Dangerous Schools

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Poem by Gwendolyn Brook @1960

Teenagers striving for coolness: It’s a dangerous thing.

Shi was a good student who stayed in chronic trouble – coming to school late, skipping classes, cracking jokes and spending much time in ISS (in-school suspension).  His first day in high school, he got off the bus, went straight to MacDonald’s, then arrived an hour late for classes.  Within a few weeks, the lady in the school office knew him so well that when he finally arrived she had his late slip completed with name and date and only had to fill in the arrival time. The breezeway between school buildings was a noisy place where students congregated to brag about smoking, drinking and partying.  Getting to class on time was not easy. ISS was often so full there were not enough desks.  When Shi was in class he rarely paid attention; but he always did his homework and maintained good grades.

Then his older brother was killed in the early morning hours while involved in something no-good. “I told you it was going to end-up this way,” his stepfather said. It was a life-changing event, but initially not in a good way. “I wanted those people to pay for what they did,” Shi said.  Angry and confused, life seemed pointless. Hanging out with friends and wandering aimlessly around the neighborhood, he rarely went home until late in the evening. “You’re going to end up just like your brother,” his mother told him. Her comment fueled his anger.

At some point, Shi realized his mother was right.  He had some tough choices to make.  Bad forces were pulling him down. Fortunately, he was admitted to the Middle College at NC A&T University and found a different peer group – students more interested in academics than in making trouble.  Now he is a senior with an opportunity to graduate from high school with some college credits - if he hangs-on. 

Shi told this story to Dick Gordon, host of The Story, heard daily on public radio.

“Do you worry about going back to your old ways?” Gordon was asked him.

“Yea, it could happen.”

“Why? What could pull you away from all you have gained?”

He was silent for a moment then Shi said, “East Market Street.”

“I don’t understand.  What’s on East Market St?”

He laughed. “All those things that nobody needs.  You can get it right down there – drugs, alcohol, sex, gangs.”

“But why would you go back to that?”

Silence again, then, “That’s where my friends are.  And my family.  My people.  My father, my cousins and aunts and uncles. They’re all on East Market. That’s where they do what they do. Sometimes I go there.”

You can hear the story of Shi Leach in his own voice at: (http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_092712.mp3/view).

Before Shi was a student at A&T’s middle college, he was a student at Smith High School, one of four large urban high schools in Greensboro. Smith, along with Dudley High School, serves mostly minority students. They are Title I schools with large numbers of students living in inner city poverty.  It is difficult to be either a student or a teacher in these high schools. Last week, a Dudley student left in-school suspension, returned to the classroom where she had been dismissed and beat and severely injured the teacher.  A student posted a photo of the teacher lying disheveled and unconscious on the floor.   For students to succeed academically at these schools, they have to reject the prevailing culture.

We tolerate the conditions in these failing schools because we are isolated from them. A few miles across town from Smith High School is an equally large but academically more successful school – Grimsley High School. Here are the 2012 SAT results for the two schools:

Smith: 122 students tested; 802 average math and reading scores

Grimsley: 303 students tested; 1077 average math and reading scores

The Grimsley students are bound for UNC and other good universities.  Smith students are mostly bound for GTCC where they will take remedial classes before they can be admitted to real college classes.

It is far easier to point to the problem than to a solution.  Some schools are failing, but they are the symptom (not the cause) of the real problems – neighborhoods in economic distress, fatherless families, rampant teenage pregnancies, gangs and hopelessness. We rarely produce enduring reform in schools in these failed neighborhoods. We could, but it requires a long-term commitment from very talented teachers and administrators. As Guilford County Schools so clearly demonstrates, a principal who institutes noticeable improvement in a failing school is on the fast track to a better assignment in a better neighborhood. Struggling schools are not places where good teachers want to work.  Grimsley High School has 19 teachers with National Board Certification. Smith has seven.  Dudley has three.

At this point, for children born in these zones of failure, it is a matter of individual strength. Shi found strength and clarity about his future in the nick of time. Mothers and fathers must fight for the safety and well being of their children. The power has to come from within: one mother, one father, one teenager at a time. It is easy to think we are disconnected from these people and their stories. Shi is a voice on the radio. The beaten teacher becomes a statistic. His attacker’s picture in the paper is just another criminal on the other side of town. But we are not disconnected people with separate stories. Their stories are a part of our stories – stories with no real ending, stories that flow together into a larger and unfinished book.