Posted on 10/12/2005 6:47:22 PM PDT by Gator61
City education officials are investigating the claims of a pair of boys from Oklahoma who moved to Brooklyn to experience diversity, and instead say they got schooled in racism and violence. Mom Lisa Brown, 33, told the Daily News she relocated her family from their small Oklahoma town so her husband, a Brooklyn native and social worker, could more easily find work and her sons could experience different people and ways of life.
Brown enrolled her sons, Sloan, 12, and J.T., 13, at Ebbets Field Middle School in Crown Heights. But when the boys, who are white, showed up, their mom said, they got a chilling indication of what was to come.
"Oh my gosh, we are going to have fun this year," a security guard muttered, according to Brown.
Things quickly got worse.
Sloan was beaten mercilessly, called "cracker" and "white boy," and chased into traffic by his new classmates, his family said.
The abuse got so bad that Sloan routinely bolted out of the building to find his brother and run to a nearby subway, dodging verbal and physical attacks, he said.
"It almost makes me cry," Sloan said. "I'm scared to go back."
The brothers skipped school all last week while their parents tried to sort out the mess.
"Do I have to send the National Guard in to get my children an education?" asked the distraught mom.
When Brown tried to alert Principal Marge Baker to the abuse, "the principal refused to take the calls," she charged.
Brown filed several police reports at the 71st Precinct stationhouse about the alleged abuse, but said she was ignored.
Police sources said precinct cops did take the incident seriously but believe school staff are in a better position to deal with what appeared to be a series of schoolyard fights and bullying.
The boys' stepfather, Ken Brown, requested a transfer for the boys on Sept. 28, but Education Department officials noted he can't seek the change because he is not a custodial parent.
Eventually, the fedup mom went to nearby Elijah Stroud Middle School to transfer her sons there, but said the principal told her: "They'll have the same problem here."
Education officials promised to help the Browns - after being contacted by The News.
"The principal was not sufficiently attentive to this situation," the Education Department said in a statement. "Upon learning of the situation, the region is taking immediate action to arrange a transfer for these children.
"We will fully investigate what happened, including whether racist statements, which are not tolerated, were made and take appropriate action."
Brown said the Education Department called her several times over the weekend, after The News made queries, pledging to get the kids into Elijah Stroud and chastising her for calling in the press.
Despite the principal's warning, Lisa agreed to send her boys to Elijah Stroud tomorrow.
"I'll make sure my kids are safe because it is the school system's job to make sure they are," she said.
For Sloan and J.T., escaping Ebbets Field Middle School will be a relief. The school opened in September as one of the city's many new small schools, with plans to "become the crown jewel" of Crown Heights, according to the Education Department Web site.
The Browns said their ethnically and racially diverse neighbors in Prospect Heights have embraced them, and they thought New York was "the greatest place on Earth" - until they started battling the school system.
"I was excited to expose my children to a complete variety of people," Lisa Brown said. "I thought it would be an advantage. I always told my children that children could be cruel - but not to this extent."
There were kids from every economic background, other countries, different races, and a student from Haiti whose family sent him to America for safety.
While it was small and easily controlled, the faculty was right in the kids space every minute of every day. It was a beautiful rural campus with a lot of inter-action between the staff and the students. All the kids in the upper grades mentored the younger students. Most of the kids got along well, but discipline was strictly enforced.
One child of a very famous person brought drugs to school and was expelled. It cost the school financially, but it was the right thing to do.
Just my two cents on the value of diversity.
You should qualify that by saying every single school shooting widely reported my the major media. Even that is not all together true. Jeff Weise was a Native American who killed not only his grandparents but a number of his Native American classmates was not white.
I don't doubt it, but the good experience is not unique to racial/cultural diversity, nor a result of it. There could have been any mix of students and you probably would have got a comperable result.
Or maybe not.
Would you move your kids somewhere without researching the school system? You would move there sight unseen?
OldFriend, are you telling me there is no way to research a school district? These people are social workers, and I presume they have a degree of some kind, so they had some education.
If the NY system is out of control, and I don't doubt for a minute that it is, why move your family there from Oklahoma?
If the money is good in Saudi Arabia, but your kid has to go to a school where there are bound to be kids of the same age who are going to have issues with an American kid, do you go because the money is good, or do you find a job where the money isn't quite so good but the environment is better for the family?
My family was a military family, and we went where we were sent. Most places were okay. Some were better than others. But that is life. These people had a choice, and they chose not on the basis of what was best for their children, but on the basis of what was best for themselves and justified it with their stupid liberal mentality. That is what makes me angry.
It's raining and won't stop.
So I hear. My galpal is back in nyc for much of oct and she said it's been rough.
Sunny, bright, and 75-80 degrees in LA and LA I told her!
They learned the hard way and I do hope their kids survive the idealism of the parents.
I am not gloating that the kids were bullied and I'm not gloating that the parents learned something they did not want to learn or admit.
Yes, but then you're in L.A. I'd rather have to swim for a cab.
Unfortunately, the diversity lesson the boys learned was long traumatic and painful and, I suspect, the exact opposite of what was intended. Unfortunately the parents will deal with the results a long time, as there was some permanent damage involved.
Sometimes good intentions should be limited to just one's own personal risk.
You've run out of facts, so now you are having to write fiction?
Was that written in ignorance, or was it intentional?
You can find a list of shooters and schools here: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html. School systems like Gary, Indiana; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.
Just listening to her friend from Haiti was quite an education in and of itself.
She learned things from other kids that could never be learned from a textbook.
She works in a world with people of different cultures and they are not alien to her. She is at ease and that's a good thing.
Needless to say, it cost a small fortune to send her to that school but it ws worth it.
There ws not a single minority in the public school, but there were drugs, guns, and bullying.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Hope you don't think this doesn't happen in life outside of school. I can get much worse.
Sanity is not putting your young children at physical risk to score P.C. political points.
As for civility, there is this fine line between it and "stupidity".
Same thing happens to white kids who are moved to Hawaii, are enrolled in public schools there...same thing.
The smart parents leave the Islands with their children for better places on the Mainland, given that the parochial schools in HI aren't much of an improvement, if any, as to this issue.
My opinion is NEVER made up of lies. I gather yours is, so you accuse me of that behaviour.
May I remind everyone that every single school shooting was white children shooting and killing other white children.
You can remind everyone about it, but it would be false. The truth of the matter is, white people like to read about white people doing horrific stuff. It spices up the news between episodes of Cops and fantasies of shooting an intruder in the kitchen.
Yeah, agreed. I think the mother sounds a tad too accommodating of other issues, probably that her husband couldn't find employment where they were --- otherwise why move the family to Brooklyn based upon some idea that there'd be work there for the father.
Seems as if the family has other issues but it still doesn't make it acceptable what the children experienced in the schools there after their move. Nor how the school refused to deal with the problem...which is why the problem exists.
Kentucky?
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