A rally to protest school closings led by the Chicago Teachers Union at Daley Plaza in the Loop this afternoon included a march to City Hall and planned civil disobedience during a sit-in.
The official police crowd estimate was 700 to 900, according to the department's News Affairs office, while a city official on the scene estimated the crowd as up to 2,000.
The rally began about 4 p.m. with speeches, and a little after 5 p.m. about 150 people began sitting down in the southbound lanes of LaSalle Street, among them SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff. By about 5:30 p.m., the main group of protesters began to move on to Chicago Public Schools headquarters, 125 S. Clark St.
After some more speeches there from the bed of a red pickup truck, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis advised protesters to disperse "quietly," while reminding them that "it's not over."
"People have a right to the neighborhoods in which they live," Lewis said. "Children have the right to a safe, nurturing, loving environment."
During the sit-in, crowds of people on the sidewalk and on northbound LaSalle continued to wave signs and chant "save our schools" as some of the crowd sat down.
The sit-in, including the plan for potential arrests, was part of an itinerary put out by CTU before the rally began.
Police soon began detaining protesters, leading more than 50 people away one by one to a holding area outside a building just south of Washington Street. Those in the holding area stood with their hands behind their backs chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Rahm Emanuel's got to go."
In all, 127 people were briefly detained and ticketed, said Chicago Police spokesman Adam Collins.
Those "who refused to disperse from sitting in the street were simply issued tickets onsite. There were no physical arrests," Collins said in a statement.
Several signs at the rally took a jab at the mayor himself, such as one that read: "Rahm's brain is underutilized." Another read, "School Closings = One Term Mayor."
A sign many people held read "Strong schools = Strong neighborhoods."
After months of public hearings, CPS last week unveiled a plan to shut down 53 elementary schools and one high school program. The district says it needs to close under-enrolled school to deal with a looming $1 billion budget deficit.
This afternoon, CTU President Karen Lewis was cheered when she took the microphone to speak at the beginning of the rally.
"Let's not pretend that when you close schools on the South and West Sides the children affected aren't black," Lewis said. "Let's not pretend that's not racist."
Lewis chided the mayor and CPS officials for not communicating more effectively with the affected communities.
Shelley Barnard, 44, attended the rally with her two daughters, Sandy, 17, and Sarah, 10. Barnard said her son attended Raymond Elementary when it closed in 2004 for "under-utilization."
"School closings have been handled so poorly in the past by CPS," Barnard said. "I don't think CPS is ready for 54 schools to close."
Jitu Brown, education organizer with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, led off the rally with a chant to fire up the crowd.
"Education is a human right. What do we do?" Brown asked the crowd.
"Fight, fight!" the crowd answered.
The long-awaited announcement of a list of expected closings has fueled a fresh round of opposition from aldermen and community leaders. The CTU, which wants a moratorium on closings, says it has been preparing parents and community groups for civil disobedience acts like sit-ins.
Hours before the union was set to lead the protest, Mayor Rahm Emanuel today said the time for negotiations is over and he's moving forward on a plan to close 54 schools.
Emanuel said he and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett "met yesterday, and we'll be meeting also as we do regularly, and go through now the implementation process that's necessary to make sure that the 54 schools are ready and we are living up to the pledges we've made."
CPS still has to hold three meetings for each school it plans to close before the Board of Education votes on the plan in late May.
A group of a dozen African-American ministers came to Emanuel's office this morning with a letter urging him to put a moratorium on closings asked about the point of additional hearings if Emanuel has already made up his mind.
"If nobody is going to be heard at the hearings, what's the use of having the hearings?" said Pastor Marshall Hatch of the New Mount Pilgrim Church in West Garfield Park. "If it's a done deal, then stop wasting everybody's time."
Among those standing with Lewis at the rally were Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.
As the march kicked off at Clark and Randolph, Lewis stood at the front of the crowd, followed closely behind a large banner that read "Strong Schools = Strong Community."
A few marchers with megaphones asked the crowd "Whose schools?"
The crowd answered back, "Our schools!"
Bystanders and Loop workers stood on bordering sidewalks, taking photos and video on their phones.
Scores of protesters clad in purple and red stood along the sidewalk on the west side of LaSalle Street, just north of Washington Street and across from City Hall, chanting: "Take my Children, Take my School" and "Rahm Emanuel has to go, hey hey, ho ho."
The colors they wore represented the Unite Here! and Service Employees International unions. Many used wooden utensils to bang on pot lids.
Dozens of police wearing helmets on foot and on bicycles had the peaceful but loud group hemmed in.
David Kaplan, a 9th-grade biology teacher at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center on the Northwest Side, said many teachers at the rally came even though their schools were not on the closing list & -- Von Steuben was not.
"I'm a lifelong Chicagoan so I have friends who've gone to schools that are going to be closed," Kaplan said. "When you take out a school from a neighborhood, you're taking out the heart and soul of that community."
Kaplan said despite what Emanuel thinks about continuing discussions about school closings, everyone protesting Wednesday refuses to accept them without a fight.
Tribune reporters Hal Dardick and John Byrne contributed.