Beginning in the late–1960s, racial tensions grew between Black and White students at the school; which led to several events occurring over a 3–year period. The first incident occurred December 1969 when six males students were arrested in a racial-motivated fight between white and black students at the school. In May 1970, a brawl erupted outside the school involving white and black students stemming from an incident during a lunch break.
The brawl resulted into six students being arrested and a Chicago police patrolmen being injured. Due to the racial tensions at the school, Gage Park PTA members and community members proposed a plan to shift the school's attendance boundaries which would affect the majority of the school's African–American students (600 in total); sending them to Englewood High School (which was majority Black). The PTA and community members stressed that enrollment at the time was 3,109, 800 over capacity for the building; The proposal was denied by Ald. Anna Langford. Langford stated the plan was only an excuse to remove blacks from the school.
After the alderman's decision, community members and protesters called for the Chicago Public Schools board to intervene and force the transfers of 650 students out of the school. In September 1972, a boycott began at the school involving white community members and parents choosing not to send their kids to school due to overcrowding. By the 12th day of the boycott, the Board of Education requested for the parents to end the boycott and register the students; which would result in knowing the exact figure of overcrowding at the school. The school board had proposed a plan to send white students to another area high school and black students to Hyde Park High School, which parents declined. Black parents charged whites with racism over the situation, blaming the school's PTA president Irene Schrader. In addition to whites boycotting the school, Black students, parents and members from Operation PUSH also boycotted the school in October 1972; charging that the boundary proposal was racially motivated.
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