Friends, the public school system isn't broken. It is working exactly as it was designed: to support white men of privilege in their pursuit of higher education and more privilege. It does not work if you are: female, neurodivergent, economically challenged, a person of color, a person from a country with a different history and experience than the US, a non native English speaker, a person struggling with trauma, a person struggling with mental illness, a person whose parents are not present and reading to them nightly, a person who has no real interest in going to college...
*Students of color who have behaviors are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, and given IEP's. This means they cannot be expelled or disciplined for their behaviors. This was put in place to reverse the "school to prison pipeline".
* Dangerous students are allowed to remain in school. Their "right to an education" is more important than the safety of the 1500 other kids in the building.
*There are kids in school who wear police "house arrest" ankle bracelets.
* In some districts, a boy who has raped a girl is allowed to stay in the building, even taking classes with her, with administrator knowledge, simply because the girl was too humiliated to contact police.
* In Some Districts, a student with a restraining order against another student must remain in the building with them, they're just told to avoid them in the hallways.
*Certain districts boot kids who have behaviors because they can no longer "cover up" the issues.
*Buildings cover up troubled kids constantly. Constantly.
*The first thing in every administrator's mind when they wake up is "How do I keep this out of the news?"
* It is deemed reasonable by a district to tell deans and AP's they must "pat down" a kid as part of a safety plan every day they enter the building.
*Most districts have no funding for any kind of real mental health support. Counselors are forced to manage testing schedules, student schedules and community college/STEM credits.
*Most districts are underfunded for the surge of neurodivergent students they have enrolled, the number of economically challenged, food deprived, under parented and post covid trauma students that inhabit buildings.
* Many buildings have loaded guns walk in the door daily. One building had a gun turned into the front office by a student who found it in the parking lot. The same building had a kid with a loaded gun sitting in a front office for thirty minutes before he was patted down. A call had been made to Safe To Tell to warn the administration that the kid had a gun, yet they did not pat him down immediately upon arrival.
*Bathrooms are being locked in some buildings due to the volume of students smoking pot in them. Unofficially, there are rumors that kids are selling guns to one another in the bathrooms.
This is not a gun control issue. This is not a legislative issue. This is a parenting and school district issue. Parents threaten to sue if their kid is denied their right to an education. Schools rely on student numbers for funding. This is a terrible recipe. Nobody is getting an education and nobody is safe.
I will not reveal my sources. I've been inside for 20 years and have friends in four districts: Do the research yourself. Listen to the Principal on the news who came forward last week to state that she is forced to keep a kid in her building who has to be patted down daily as part of the safety plan.
She's a middle school principal.
Listen to the mom in DPS who has had to dedicate her entire life to finding support in the public school system for her neurodivergent son.
She and her husband are fortunate to be able to financially do this.
Listen to every teacher who expresses concern for their own safety, every day, when they walk into their building. They are not "bitching and moaning", they are scared.
Scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment