Posted on 08/25/2014 9:44:44 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
The specter of Michael Brown is inescapable inside his high school.
Hundreds of students, most of them African American, walk the same halls and sit in the same lunchroom as Brown did — before his hard-won graduation and, days later, his death in the middle of Canfield Drive not far away.
The American flag at the entrance of Normandy High School flies at half-staff. Students write and draw in their journals and read essays about police brutality, Brown’s fatal shooting by a white police officer on Aug. 9 considered the most vivid case study at hand.
Teachers rush from class to weep, behind closed doors, in faculty restrooms. They say they are crying not only for Brown, but also for Normandy and the students who remain in their classrooms.
If education is the gateway to a better future, the door here was shut long ago, fueling a mix of resignation and rage.
The school system’s entrenched dysfunction helps explain the street anger that has unfolded in neighboring Ferguson since Brown was killed by officer Darren Wilson in what Wilson’s supporters have called an act of self-defense.
Brown’s death came amid one of the most chaotic chapters in this failing school district’s history.
The Normandy district is on the front lines of the national school-choice debate, which at its core asks whether public policy should enable families in poor, low-performing schools to attend higher-performing public and private schools in other communities. Normandy is a test of the public system’s defenders, who say such districts must be fixed, not abandoned.
For years, Normandy High was considered the most dangerous school in the city, with abysmal test scores, underperforming teachers, a student body in which nine in 10 students qualify for subsidized or free lunches, and graduation rate that’s less than 50 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
When the USA flag is lowered to half mast to honor a local thug named Brown, I believe it has to be recognized that for some if not many people the flag is not a memorial to/for this Nation’s Founders or the many who died fighting for this Nation but instead has become a cloak for the no gooders.
I’m sure there’s the same drama at Chicago High Schools... what with the hundreds of black kids killed every year... Teachers crying, ‘news’ reporters knee padding...
Clearly that is the case. Look, just because many sinners don’t think much of the Bible and trash it as irrelevant, you know better. You know what the flag stands for even if a segment of the populace can’t grasp it with you.
This constituency, the community forced to endure Normandy high school, votes regularly for their democrap oppressors. It makes it a little more difficult to work up sympathy for them.
“At Brown’s impoverished high school, students try to make gains against odds”
Well, in Brown’s case it appears the “gains” he was trying to make was a case of Swisher Sweets blunts. Ultimately, he didn’t beat the “odds.”
It’s clear, spend more money on Normandy High School, tax rich whitey to get the money, then all of the school’s problems will go away and they can rename the school. Barak Obama/Michael Brown High.
The liberals always scream, “all education needs is more money.” When asked how much would be enough, they stutter and stammer....
Who gave the order to fly the US flag at half-staff and for what reason? Did we miss hussein or the Governor appointing the “unarmed teenager” some sort of official government position?
http://usflag.org/nffhalfstaff.html
“The pertinent section of the Flag Code says, “by order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possesion, as a mark of respect to their memory. In the event of the death of other officials or foreign dignitaries, the flag is to be displayed at half-staff according to Presidential orders, or in accordance with recognized customs or practices not inconsistent with law.
In the event of the death a present or former official of the government of any State, territory, or possession of the United States, the Governor of that state, territory, or possession may proclaim that the National flag shall be flown at half-staff”
“The flag is lowered for heroes not for criminals. This is insane...............”
That has changed in our transformed America. Remember, we lowered it for crackhead singer Whitney, but not for heroic most successfull sniper of all time Chris Kyle....
We are talking poverty of the soul, not of the pocketbook in the Missouri schools.
Lots of money has been spent to provide an outstanding public education for the Black students of Missouri
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html
The teachers union wins, the students lose.
Disenfranchise the teacher unions.
I agree - he wasn’t in the Normandy district unless he moved. He is in the McCluer district.
In the ninth grade at McCluer High School in Florissant, Mr. Brown was accused of stealing an iPod. His mother said she went to the school, eventually showing a receipt to prove the iPod was his. He left McCluer and went to two other high schools before going to Normandy for most of his final two years.
When his mother moved out of the Normandy District, he moved in with his paternal grandmother so he could remain at that school. But he continued to alternate between his parents and maternal grandmother.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/us/michael-brown-spent-last-weeks-grappling-with-lifes-mysteries.html?_r=0
There are several reasons. First, principals, superintendents and school boards live in abject fear of lawyers, the NAACP, the ACLU and anybody else willing to go to bat for the thugs. Let them run wild in school, but avoid the lawsuit at all costs.
Secondly, there’s a little dirty secret in school funding that administrators don’t like to talk about. Much of the federal funds that make their way to the local district are based on the number of kids participating in the school lunch program. The more kids eating free or reduced meals, the more federal dollars you receive. If you began mass expulsions to restore order—and it’s needed in many districts—the schools would lose money because the gangstas and gangsta-wannabes (of all races) are no longer in school.
Lastly (as we saw with that principal in NYC last year), too many teachers and administrators are just punching the clock and pulling time until they can collect their pensions. Absentee princpals like the one in New York are still a minority (in the sense that she rarely showed up for work), but there are plenty that hide in their offices and tell the teachers to deal with it. There are also thousands of teachers who gave up teaching and let the kids do as they please. They’ve got tenure (and they’re in tight with the principal), so there’s no reason to fear for their jobs.
In fairness, there are still public schools that work—one of my grandkids goes to a school that was ranked among the top 250 in the nation. The key is parental involvment and accountability. My granddaughter’s district has overflow PTA meetings and a waiting list of teachers who want to work there. When you have involved parents, excellent teachers and responsible administrators, schools can do their job. Unfortunately, those systems are becoming increasingly rare, particularly in urban areas (with parochial schools being the exception).
That’s a personal choice, and a poor one.
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