Controversy reigns in Windy City kids' sticker design contest

wfgodot

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Chicago City Sticker Controversy Continues: Runner Up Pulls Design (huffingtonpost.com)
For years, the Chicago vehicle sticker design content gave local kids an opportunity to showcase their art, and residents a chance to vote on the pricey sticker they have to look at all year. The 2012 contest, however, has become mired in controversy -- and the city has decided to come up with its own design this year.

Last week, City Clerk Susana Mendoza announced that the winning design -- a tribute to first responders -- would be scrapped after some police blogs and law enforcement officials said the sticker contained gang signs. The 15-year-old boy who created the winning design denied those allegations, but Mendoza said she had no choice but to use the runner-up's design instead.

This weekend, however, the family of runner-up Caitlin Henehan told the Chicago Tribune that they don't want the Resurrection High School student's design on the sticker, either.
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the rest with design pics at link above
 
Huh...what a shame for the kids that put in all the work for a good cause to be rejected.

From the link:

Mendoza told the AP her office is reviewing the contest and whether it should continue.

“I don’t want to put any other child through what our entrants this year have gone through,” she said.
 
This is just unbelievable to me. What an encouragement this could have been for this young man who seems to be at risk of going in the wrong direction. Honoring his talent could have gone a long way towards impacting his future enthusiasm for school and pursuit of his art. I suppose from the perspective of LE, when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I'm willing to bet that to the vast majority of Chicago's residents, the hands were an innocently rendered portrayl of.....hands--nothing else. Not only have these hyper-vigilant adults ruined the experience of sucessful artistic expression and competition for this kid, it sounds like the runner up is now suffering collateral damage as well.
 
I feel so bad for this boy. He did nothing wrong! The examples of the hands were given to him from his ART TEACHER from an ART BOOK.

Poor guy, this is going to make him feel bad for a long time. :maddening: :banghead:
 
and Heaven Forbid the runner-up be harassed because she drew three super heros and none of them were black.

These are KIDS!!!!!!!!

So now the qualifications for being racist is if a kid draws a picture and doesn't include different races??? Geez!!!
 
I feel so bad for this boy. He did nothing wrong! The examples of the hands were given to him from his ART TEACHER from an ART BOOK.

Poor guy, this is going to make him feel bad for a long time. :maddening: :banghead:



I hadn't read these were examples from his art teacher earlier. I saw the 'hands' when this news first broke a few days ago. I studied them hard and saw nothing that caused me to be concerned they depicted gang signs.

Very sad for this young man. Though he has probably gotten more publicity than he would have if Cook County (and the entire state of Illinois) weren't so messed up.

I wish him well and hope his art talent takes him to great places in life.

As for the runner up. All I read is her family chose to withdraw her artwork due to the harrasment she was receiving. I hope she is mature enough to understand the nature and reasons for her parents choice. I'm sure it was a difficult decision for them to make.

I'm sure there are organizations out there which will recognize both of these childrens/teens? artwork and can provide them with an avenue to blossom without the terrible/nonsense Cook County politics.
 

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