City lawyers are objecting to a petition by a Chicago Public Schools student asking that she be allowed to release footage of her being arrested by Chicago police officers earlier this year at Marshall High School.
Dnigma Howard, 17, arguing that she should be able to waive her right to privacy under the Juvenile Court Act and be allowed to release school security and police body-camera footage of her arrest to the public.
At the hearing Monday, attorneys for the city of Chicago, the officers and CPS said they are concerned the video could violate the rights of other students who might be seen in the footage.
“The city does object to the proposed order, as we believe it violates the rights of other minors and some other issues,” city Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said.
Lawyers for the city asked for more time to be able to respond to Howard’s petition and were granted an extension by Judge Sanju Oommen Green until Nov. 12.
McCaffrey said the city hopes to work with Howard and her attorneys to come an agreement on how to release the footage.
“The city can delay but ultimately the truth will come out,” Howard’s attorney, Andrew M. Stroth, said in a statement.
Howard and her attorneys say the Juvenile Court Act was enacted to protect a minor’s right to privacy in criminal court cases. In this case, Howard believes the release of the footage would be in her interest, and she’d like the juvenile judge to allow her to release it.
Footage from school security cameras obtained by the Sun-Times last April appeared to show Chicago police Officers Sherri Tripp and Johnnie Pierre shove Howard toward a stairwell at her school without provocation and then drag her down the stairs by her leg before shocking her with a stun gun and placing her under arrest.
Howard had been told to leave school by an assistant principal after completing her exams, but a security guard at the school told her to leave immediately. Howard was not allowed to talk to the assistant principal or a counselor at the school, which was a violation of her Individual Education Program, a contact between the school and a student with special needs.
Both officers were later removed from their assignments at the school following public outrage at the incident, which also reignited a debate in the city about the training and oversight of police in schools and whether officers should be assigned to schools at all.
