The Virginian-Pilot
©
Admit it.
When you read about that Portsmouth mom who was caught for secretly enrolling her kid in a Chesapeake high school, you gave the lady a mental high five.
OK, maybe not. I did.
Calm down. I'm not condoning illegal activity. What she did was wrong. If you want your kids in Chesapeake schools, there's a simple solution: Move to Chesapeake.
Still, when you hear educators tell how hard it can be to get parents to even show up for PTA meetings, it's heartening to hear about a parent willing to knock herself out to get her son into the school of her choice.
This isn't about the sneaky mother, though. It's about the school division she tried to leave.
According to news reports, a boy was nearly killed inside a Portsmouth high school the week before last. A fellow student reportedly choked him until he lost consciousness.
The attacker - whose extracurricular activities include membership in the Bloods, police say - has been charged with attempted murder and is being held in juvenile detention.
If police accounts are accurate, let's hope this little thug will be tried as an adult so we'll someday be able to print his name in the newspaper.
Wait. It gets worse.
The Pilot reports that Portsmouth school officials decided not to tell parents about the near-slaying because it involved only a couple of kids and no weapon.
How dare they?
Parents - heck, taxpayers - have an absolute right to know what's going on in their public schools. Trying to cover up violence does nothing but offer parents a false sense of security.
When parents send their kids to school, they expect two things: a good education and a safe environment. Schools can boast all they want about ascend ing test scores, but if students risk their lives to use the lavatory, those achievements don't mean much.
Come to think of it, school s should treat discipline records with even more transparency than test scores. Release them to the public.
Daily. A year-end roundup of divisionwide behavior isn't very enlightening.
Vice principals could take 10 minutes at the end of the day to post infractions on the school's Web site. You know, right there beside the school's glowing vision statement.
They could note how many kids were tardy that day, how many got busted for chewing gum, stealing and fighting. And how many tried to kill.
I checked the Woodrow Wilson site and there's plenty of space for a Daily Discipline Update. I'd suggest putting it in that blue field under the merry Principal's Message.
No need to name the little darlings who are acting up in school. Their offenses alone would prove interesting. Might increase hits on school Web sites, too.
It's not just Portsmouth, of course. All public schools have discipline problems. None want to publicize them.
Tough. These learning institutions belong to the taxpayers. We have a right to know what's impeding academics and endangering students.
As soon as it happens.
Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
OMG I agree with you on something..... :}
Except that it will never happen. However a third party could build an independent site and pay the kids for the information. Do you think Parents would donate to the site. Advertisements would just cover the cost of the site. I was thinking more along the lines of Cash and or Small tech gadgets to be given for information on fights and Bullying. And I also assumed you were of the mindset that we should reduce government and regulations. Sorry if i misjudged you.... :}
you should be scared
Everyone that sends their kids to public school should be scared. There are more kids in school on drug charges, robbery charges, gang charges, and weapon charges than you could possible imagine. I know because I work there. They have no respects for any adult and they want you to know it. Teacher's are scared to death and the students that try to learn are scared for reasons just like what happened at Wilson. Things like that happen all the time. Weapons are brought to school, fights are had, and teachers are told they will get theres and nothing is ever report. Whitaker will report things like being touched on the arm and a commit he had nothing to do with, but he won't report voilence. Wake up Portsmouth. Stop fighting with eachother, and start worry about what is going on in the schools.
kudos
Kudos ..Transparency and a simple solution to a big problem. Not something are government is known for, but business 101. You have to know what the problems are before you can fix them…Anything else is speculation…
If schools would do this they could get funding for early intervention programs and uniforms…
Instead the police get funding for discriminatory gang enforcement. We build more jails/prisons for young black men, the underprivileged and children raising themselves so parents can keep the power on and food in the fridge…
A big business profiting off the incarceration of a neglected disadvantaged segment of our society…So the privileged few can profit..
If only!
If only all schools (why limit it to high schools?) would put this sort of thing up on the school websites, it would be very enlightening. As it is now, schools are required to report incidents if violence to be included as part of the annual School Report Card. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of latitude in what constitutes a "violent" incident, unfortunately (similar to the great latitude in reporting graduation rates).
The devil is in the details, of course. And many details are edited out or smoothed over to make sure that schools look the best possible.
Posting School Discipline Reports
The problem is, Kerry, many school administration's either ignore displine referrals so teachers stop reporting incidents, or even in some cases, some teachers have been told NOT to refer students.
Even the end of the year discipline report is not an accurate accounting of the problems which exist in far too many schools.
If there is no back-up by the school administration, the discipline referrals are minimal.