H-F Principal Accuses Students Of 'Gang Activity' In Letter

FLOSSMOOR, IL — With just a few days notice, some parents of students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School were required to attend a mandatory meeting over the weekend regarding what Principal Dr. Jerry Lee Anderson called "gang activity" involving students at the school. In a letter addressed to the parents earlier in the week, Anderson said that failure to attend the meeting would mean the student would be "excluded from Homewood-Flossmoor High School."

Art Wiggins, a Chicago Heights resident and parent of an H-F senior, was one of the parents who received the letter. He said it was mainly the parents of male African-American students who were sent the letter and required to attend the meeting.

Wiggins and another parent spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times, indicating that the alleged behavior linked to gang activity was nothing more than high school kids imitating their favorite athletes and other innocent gestures like posing with a trophy some students won in a basketball tournament.

The full letter sent to a total of what's reported to have been 70 or so parents is shown below this article.

Anderson, in a statement to the newspaper, defended the sending of the letter and the holding of the meeting.

"We have some who believe that violence is not part of what happens in the suburbs, that we are somehow immune," she said. "We are not. We need informed, empowered parents to be a part of the solution."

Wiggins, a candidate in the 2019 Chicago Heights mayoral race, told WGN that it appeared that administrators pulled images from students' social media pages and that police were not involved in the meeting, which he called an invasion of privacy by holding some 25 and 30 parents in a single room.

“Why wasn’t there police there? Because nothing criminal has happened. And to say they’re going to punish somebody — exclude or expel or however you want to interpret that — for a crime that hasn’t happened, is not America, even in a high school.”

Homewood police confirmed they were not informed of the meeting, directing concerned residents to contact the school directly.

Here's a look at the letter that was sent to the parents.

Top photo: Patch file photo / Tim Moran