I have old student loans totaling up to $ 15,000 which have now been turned over to a collection agency.

Can this loan now, get discharged with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy since now being turned over to a collection agency?

Does a Chicago Public Schools Security Guard have the right to photograph me and my child without our permission?

This is in regard to an ongoing dispute between me and the security guard at Solomon Elem about where I can drop off my son (who is disabled, but not in a wheelchair, so the security guard does not think that his disability exists.) The problem is the rules change every month and they have no designated parent drop off area. They think the buses “have” to be able to drive where ever they want, even AFTER they have unloaded. But there are only a few buses. It is absurd. It has escalated to the point now that the security guard goes out into the street and hits parents’ vehicles and screams at us that we are creating “obstructions” that only exist in his mind. He scares us and our kids. He says we are “breaking the law,” but we are not considered to be PARKING if we don’t leave the vehicle. That is called STANDING. We want to be able to stop momentarily so we can see our kids walk into the building.

Then we move along. If you could see this you would not believe it. The neighborhood is completely quiet and peaceful. Without this insane person screaming in the middle of the street and hitting peoples’ cars, everything would be fine. There are numerous solutions that we have suggested to this problem–such as have the buses remain on one side of the building and the parents drop off on the other side– but nothing ever changes.

This has been going on almost 4 years. The principal comes out and says what we are doing is fine with her but the next day we have to deal with the crazy security guard going ballistic on us. I have become the special target of his nastiness because I am outspoken on behalf of my son because he is disabled and needs to be (a) dropped off close to the building and (b) supervised because he may wander off. So, the security guard has taken photographs of me and my child, to “prove that I am breaking the law.” But as I said I have not left the vehicle and the sign says “no parking.” It doesn’t say “no standing.”

Now, the latest is he called the 17th district police to try and get them to arrest me. I don’t think they can arrest someone on a parking charge, can they? (The police didn’t arrest me, and they also realized that I was standing, not parking, but they did not realize the entire history of the insanity. So they did nothing and left.) We complained yet again to the principal and the CPS admin and since nothing happened, this emboldened the security guard, and he has reiterated his “constitutional right” to photograph me and my son any time he wants to.

I don’t think he has this right because he is a CPS employee. Is this correct?

In the past week I have been dealing with the Chicago Public School administration about an alleged gun on a school bus. My children, ages 7 and 6 both take the bus to their elementary school.

Last Wednesday I was watching a TV program that showed a gun that was used in committing a murder, my son told me “that looks like the gun the boy had on the bus.” Needless to say I was in total shock and asked him the typical who, what and when questions. Both my children said they saw it “before we went to Disney World”, which was a month ago.

The following day, Thursday, I called the school at 8:45AM and told the receptionist the entire story. He proceeded to tell me that the assistant Principal is in a meeting and we are in the middle of testing, she will call you back. A few hours pass and I hear nothing so I called again and was told that they were in the middled of a fire drill, I gave her the message and she will call you back.

Needless to say I did not receive a call back. My children came home and asked them what happened and they said “we found the boy”, they told me that a CPS Security Guard removed them from their classrooms around 2:30-2:45PM to take them from classroom to classroom to point out the child with the gun. I was shocked and appalled that they would do that without contacting me. The Assistant Principal finally called me at 5:40PM, to tell me she talked to the boy and even though they found “play handcuffs” and the gun in question was “paper”. I repeatedly asked her why she did not call me back and she did not answer, she only stated “I did the best I could”.

I was called by another in the office and was then contacted by the Acting Director of Safety and Security for CPS. He requested a meeting with me on Friday, but I found it unnecessary to talk to him, my children were not the offenders, but rather the actions of the principal were what I was questioning. I also contacted all of the media and two news agencies pick up the story, ABC 7 ran it on Monday.

I have been in contact with the administration via email and phone and no one wants to say anything regarding the handling of the incident. They went as far as “terminating” a conversation with me when I said he did not listen to me in our previous conversation and did not respond to any emails sent to him and I told him I have no faith in the investigation.

I need help. I need to know if certain policy and procedures were followed properly. My children were paraded around from class to class to find an offender and I fear retribution buy the child or other students. I have all the emails I have ever sent to CPS as well as the news story, with CPS “official” response. I do not want another family to go through what we are going through.