Saturday, April 05, 2008

Real World Schools

I teach in an upscale area, and many of my students are shielded from the realities that exist just a few miles away. They don't understand that there are entire schools where kids don't learn, where violence stalks the hallways, where street cred is the coin of the realm.

They have no understanding of this type of reality.

An anti-violence rally at George Washington High School turned ugly Thursday when a series of fights broke out in a crowd of students being dismissed for the day.

Parents and students had gathered at 3 p.m. to protest what they said has been escalating violence between black and Latino students at the school, at 3535 E. 114th St. on the Far Southeast Side.

Tensions between the groups have persisted for years, parents and students said. But this week has been particularly violent, with several flare-ups that caused some parents to pull children out of school for their safety. Several parents said they would not allow their children to return to school until the violence was addressed.

The protest came on the heels of a larger rally Chicago Public Schools held earlier this week calling for an end to the shootings that have claimed 20 students this year. (emphasis mine--Darren)

I'm glad my students are so far removed from this type of school system.

Hat tip to EIA.

4 comments:

Ellen K said...

I wish I could say the same of my school. Our new attendance boundaries were specifically designed to attempt to break up existing gangs at a neighboring school. Instead the gangster activity has spread. What used to be fist fights in the hall has escalated into off campus shootings. Nobody has been killed, yet, but it's pretty chilling to see a bucolic suburban area begin to shut down because of the influx of folks from outside the region who rather than changing and embracing a better way of life, seem intent on bringing their history to life in a new location. And by the way, of the incidents in our area with school age students over 80% of them are either kids in the Hispanic gangs or kids who were placed in our area from NOLA after Katrina. You can look at stats in places like Houston and Galveston and see similar upticks in crime in schools. It's one thing to bring kids to a new area in hopes of providing a better life, it's quite another to dump kids into a school and ignore the gang activity that goes on in homes and apartments. There's no way that the adults in these cases can ignore the gang insignia, clothing, late night parties and stolen merchandise that has flooded the local garage sales. While I want to be charitable, this is a problem. And it's happening all over.

Kelvin Oliver said...

I can only imagine that students are not getting their best education at that school. Some way some how the issue of violence should decrease; especially among ethnic groups. Hopefully school officials will get the act together and work as a team.

Dan Edwards said...

.The area where I live has been, in the past, a dumping ground for LA gangsters. Juvie court judges send them out of town to "get them away from their local gang affiliations." So, what happens? The local kids are "in awe" of a real LA "hardcore" gangbanger. And of course, these LA gangbangers who should be locked away do things like try to set our local schools afire. Yep. One set fires at one of our local high schools. IMO, screw that. If these liberal judges want to change the scenery for these mutants, sent them to the same schools as the judges children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews attend.

People who chose a gang life are not normal. Or, IMO, worthy of the moniker, "human".

nebraska girl said...

We are starting to have that problem with native americans coming off the reservation (we live 40 miles from one of the poorest reservations in the country). There are towns up there that you don't even drive through because the gang violence is so bad. This may be nothing new for you city people, but it's flooring for us small towners in Nebraska.