Chicago leads the country in the number of murders of any major city. Our mayor continues to ignore this fact and go ahead with funding and building new parks that cost $55 million downtown and a new river walk downtown that costs $100 million.

My students on the South Side of the city live in one of the most violent and low income neighborhoods.

Our mayor claims he cares about the kids, but his actions prove otherwise.

How can he invest millions of dollars into promoting tourism while right now I have two students in my class during lunch one wearing khaki pants with dirt, pencil and pen marks. Another who has mental issues that need to be addressed. We have 1 counselor for 500 students.  Our counselor has to do test prep, college admissions, and a multitude of other tasks, in addition to the time he can give to students for social and emotional support.

He just need to spend a few days going through the neighborhoods of the kids he claims he supports to realize that our communities need help.

David is a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.