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At Brown’s impoverished high school, students try to make gains against odds
Washington Post ^ | August 25, 2014 | Emily Wax-Thibodeaux

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
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To: GeronL

nope that was Kansas City, Mo. not St Louis


41 posted on 08/25/2014 10:58:30 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Second Amendment First

The students are the problem, not the schools. The students are uneducable by choice.


42 posted on 08/25/2014 11:01:12 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: Second Amendment First

Emily Wax-Thibodeaux Staff writer — Washington, D.C.

43 posted on 08/25/2014 11:01:42 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: GeronL

I don’t know anything about Missouri. Never been there. But I did go look at their web site that someone posted.


44 posted on 08/25/2014 11:01:46 AM PDT by defconw (Both parties have clearly lost their minds!)
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To: DoughtyOne

The Flag of the USA today does not have or is not in the spirit of the USA flag for which I felt duty to in WWII or for which my brother was killed for on Okinawa. The ‘spirit’ has been corrupted by the likes of Obama and his enablers including some high military officials and politicians. I don’t see the ‘Spirit of ‘76’ being in or revived by all the different/various cultures influencing the USA today.


45 posted on 08/25/2014 11:03:43 AM PDT by noinfringers2
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To: noinfringers2
Per-Pupil Spending: $9,457

That is not an impoverished school by any measurement (unless you think DC public schools are the standard)

46 posted on 08/25/2014 11:07:39 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: defconw

Per-Pupil Spending: $9,457


47 posted on 08/25/2014 11:08:03 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: noinfringers2

I don’t either, but high ideals are something to aspire to.

If we do not honor the flag, we in effect give up.

The flag is still our rallying banner. I love this nation’s Constitution and what it stands for, equality for all, high ideals for one and all.

I don’t respect Obama, the nation’s media, and most politicians. I do respect the ideal.

Our founding documents are second to none. We had some amazing men at our founding. They served us well.

It’s time for us to stand up and serve them well.

I respect our flag. No boatload of Obamas will ever cause me not to revere our nation, and what it should be standing for.

I will loathe them individually.


48 posted on 08/25/2014 11:08:16 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (We'll know when he's really hit bottom. They'll start referring to him as White.)
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To: Robe
The first teacher who spoke about him said that he was missing a few finals and a couple of classes needed for graduation, not that he was a year and a half behind.

Then, Brown attended summer school and graduated on August 1.

That has always been one of the peculiarities about this case for me. For all we've heard and seen about Brown, he went to summer school to get his diploma. Grandma and mom may have pushed him, but he did it.

Going to summer school to graduate high school isn't inconsistent with theft by force or bum rushing, but it gives me an idea about how complex some of this stuff is. Half of his class did not graduate.

49 posted on 08/25/2014 11:08:28 AM PDT by Scoutmaster (I'd rather be at Philmont)
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To: noinfringers2

Oops

that was a Ferguson middle school


50 posted on 08/25/2014 11:09:29 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Second Amendment First
Ask this guy. He seems to think public education has been a smashing success:


51 posted on 08/25/2014 11:09:40 AM PDT by Slyfox (Satan's goal is to rub out the image of God he sees in the face of every human.)
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To: Second Amendment First

Naturally, the kids with a brain in their heads (and their pants belted up) can’t get a voucher to attend a religious school where they might actually learn something.


52 posted on 08/25/2014 11:09:55 AM PDT by madprof98
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To: GeronL

I cannot find Normandy high School on the list

http://www.localschooldirectory.com/district-schools/096089/Ferguson—Florissant-R—Ii-School-District/MO


53 posted on 08/25/2014 11:10:30 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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Found it!!!

Per-Pupil Spending: $10,846

http://www.localschooldirectory.com/public-school/49489/MO


54 posted on 08/25/2014 11:11:45 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: steve8714
From the NY Times:

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

55 posted on 08/25/2014 11:18:03 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Da Coyote

The system failed. NEA agitators being only half educated themselves neglected to fully inform master Brown on the scope of his intended field of studies. Heating and air conditioning. The HVAC curriculum also includes ventilation. Had he been properly prepared he would not have engaged in field experiments involving principles of kinetic ventilation.


56 posted on 08/25/2014 11:22:11 AM PDT by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: Second Amendment First

The Number One Reason why they cry “racism” at every turn

People of any race simply don’t want to be around inferior behavior


57 posted on 08/25/2014 11:22:32 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (Michael Brown was the attacker . . . just like Thugvon. Second verse, same as the first)
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To: Mr. K

King Rodney

OJ Simpson

The whore implicating Duke Lacrosse

Thugvon Martin

Mikey Brown

There’s your heroes


58 posted on 08/25/2014 11:24:28 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (Michael Brown was the attacker . . . just like Thugvon. Second verse, same as the first)
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To: tillacum
In the 20s through the 50s there was a vibrant black middle class in major American cities despite the racism that existed. Two parent households were the norm and out-of-wedlock births were a fifth of what they are today. LBJ's Great Society destroyed all that in the name of the War on Poverty.

What is truly sad about this article is that blacks reflexively vote for the people who destroyed their lives (i.e. Democrats) and in Ferguson, MO vote for those (i.e. Democrats) who prevent their children from attending a decent school.

Keep doing the same thing over and over again, and see if the outcome changes!

59 posted on 08/25/2014 11:28:55 AM PDT by Renkluaf
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To: tillacum

I agree with you.

I believe, in the 30’s and 40’s, that blacks as well as white Americans supported the Christian traditions of our founders. Now, predominately the secular world view presides over all institutions, but it started in academia and then the churches fell, one by one.

As a result, virtue eventually signed a non-compete with hedonism, and Marx.


60 posted on 08/25/2014 11:29:23 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming.)
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