When I moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1999 my two oldest children were two and three years old. I had researched the schools in the area and the neighborhood elementary school had an “A” rating from the state. I was just 23, but I was thinking ahead. After they started school, I found that an "A" school didn't mean that things would go smoothly.
Once both of the children had been threatened with being held back for “developmental delays” (translation: They got good grades but posed a threat to the school’s standardized testing scores – the only determining factor for the state school grade) I started looking for magnet schools. In the school’s quest for a good reason to hold them back, we found that both of them qualified as “gifted.” BigGirlChild went on to a successful relationship with the Montessori magnet and BigBoyChild is in a Gifted and Talented magnet.
Of course, I was glad to have found the magnet schools that suited my children, but I often lamented that I could not just push them out the door to walk to the neighborhood school that is less than a mile from my home. After all, I had bought my house in this area because of the “good schools.” Since then, Fort Caroline Elementary and Fort Caroline Middle schools have consistently gotten poor state scores. Evidently, they couldn’t hold back enough children to keep them up. Because I was on the board of the PTA, I heard all about the mass exodus from the elementary school.
I thought I had made a good choice, but still I wondered, what would it be like to not have to haul the kids across a bridge and into the inner city to go to school? Wouldn’t it be so much easier for them to go to the nearby school? What about the little kids? Should we try again?
I have recently gotten my answer.
My big kids are both in middle school now. They would go to Fort Caroline Middle school if they were not in the magnet. Here’s a video of a teacher at Nathan Bedford Forrest High School (I shit you not on that name) choking a student.
The teacher was “severely” disciplined. He was given a 15 day suspension without pay and transferred… to Fort Caroline Middle School.
That relocation happened this summer. So, I chalked it up to luck that my kids weren’t there with someone who tends to choke children. I'm certain that my kids' schools aren't perfect and it's a pain to get them across town, but at least no one is choking them. (yet)
Recently, the final nail was put in the coffin of questioning my school choices.
Robert Allan Cowan, the guidance counselor at Fort Caroline Middle school was arrested for sexual battery on a victim younger than 12. That means that the victim was likely a sixth grader. She reported to police that she was touched improperly and forced to perform oral sex on the man. Before he was the guidance counselor at Fort Caroline, he was the assistant principal at Arlington Middle School, the school that would be my children’s only non-magnet alternative because of Fort Caroline’s failure to make adequate progress. He had also served as principal at a school in another county.
This makes me wonder, how do you go from principal to assistant principal to guidance counselor? I wonder if someone knew something we didn't?
I think someone needs to hold the Duval County School System back for developmental delays.
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~Seneca
Now that my own kids have been traversing the educational system, I've encountered a few bumps - but nothing like that video, and nothing like what you've described so far. To be honest, though, regarding that video - I'd like to have seen what preceeded that. While I don't condone the teacher's actions, I have to wonder what transpired to precipitate that.
Thumbed.
OES - It's surprisingly diverse, actually. Just goes to show that stupid doesn't see color or gender.
Julie - I agree. I am devoted to keeping my kids in the public system, even if we do flee to magnets. Of course, monetarily I don't have much choice, but if you give up on the schools, you give up on the city.
Bill - The incident happened last school year. I seem to remember something about the kid being a smartass or something, but he did not physically assault the teacher or anything.
The sad part about this for me is that this isn't about some far-off school. This is where my kids would be going if we hadn't bailed out - and worse - where my other children will go if I don't go through all that again.
The superintendent of the entire district of 170,000 students here hates magnet schools. He's on record as saying that all students should have the same achievement as those kids at the talented and gifted high school and the other magnets. He thinks those talented kids should be in their local schools, and in a sense he has a point. But that sentiment ignores some atrocious real world scenarios. Forget for a moment that the magnet schools are a safe haven, that there is a sense of collaborative competitiveness where the group raises the level of performance of the individual, where the teachers are not spending 80% of his or her time trying to get the bottom 80% of students based on previous scores to meet minimum assessment standards. (Those students deserve that attention--but the teachers and local campuses are not equipped to deal with let alone challenge those students who want to to much more than minimum requirements.)
Two of mine matriculated from the Townview Talented and Gifted High School in Dallas, the other graduated from the Townview Science and Engineering Magnet. Those two schools have been ranked numbers 1 and 3 by Newsweek Magazine as the number 1 and number 3 public high schools in the nation for many years running (based on AP criteria). The superintendent's response? "Every child should have the opportunity to achieve that same experience and that's what we're working toward." Huh? Never mind that there are application and admission benchmarks to be met...such as scoring in the 90th percentile of a national standardized test (not the stupid state test that your dog Ouija could pass), GPA benchmarks, a portfolio of exemplary work, recommendations, etc., etc.
Our neighborhood high school, which is less than a mile away instead of the 13 mile away distant magnet high school--last year a child was murdered for not wanting to be a distributor of "Cheese" a heroin concoction--by another child--both students at the school. Would you guess that the murderer student was interested in having those kind of benchmarks to get into the TAG highschool?
The first year that TAG high was awarded the no. 1 spot in the nation by Newsweek, a District employee working for the inhouse PR/newspaper called the principal and asked for a scoop. The principal said he was under an NDA before Newsweek was published. The result? There was no internal reporting of the accomplishment after the fact, there was no collaboration from the District to the local news media outlets. The principal learned of the schools no. 1 status in a congratulatory phone call from a former colleague in a different state.
That same high school serves only 400 students, 100 per grade level. Those 100 graduating seniors routinely get offers of scholarships in excess of $10 million dollars from tier one public and private universities across the nation. That's more that all the other high schools in the district combined. (My own son turned down a full ride scholarship plus a $2k per year stipend at a first class engineering school--he scored a perfect score on his SATs in addition to having a one man art show as a senior at the Contemporary Art Museum--in order to enter the Plan II Honors program at UT Austin where he also has a double major in studio arts. And yes, we pay full price for that. The fact that he's in an Honors major program also means that the school didn't take any of his AP classes as credit--they wanted him to take those classes that overlapped for the experience in exchange for being in honors classes that featured only 35 students instead of 350 students per class.)
I rant and rave...but the fact remains that those in charge of large urban school districts are often overwhelmed by political or racial considerations and compromises, or are vastly underqualified for their appointments, or are plainly buttugly stupid.
Sorry for the rant, but it makes my blood boil too.
I've only got three letters for you: WTF????
And as for the school name, my Southern alma matre gave up the mascot name "Rebels" about 15 or 20 years ago. Isn't it about time to stop honoring Gen. Forrest? Jeez.
it's worth the aggravation of driving all around town -- it's not forever but the scars they might receive from those kinds of monsters you've shown us will never go away.
Marple - The worst of it is that the children in our neighborhood WERE.
AHP - I know!
bob - That seems to be the benchmark: better than the worst is okay. Maybe their test scores are so bad because the kids are too busy trying to keep the genitals of adults out of their mouths. I'd like to string that guy up and beat him until candy comes out.
MTK - I am constantly reminded that most sex offenders are never caught.
Barry - I suppose I get the idea that the superintendant wants all the schools to be outstanding, it just strikes me as naive. My parents think I'm terrible to send the kids into the worst part of the city to school, but at least in their schools most of the violence is on the outside. It's a shame that kids that don't have parents who will bail them out of the standard school or who can't test highly have to deal with those things, though.
Children who don't come equipped with high IQ's or parents who are proactive, educated or wealthy don't have magnets or private schools as an option. (And sometimes it's those kids that need the advantage the most.) Double edged sword...
Safe_Bet - BigGirlChild has horrible vision. When she was little, we didn't know it because she could write her letters and read flash cards. It wasn't until she was due to enter kindergarten that the routine school-entry exam caught her vision problem. Once she had those glasses, all she wanted to do was wander around and stare at the world. ADD! ADD! (Ugh.)
Her brother has a very high IQ and is easily bored. He got bad grades and generally hated school. He's got a smart mouth to boot. ADD! ADD! (Sheesh)
Both of my children were tested and do not have ADD. Any child who does not fit inside the robo-suit is suggested for testing. It's disgusting and a giant cop-out.
Teachers are not equipped with basic discipline skills by their administrations or educators. They aren't allowed to hit them and they don't know what else to do. If they do try anything creative or intelligent, some a-hole sues them. This results in a veritable blizzard of notes between school and home repeated around the country ad nauseum. Parents can't control a child in the classroom in absentia and teachers are unable to keep control of their classrooms.
The answer, unfortunately, has become drugging children into oblivion.
Procopius - Every year someone appeals to have the name of Forrest High School changed and every year the school board kills the measure. We also have Robert E. Lee High School backing them up. What a town.
Gary - Administrative shenanigans must be part of the curriculum for a Masters or Doctorate in Education. Hmph.
skeletnwmn - I am very glad we chose the schools we did, but I'm tired. I still have two more kids to get through this mess and the SmallGirlChild already has a note home from preschool saying she talks too much and doesn't follow the rules on the playground. I asked her about it and she said, "I don't like rules." I'm in deep, deep trouble.
I can't even begin to imagine what fresh hell Pudge will rain down on us.
God makes them cute so you don't smack 'em, right?
Maybe someone should organize a march against pedophiles in the local school. If nothing else, this ought to be enough to make the school board lose the election.
Homeschool! I'm right with Gwen.
As always, well written.
This is really awful and we've got little Jacob who's already in the Duval County system. I think our location will be better for him as far as magnet schools but you just never know!
Good luck.
Luck and wisdom - either way, no kid should have to be in a school system where that sh . . . sort of behavior is permissively dealt with. That you're not having an exorcist moment shows the mature restraint which often marks your work.
The only non-private schools that have any flexibility in curriculum are charter schools, and unfortunately, at least in my area they are often labeld "failed schools" due to their poor showing in the state grading system.
Full disclosure: Both my kids went through magnet programs in FL.
I'd like to know how a child in the class had a video camera, why the choker allowed himself to be taped and why there was a gurney in the class? It's disturbing in too many ways to count. Glad your kids are safe... and yet is any child safe from teachers who have temper issues?
How is it that the punk who choked the kid is still able to walk??!!
Forget the whiny soccermommy/daddy style paper filler outers.
Just as it has been PROVEN to stop a bully, confronting a punk/bully with his/her own style of abuse will stop the bullying, a REAL dad would see that the punk/bully is stopped.
There is no other way in which to effectively deal with this other than having a couple of items in dad's scrotum.
I wish there had been such things as magnet schools when I was growing up. Though the current mania for standardized tests had not yet materialized, “Lowest Common Denominator” was still the word of the day. Throughout grade school, many hours were spent listening to classmates reading aloud from textbooks at the rate of one word every two seconds or so, or reading aloud assignments riddled with the most absurd grammatical errors. Kids who were interested in anything other than football or dirty jokes were picked on and/or ostracized.
Mrs. Collipi hitting me upside the head for not greeting her correctly.
Mr. Combs throwing my desk - with me in it - across the room because I asked some kid for a pencil.
Some student teacher pulling my hair because I wouldn't listen to her in a "respectful" manner, whatever that means. (I was a pretty respectful kid - most of the time.)
Bonitas right back at you, Jodi.