Excessive School Force

We had no idea that CPS had a Use of Force policy!

• A special education assistant at a South Side elementary school has been charged with aggravated battery of a child after prosecutors said she placed an 8-year-old student in a chokehold and threw him to the lunchroom floor, causing serious injuries.

  Tamika Odeh, 44, is charged with aggravated battery of a child younger than 13 causing great bodily harm in connection with an incident at Parker Elementary School, 6800 South Stewart Avenue in Englewood.

  In a detention petition, prosecutors said Odeh placed the 8-year-old student in a chokehold and threw him to the ground on November 3 while inside the school. The boy struck his head on a chair, suffering what prosecutors described as “serious neck injuries” that required medical treatment at a hospital.

Of course, she was released on no bail. 

Amusingly, this was revealed in the Arrest Report:

• In an unrelated note, the CPD arrest report listed a home address for Odeh in suburban Oak Lawn. With limited exceptions, all CPS employees hired on or after November 20, 1996, must live in the city of Chicago within six months of becoming school district employees. An individual familiar with the matter told CWB Chicago that Odeh lists a Chicago address in her CPS personnel file.

We'll bet the Inspector General will be all over that residency discrepancy.