The principal is out. We did it.
October 11, 2019
Final supporters
UPDATE: 10/7/19 - We did it.
On Friday, Sept 27th, after the school day ended, this petition was released to the teachers at Walt Disney Magnet School. Within a week our entire community had become energized and ready to turn into something profoundly different as a thousand voices rallied to support our school. This morning, October 7th, each of us received a letter in our mailboxes announcing the removal of our Principal. Our collective voice has finally been heard.
What we have now at Disney is an understanding that there is a vibrant community that is alive and well and willing to fight for what we know is best for our students. What we have is an opportunity to fulfill our mission to be one of the most innovative schools in the country. What we have at Disney is so rare in education -- a well funded school that includes all children and the opportunity to demonstrate to the world how to do diverse inner-city education well. We have students representing our entire city who are guided by intelligent and engaged parents that support their children’s education. The voices of this petition have shown us that.
This communal energy gives us the opportunity to create something truly special here at Walt Disney Magnet School. We must understand that all movements start somewhere. We believe that we can turn our school into a community that celebrates diversity and honors each child and family no matter where they are from. The new Disney Magnet can serve as a voice that can spark other changes in education throughout Illinois and the country. We have to be the change that we wish to see in the world now.
We promise to work towards creating thoughtful and compassionate students. We promise to treat each other well. We promise to hear your voices. We promise to teach our children and ourselves to think differently about our approaches to our shared world.
Our Disney community will heal, grow, and learn from this new beginning. We encourage you to join us in the creation of a new school. One where voices of the community are heard and matter.
Thank you to everyone who helped us make this happen.
Kathy Haggard
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As teachers, parents and staff members we are initiating a fight for the removal of Principal Kathleen Hagstrom at Walt Disney Magnet School in Chicago. We have been victims of discrimination, retaliation, bullying, and unfair labor practices under the “leadership” of Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom. Walt Disney Magnet School staff, parents and students have suffered the wrath of Dr. Hagstrom.
The mental anguish many of the staff members at Walt Disney Magnet School have felt is unspeakable. We can’t describe in detail the avenues we have taken to get the attention of the CPS Board of Education. However, there have been numerous anonymous complaints filed by abused staff members who are too scared of retaliation to speak up openly Some teachers have been told to "leave Disney" on their own or else face the consequences. For example, teachers have been forced to move to different grade levels, were told to leave Disney, or were targeted and harassed. Dr. Hagstrom's harassment comes in the form of verbal assault through comments that are intimidating and unprofessional. If you happen to land on her "bad side" you will most likely be reprimanded publicly for benign reasons such as your attire. She has made inappropriate comments about the appearance of both parents and staff members, who dress in attire that differs from her preference. Her egregious comments have been heard by staff members and families of Disney students. She has made comments such as " She dresses like a slob," when pertaining to a parent or demanding staff to redo their staff portrait because it "Wasn't good enough to be on the wall, retake it." Not only does Dr. Hagstrom unfairly judge people based off of their appearance, she discriminates against people of color. If you haven't noticed , the majority of Disney teachers are affluent, thin, blonde, Caucasian women. She has even verbalized that " Disney has a particular standard to uphold, while discussing her employees such as their appearance ncluding facial features, body type, clothing, etc." Dr. Hagstrom's appalling comments delve deeper than physical appearance, they are blatantly racist. To illustrate, she instructed her assistant principal to reprimand an African American custodian for using a microwave in the teachers lounge. The actual wording was "You people can't use that microwave." How absolutely atrocious it is for anyone, especially a principal, to use such a derogatory statement towards another human being. Family members have shared their stories of being reprimanded and belittled by Dr. Hagstrom. She will make them feel inferior by publicly scolding them in front of students, other parents and Disney staff. Furthermore, Dr. Hagstrom has targeted students of color, who she deems as "bad students." These students and their families will be constantly harassed via phone calls, asked to leave Disney, or will have the police called. As a leader of a school, she should attempt to deescalate students when they are experiencing a meltdown instead of calling law enforcement to have them removed from the school. Dr. Hagstrom and her Assistant Principal Abbie Meyers, were seen by parent volunteers purposely escalating an African American student in crisis. They were seen making hand gestures at the child that originally initiated the outburst. There is a repeated pattern of Dr. Hagstrom calling the police on African American and Latino students. She will use this scare tactic to force families to transfer from Disney. She even took it as far as knocking into an African American student with her shoulder, this particular student transferred out of Disney years ago, due to Dr Hagstrom's intimidation and retaliation. Shouldn't a "leader"such as a principal be culturally sensitive? The extent of her racist remarks are atrocious. As if these comments are not despicable enough, Dr Hagstrom even took it as far as to give "coon urine" as a white elephant gift at a Disney Christmas party years ago! How is her behavior accepted and allowed to continue in a Chicago Public School?!
What we can say is that there was a time we walked the halls of Walt Disney Elementary and it was a happy, collaborative, respectful place, An atmosphere where our students were our top priority. Our educators had great relationships with each other and that reflected in the overall experience at Walt Disney Magnet School.
In the wake of what has felt like a war for the past 10 plus years, the halls feel like a slow moving remnant of all that we have lost.
Many of the staff members and parents at Walt Disney stand in fear of Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom and have expressed being afraid of her retaliation. A select group of individuals have now found the courage to stand up, but this abuse and our fight began long ago.
We have provided an abundance of evidence on several counts of misconduct by Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom. We believe that our provided evidence displays a pattern of behavior that is undeniable.
This a fight that includes several past and present teachers, parents and staff members.
We have decided to take these issues to the public in an effort to expose the situation at hand, gain support, and allow for the community to have more of a voice. In doing so ,we hope to create more movement of action.
Please sign in support of our teachers, our students, and our parents in our fight against these injustices.
*If you choose to share your experiences truthfully through the comments please do so respectfully and refrain from vulgar language,etc.
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
October 1, 2019
October 1, 2019
The administration is finally listening. We are currently working on next steps to ensure our school vision is protected.
Reached 100 supporters
September 28, 2019
473 Comments
She is not a leader, she is an authoritarian. Culture is created at the top, and unfortunately this principle has perpetuated a culture of fear. Fear does not stimulate growth. Any true leader knows this. Her time at this school needs to come to an end.
During a meeting to try and get my second son in the school, she told me to remove my son from the school that he doesn't belong there (We're African-American) so that was very offensive and racist in my opinion, so I did remove my son from the school.
My grandson's very traumatic experiences with a Preschool teacher (Mrs. Cervantes) as well as, the Disney "Culture " (perpetuated by Dr. Hagstrom), are the reasons why I chose to have him continue his education at a different CPS School.
I've long heard comments from parents at Disney who are having trouble from everything including IEPs and reporting bullying. If Dr. Hagstrom decides she doesn't like you or your family, you are guaranteed that she will go after you and make your life hard.
My brother went to this school and he said that when he was walking down the stairs and he turned his head around because he heard something ,he is Mexican, and she called him out and when another boy did the same, the other boy is white, she did not yell at him.
My daughter was refused at first from the gifted program by Hagstrom and her administration despite my daughter being recommended by her teacher and scoring 99 percentile on NWEA. Hagstrom told me some children just test well. Not an indicator of her being capable of being in gifted. I threatened to want to see the scores of all others in that program, which just happened to be majority white. My daughter graduated last year. She was accepted in gifted with my fighting only to get her in. But she remained scoring above 97 percentile in reading and math all her years. Passed her Algebra test and a perfect score on selective enrollment test. She had straight As except 1 B in Alegebra for all her years at Disney. She learned Mandarin and traveled to China. She is at Lane in the Alpha program now. She is a gifted student and Dr. Hagstrom sat there and tried to tell me she just tested well because she thought I was a poor uneducated Latina. But this Latina became an educator and I will forever remember the face of discrimination, injustice and racism this woman presented to me when wanting to close the doors on my daughter just because she wasn't white or from a family of prestige. I am sure she closed them on many other deserving children. I am happy that things will now change at Disney. Hopefully more equity and opportunities for this to be a school where all children feel welcomed.
About time cps acted on removal of this bully!
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The principal is out. We did it.
October 11, 2019
Final supporters
UPDATE: 10/7/19 - We did it.
On Friday, Sept 27th, after the school day ended, this petition was released to the teachers at Walt Disney Magnet School. Within a week our entire community had become energized and ready to turn into something profoundly different as a thousand voices rallied to support our school. This morning, October 7th, each of us received a letter in our mailboxes announcing the removal of our Principal. Our collective voice has finally been heard.
What we have now at Disney is an understanding that there is a vibrant community that is alive and well and willing to fight for what we know is best for our students. What we have is an opportunity to fulfill our mission to be one of the most innovative schools in the country. What we have at Disney is so rare in education -- a well funded school that includes all children and the opportunity to demonstrate to the world how to do diverse inner-city education well. We have students representing our entire city who are guided by intelligent and engaged parents that support their children’s education. The voices of this petition have shown us that.
This communal energy gives us the opportunity to create something truly special here at Walt Disney Magnet School. We must understand that all movements start somewhere. We believe that we can turn our school into a community that celebrates diversity and honors each child and family no matter where they are from. The new Disney Magnet can serve as a voice that can spark other changes in education throughout Illinois and the country. We have to be the change that we wish to see in the world now.
We promise to work towards creating thoughtful and compassionate students. We promise to treat each other well. We promise to hear your voices. We promise to teach our children and ourselves to think differently about our approaches to our shared world.
Our Disney community will heal, grow, and learn from this new beginning. We encourage you to join us in the creation of a new school. One where voices of the community are heard and matter.
Thank you to everyone who helped us make this happen.
Kathy Haggard
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As teachers, parents and staff members we are initiating a fight for the removal of Principal Kathleen Hagstrom at Walt Disney Magnet School in Chicago. We have been victims of discrimination, retaliation, bullying, and unfair labor practices under the “leadership” of Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom. Walt Disney Magnet School staff, parents and students have suffered the wrath of Dr. Hagstrom.
The mental anguish many of the staff members at Walt Disney Magnet School have felt is unspeakable. We can’t describe in detail the avenues we have taken to get the attention of the CPS Board of Education. However, there have been numerous anonymous complaints filed by abused staff members who are too scared of retaliation to speak up openly Some teachers have been told to "leave Disney" on their own or else face the consequences. For example, teachers have been forced to move to different grade levels, were told to leave Disney, or were targeted and harassed. Dr. Hagstrom's harassment comes in the form of verbal assault through comments that are intimidating and unprofessional. If you happen to land on her "bad side" you will most likely be reprimanded publicly for benign reasons such as your attire. She has made inappropriate comments about the appearance of both parents and staff members, who dress in attire that differs from her preference. Her egregious comments have been heard by staff members and families of Disney students. She has made comments such as " She dresses like a slob," when pertaining to a parent or demanding staff to redo their staff portrait because it "Wasn't good enough to be on the wall, retake it." Not only does Dr. Hagstrom unfairly judge people based off of their appearance, she discriminates against people of color. If you haven't noticed , the majority of Disney teachers are affluent, thin, blonde, Caucasian women. She has even verbalized that " Disney has a particular standard to uphold, while discussing her employees such as their appearance ncluding facial features, body type, clothing, etc." Dr. Hagstrom's appalling comments delve deeper than physical appearance, they are blatantly racist. To illustrate, she instructed her assistant principal to reprimand an African American custodian for using a microwave in the teachers lounge. The actual wording was "You people can't use that microwave." How absolutely atrocious it is for anyone, especially a principal, to use such a derogatory statement towards another human being. Family members have shared their stories of being reprimanded and belittled by Dr. Hagstrom. She will make them feel inferior by publicly scolding them in front of students, other parents and Disney staff. Furthermore, Dr. Hagstrom has targeted students of color, who she deems as "bad students." These students and their families will be constantly harassed via phone calls, asked to leave Disney, or will have the police called. As a leader of a school, she should attempt to deescalate students when they are experiencing a meltdown instead of calling law enforcement to have them removed from the school. Dr. Hagstrom and her Assistant Principal Abbie Meyers, were seen by parent volunteers purposely escalating an African American student in crisis. They were seen making hand gestures at the child that originally initiated the outburst. There is a repeated pattern of Dr. Hagstrom calling the police on African American and Latino students. She will use this scare tactic to force families to transfer from Disney. She even took it as far as knocking into an African American student with her shoulder, this particular student transferred out of Disney years ago, due to Dr Hagstrom's intimidation and retaliation. Shouldn't a "leader"such as a principal be culturally sensitive? The extent of her racist remarks are atrocious. As if these comments are not despicable enough, Dr Hagstrom even took it as far as to give "coon urine" as a white elephant gift at a Disney Christmas party years ago! How is her behavior accepted and allowed to continue in a Chicago Public School?!
What we can say is that there was a time we walked the halls of Walt Disney Elementary and it was a happy, collaborative, respectful place, An atmosphere where our students were our top priority. Our educators had great relationships with each other and that reflected in the overall experience at Walt Disney Magnet School.
In the wake of what has felt like a war for the past 10 plus years, the halls feel like a slow moving remnant of all that we have lost.
Many of the staff members and parents at Walt Disney stand in fear of Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom and have expressed being afraid of her retaliation. A select group of individuals have now found the courage to stand up, but this abuse and our fight began long ago.
We have provided an abundance of evidence on several counts of misconduct by Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom. We believe that our provided evidence displays a pattern of behavior that is undeniable.
This a fight that includes several past and present teachers, parents and staff members.
We have decided to take these issues to the public in an effort to expose the situation at hand, gain support, and allow for the community to have more of a voice. In doing so ,we hope to create more movement of action.
Please sign in support of our teachers, our students, and our parents in our fight against these injustices.
*If you choose to share your experiences truthfully through the comments please do so respectfully and refrain from vulgar language,etc.
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
October 1, 2019
October 1, 2019
The administration is finally listening. We are currently working on next steps to ensure our school vision is protected.
Reached 100 supporters
September 28, 2019
473 Comments
Working for this woman is like being in an abusive relationship. She welcomes you into the school, and then degrades you, making you believe that you are worthless. And all she cares about is looks, not how well a person works.
She is not a leader, she is an authoritarian. Culture is created at the top, and unfortunately this principle has perpetuated a culture of fear. Fear does not stimulate growth. Any true leader knows this. Her time at this school needs to come to an end.
During a meeting to try and get my second son in the school, she told me to remove my son from the school that he doesn't belong there (We're African-American) so that was very offensive and racist in my opinion, so I did remove my son from the school.
My grandson's very traumatic experiences with a Preschool teacher (Mrs. Cervantes) as well as, the Disney "Culture " (perpetuated by Dr. Hagstrom), are the reasons why I chose to have him continue his education at a different CPS School.
I've long heard comments from parents at Disney who are having trouble from everything including IEPs and reporting bullying. If Dr. Hagstrom decides she doesn't like you or your family, you are guaranteed that she will go after you and make your life hard.
My brother went to this school and he said that when he was walking down the stairs and he turned his head around because he heard something ,he is Mexican, and she called him out and when another boy did the same, the other boy is white, she did not yell at him.
My daughter was refused at first from the gifted program by Hagstrom and her administration despite my daughter being recommended by her teacher and scoring 99 percentile on NWEA. Hagstrom told me some children just test well. Not an indicator of her being capable of being in gifted. I threatened to want to see the scores of all others in that program, which just happened to be majority white. My daughter graduated last year. She was accepted in gifted with my fighting only to get her in. But she remained scoring above 97 percentile in reading and math all her years. Passed her Algebra test and a perfect score on selective enrollment test. She had straight As except 1 B in Alegebra for all her years at Disney. She learned Mandarin and traveled to China. She is at Lane in the Alpha program now. She is a gifted student and Dr. Hagstrom sat there and tried to tell me she just tested well because she thought I was a poor uneducated Latina. But this Latina became an educator and I will forever remember the face of discrimination, injustice and racism this woman presented to me when wanting to close the doors on my daughter just because she wasn't white or from a family of prestige. I am sure she closed them on many other deserving children. I am happy that things will now change at Disney. Hopefully more equity and opportunities for this to be a school where all children feel welcomed.
About time cps acted on removal of this bully!
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Working for this woman is like being in an abusive relationship. She welcomes you into the school, and then degrades you, making you believe that you are worthless. And all she cares about is looks, not how well a person works.