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Administrators in Henrico County Fail to Provide Safe Schools For Students and Educators
EdNews.org ^ | December 28, 2007 | N. Lucas, M.S.Ed.

Posted on 12/28/2007 7:54:23 AM PST by wintertime

Educators at John Rolfe Middle School, located in Richmond, Virginia, report that the school's administrators have failed to enforce the Henrico County Student Code of Conduct by consistently permitting habitual physically and verbally abusive students to remain in the school as opposed to taking the appropriate disciplinary actions as outlined by the county.

Student violations have included repeated disrespect, blatant defiance, student assaults against faculty members, students making verbal threats of harm against their peers and faculty, student threat via email to each other, and even an instance in which a student attempted to recruit others to help him in placing a bag over the head of two female educators, take them to the back of the school, and sexually assaulting them because he did not like the manner in which they corrected him during class.

Additional incidents included a student assaulting a teacher's aide.Despite the fact that the aide filed a police report with the school's resource officer, no action was taken.The student was permitted to remain in school and was also permitted to continue to verbally threaten the aide through offensive gestures and words for over a month until he left the school on his own.The student indicated that he planned to throw a brick through the car window of the aide if he saw her car in the neighborhood.This student returned to John Rolfe Middle School where he continues to bully other students and reportedly had an incident where he threatened another student with a woodshop tool.

A majority of these disruptive and dangerous student violations have gone unaddressed by the most recent principals.Rolfe's first principal, who was appointed in January 2007 by Superintendent Fred Morton, consistently failed to properly discipline habitual offenders that not only interrupted the learning opportunities of other students,...(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at ednews.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: henrico; homeschool; school; schoolviolence
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To: Amelia
No excuse for allowing behavior like that.

I am in complete agreement.

This kind of behavior is not condoned in our district. I don't know about jail time, but I do know of explusions for behavior not even this bad just in the school my daughter attends........and one of them was a 1st grader.

21 posted on 12/29/2007 8:22:14 PM PST by Gabz (Don't tell my mom I'm a lobbyist, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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To: Condor51

My guess is that somebody retired, and the new “qualifier” either didn’t get the memo, or the bribe.


22 posted on 12/29/2007 8:43:29 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: wintertime

“Have you noticed that in nearly every article about some horror story about a government school, that the school is in what would be considered a “good” area?”

What I notice is the intellectual contortions and sophistry that parents go through to justify their use of the government schools when they know that better alternatives exist.


23 posted on 12/30/2007 5:54:13 AM PST by RKBA Democrat (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!)
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To: EDINVA

“The restrictions in our day were not onerous at all. The only problem was that the kids couldn’t participate in anything extra-curricular at the local schools.”

That’s location specific. Some cities in VA do allow for it. Others don’t.


24 posted on 12/30/2007 5:56:19 AM PST by RKBA Democrat (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!)
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To: RKBA Democrat; Gabz; leda; patton
This school is in Henrico County - a far cry from any 'good' area in Virginia. In fact, I'd wager that this is the WORST area in Virginia.

I noticed that the school is on its 2nd year of warning. The feds will be coming in after this year if they fail to pass again. After that will be reshuffling of staff, offers of transfers to students to other schools, free after school tutoring, with bus service, required teacher training, meetings, etc.

It won't be pretty

25 posted on 12/30/2007 5:58:34 AM PST by SoftballMominVA (Never wrestle with a pig; he wants to get dirty anyway.)
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To: Thrownatbirth

A close friend of mine teaches at a couple of the “at risk” schools in the Richmond area. The stories he tells me are beyond belief!


26 posted on 12/30/2007 5:59:21 AM PST by GodBlessRonaldReagan (Big dog, big dog, bow-wow-wow! We'll crush crime, now, now, now!)
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To: SoftballMominVA; Amelia; Gabz; patton

SBM: How effective has this been in VA? I know where I am, there are a lot of threats for such sanctions, but there have been none so far.

Personally, if I were a parent of a student there and/or a teacher, someone would be without a head once I got done.

This does not sound like a model school by any means, but when you can scour the internet looking for anything to bash something, it is amazing what you can find.

I am glad I don’t live somewhere like this.:)


27 posted on 12/30/2007 6:07:25 AM PST by shag377 (De gustibus non disputandum est.)
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To: shag377
I know of one school in my county that went through Year 3 last year. According to one of the teachers I know, it was hard on everyone, BUT, it was rewarding. The school came out in one year and is now one of the strongest schools in the county.

BTW, this school I'm speaking of was on the list for problems relating to low scores in math, reading, and attendance for 3 different subgroups. It wasn't a 'bad' school, but it does have an abnormally high sped population (including the severe/profound program for the county) and an exceptionally large immigrant population. And their scores weren't really that low - just low enough to miss the mark.

28 posted on 12/30/2007 6:16:07 AM PST by SoftballMominVA (Never wrestle with a pig; he wants to get dirty anyway.)
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To: GodBlessRonaldReagan

“A close friend of mine teaches at a couple of the “at risk” schools in the Richmond area. The stories he tells me are beyond belief!”

The stories you’ll hear from non “at risk” schools would curl your teeth as well. Parents do hear part of it, but tend to listen selectively. Kids eventually learn that it’s best to simply shut up about what they see. (Snitches are not well thought of in institutional environments.)


29 posted on 12/30/2007 6:22:31 AM PST by RKBA Democrat (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!)
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To: RKBA Democrat; GodBlessRonaldReagan
The stories you’ll hear from non “at risk” schools would curl your teeth as well.

I hear similar stories from relatives and friends as well, and most work in districts where both parents work to pay the high mortgages on their homes.

(Snitches are not well thought of in institutional environments.)

If we treat kids like prisoners it is no surprise that we see the same social pathology in schools that is found in prisons among prison gangs.

Regarding the term "institutional environments": Have you noticed that government schools look like minimum security prisons? They even use prison terminology such as "lock down".

Parents do hear part of it, but tend to listen selectively.

Government school bureaucrats have convinced far too many parents that their children are somehow educationally disabled, and that only the government schools have the experts to help their child. The government schools "diagnose" their child with some vague dyslexia, and the parents are HOOKED for good.

Wow! Talk about a racket! What a great way to keep the parents dependent! The government school operators have that one figured out.

Kids eventually learn that it’s best to simply shut up about what they see.

So?...We have a situation where the parents are deliberately abandoning their child, and leaving him to be abused by a prison-like culture. On some level both the parents and child KNOW this. Some parents rationalize by saying that this abuse will some how toughen him up for the real world. Yet, the child knows that in the real world adults treated like this win millions in court!

And,,,people then wonder why there is a generation gap? They wonder why the children eventually identify more with their prison gang ( in schools they are called "clicks") than they do with their own parent who has abandoned them?

All of this ties in very nicely with the Marxist goal to destroy the family.

30 posted on 12/30/2007 7:35:38 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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