The Chicago Teachers Union says it will stage three days of protest marches, starting Saturday, to try to stop the Chicago Public Schools from closing 54 failing schools.

The teachers union also plans to lobby state lawmakers to do whatever they can to stop the school closures.

With the final school board vote set for next week, the union plans to march on the South and West sides, where most of the closures are planned.

The union insists, children will be endangered by having to walk through hostile gang territory to their new schools.

The school system responds, it is “determined to upend the status quo that threatens to keep another generation of our children trapped in under-resourced, under-utilized schools.”