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."
Totally irrelevant to the current story.
Quit digging yourself a deeper hole...
No kidding - I love visiting LA but have no idea how anyone could stay in that town. LVis different - bad attitude, harder edge, hustlers & hookers, guys & dolls. Our kinda people!
Galpal is a pro musician and has an apt in NYC and also shares a house with the girls in her band in LA. She gets more work in LA (lots of studio work, elevator music, commercials, tv, incedental music, etc). These last few years (coincidentally after my move to LV) she spends more time out west - a function of better $, better business, and I like to think me in Sin City. :-)
I agree with you.
A joke for the galpal:
Q: How do you know a female vocalist is at your door?
This woman is nuts! She is destroying her 2 kids lives just so she can feel good about herself. These two kids will be scarred for life by these incidents, and yet this woman continue to subject them to further abuse by moving them to another school. The mother has already been warned that things will continue even at the other school. What will it take to wake this woman up? Man, I pray for these 2 kids.
She can’t find the keys and she doesn’t know when to come in.
Galpal is really cool and has educated me a lot about music, including that joke! I met her at a New Age convention at the NYer Hotel a while back. I tell every guy who wants to meet a talented, hotbodied babe into yoga and stuff to go to those shows!
It helps if the white kids doing illegal stuff were also eagle scouts and active in their church choir. The fact of the matter is, the media and the media consumers are fatigued with black on black and latino on latino crime. It's kind of a "so what?" deal. They want to hear about so-called "good people" committing horrific crimes.
I'll accept at face value your assertation that your comment was based upon ignorance.
Your comment was insulting.
If I had wanted to insult you, I assure you that I could have done a far better job of it.
Damn!
Know what a female vocalist does when she gets up in the morning?
ah I see your point
The family can always move out to L.A. and enroll in Chavez Ravine Middle School.
The best story I ever read about white kids gone looney was in Entertainment Weekly (of all places). Couple of kids killed some girl who was a virgin for a sacrifice. The parents of the girl sued the rock band. The reporter actually interviewed the two killers and they basically said, "Yeah, well, it wasn't the band that made us kill her. It was just something to do, you know?" Kind of a banality of evil thing. Hannah Arendt goes suburban.
I don't know that one, brother, but I bet she does! What's the punchline? :-)
Huh? That black kid in Florida didn't shoot his teacher dead?
The punchline is:
She gets dressed and goes home.
Hear about the girl who backed into the fan?
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