The city of Chicago has filed an injunction against the current teacher strike, calling on a judge to declare it illegal under the city’s collective bargaining laws. One of the arguments  the city puts forward in its legal brief is that the strike is illegal because it is endangering the students by making it possible for them to be out on the city’s dangerous streets.

And who is responsible for keeping the streets safe? That would be … the city, as it bluntly acknowledges on page 8 of the motion seeking a restraining order against the strike:

CPS [Chicago Public Schools] also provide a safe haven for students from violence. While the City of Chicago makes every effort to reduce violence in our neighborhoods, the fact is that CPS students, like students in many urban areas, are at risk of violence when they are not in school. No CPS student has been a victim of gun violence in a CPS school since at least 2007. Simply put, when students are not in school, they are decidedly less safe and more likely to be victims of gun violence than when they are in school.

In other words the city of Chicago is literally arguing that its own streets are so dangerous that merely preventing children from going to school constitutes a serious threat to their lives.