{"id":366303,"date":"2010-02-26T12:38:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T17:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/press-releases\/cta-fare-cheat-teens-get-school-suspensions"},"modified":"2010-02-26T12:38:24","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T17:38:24","slug":"cta-fare-cheat-teens-get-school-suspensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/366303","title":{"rendered":"CTA fare cheat teens get school suspensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (CBS) \u2015<\/strong> Ripping off the CTA, just because they could.<\/p>\n

\nThat’s the explanation Chicago high school students gave school officials after CBS 2 aired video last week of the youths failing to pay for their train rides on the Brown Line. A dozen of them — Von Steuben high school students — were suspended. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nCBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine says some of their peers weren’t amused. The CTA wasn’t, either. <\/p>\n

\nThe transit agency is working to correct design flaws at renovated Brown Line stations. Some doors are designed as exits, but they’re used to enter by those who don’t want to pay. That adds to a CTA budget deficit that has cut service and cost jobs. <\/p>\n

\nMore than a week after CBS 2’s first report, canine units still patrolled the Kedzie-Spaulding station. There are now new signs on doors everyone once used to leave the station. They say: “Exit through turnstyle only.” <\/p>\n

\nImmediately after the video of student pushing their way onto platforms without paying through doors opened by others, police patrols were there to prevent that. They were still there Thursday. <\/p>\n

\n“The security is a temporary measure,” Chris Bushell, CTA chief infrastructure officer, said. “What we’re doing at the moment is working with the Chicago Fire Department to come up with a safer, long-term solution.” <\/p>\n

\nThe students who snuck in the door were not only breaking the law, they were also violating a school policy designed to promote responsible behavior in the community. <\/p>\n

\nVon Steuben Metro Science High School is a math and science magnet school with a proud history and dedicated educators. <\/p>\n

\n“The great majority of the students that are coming here are very respectful, fine students, scholars that are doing really well, so I wasn’t happy to see that being reflected on television. That doesn’t truly reflect our students,” principal Pedro Alonso said. <\/p>\n

\nThe actions also don’t reflect on the good work and study habits being taught in one college prep class at Von Steuben. <\/p>\n

\n“I was kind of ashamed,” sophomore Toi Davenport said. <\/p>\n

\n“They thought it was funny. I just\u00a0thought it was immature and made a bad representation of Von Steuben,” sophomore Christian Cazares said. <\/p>\n

\nAccording to the schools’ code of student conduct, “Students may be subject to disciplinary action for violations of inappropriate Behavior that occur either on or outside of school grounds.” <\/p>\n

\nPrincipal Alonso and Dean of Students Joaquin Stephenson viewed the video, visited the station and questioned the students. They suspended 12 of them for one day each. <\/p>\n

\n“We wanted to make sure we sent that message that this was\u00a0serious\u00a0and that we are taking it seriously,” Alonso said. <\/p>\n

\nBack at the Brown Line, old habits die hard. Many exiting commuters are still using the old doors, though some say when they see people waiting to sneak in, they now go through the turnstyle. And the CTA says these exit doors will soon be a thing of the past. <\/p>\n

\n“We hope the new doors will prevent people from letting others in and cheating the system,” Bushell said. <\/p>\n

\nMany were\u00a0cheating the system last week. Now the CTA’s cracking down. And tightening up. Its not just the students who’ve learned their lesson. <\/p>\n

\nContributing: CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Marshall.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n

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CHICAGO (CBS) \u2015 Ripping off the CTA, just because they could. That’s the explanation Chicago high school students gave school officials after CBS 2 aired video last week of the youths failing to pay for their train rides on the Brown Line. A dozen of them — Von Steuben high school students — were suspended. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}