Orland Park neighbors complain about noisy playground, respond with 'vulgar' music
ORLAND PARK, Ill. - In Orland Park, a dispute two years in the making between a school district and homeowners is raging.
It started in spring 2020 when School District 135 installed a new playground and put in noisy instruments for the kids.
The homeowners who live directly behind the park say the instruments are too loud and that no one was ever asked about the equipment before it was installed.
"I don’t think that anyone can withstand hearing instruments all day long in your home," said Laura Rayo, who lives closest to the park and spoke at a District 135 board meeting Tuesday night.
She and her family are most impacted. They told FOX 32 Chicago they reached out to the principal of Prairie Elementary School when the instruments were first put in and got nowhere. The family then reached out to the superintendent of the school district, and still nothing.
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So, the family decided to start playing loud music last year, directing it towards the playground. The instruments were removed for a time to be repaired but were put back up last month.
The family decided to blast loud music again, at times vulgar music, to make someone pay attention to them.
"We were nervous because we were like, this is not what we want to do, but nobody was listening to us," said Rayo.
They say the police chief had come out to start mediating between the two parties, and finally the park instruments were taken down, but the bases remain on site.
Parents of children who attend Prairie Elementary also spoke at the board meeting. Many of them stated they felt poorly for the Rayo family, but don’t agree with their protest of nasty music.
"I feel bad that they were neglected for two years, but it shouldn't be at the cost of our children," said parent Iwona piwowarczyk.
"All the families that are out there, I'm sorry that you all had to go through this with us. Because we all went through it together. And we did not want to have to do that. It was something that we were pushed into again because of the power struggle that District 135 just didn't want to do, and they could have taken care of this two years ago," a nearby homeowner said.
District 135 officials did read a statement at the board meeting Tuesday night.
"There’s nothing more important than the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. The social media chatter about the playground situation at Prairie is unfortunate as the district considers this to be a matter of school safety," said School board president Linda Peckham-Dodge.