Brooklyn School Fights Marines

The New York Sun ^ | 03/06/03 | LAUREN MECHLING

[Puppage]

A hammer-wielding Brooklyn high school principal

What a LOVELY roll model. No wonder NYC schools are crap.Where's your tolerance, hmm? Could it be that ONCE again, tolerance ONLY GOES ONE WAY?

[Robe]

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag,and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC

Enough Said

ROBE

[Pern]

He knows the students’ names, patrols the school hallways — sometimes carrying a hammer...

Sounds a little unstable to me. It sickens me to know that our fighting men and women protect a slimeball like this.

[Illbay]

So the military is "poaching underprivileged minority children?"

And we're going to ignore the FACT that the military has historically been a means of extreme upward mobility for minorities in this nation?

These people turn my stomach. They'd rather keep their "subjects" poor and ignorant, and easier to control. And less likely to vote Republican, of course.

[AppyPappy]

That hammer's gonna feel mighty rough coming out if he waves it at the wrong Marine.

[dennisw]

Lower the boom on this idiotarian chump!

 

Frank Mickens, who has been the Principal of Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn for seventeen years, inherited that institution when it was infamous for its failures and turned it into a school that now sends 85% of its graduates on to college. His career in public education spans thirty-four years during which he has served in several capacities, as teacher, dean, basketball coach, assistant principal, principal, and assistant superintendent. Born and bred in Bedford-Stuyvesant, he is himself a product of the New York City public high school system, and graduated from Erasmus Hall.....................

[VeniVidiVici]

...a school that now sends 85% of its graduates on to college...

I wonder what the dropout rate is?

I've always said that any school that doesn't comply with this No Child Left Behind Act, the school district should lose all federal funds.

[NewHampshireDuo]

I can see why he won't let the military through the front door. He's his own military and little dictator too. This guy is on a power trip.

[Dont Mention the War]

Check out this "successful" school's numbers. Graduation rate: 53%.
Attendance: 78%.
9th-graders who read at grade level: 15.5%.
Passing Regents English: 37%.
Passing Regents Math: 46.3%.

Their embarrassingly awful web page.

How to give this criminal a piece of your mind: 718-467-1700.

[Dont Mention the War]

...a school that now sends 85% of its graduates on to college...

That number, if it's even true, is typical liberal spin. Look at my post above about their graduation rate. It doesn't matter that you send "85% of graduates" on to college if only 10 kids are graduating in the first place.

[XJarhead]

No wonder NYC schools are crap.

Hey, let's be honest here. The guy apparently has done a great job turning around a crappy school. That is a real accomplishment, and denigrating it only weakens one's credibility.

He is wrong on this particular issue, and that should be the focus of our comments. Not belittling the real improvements he has made at that school.

[George W. Bush]

Maybe the principal is just gunning to keep his graduation rate and college entrance rate high.

That doesn't excuse discriminating against the military.

[XJarhead]

Not quite fair to blame the guy for the poor reading skills of ninth graders. He's teaching high school, not middle school. And frankly, the discipline and stuff sounds pretty good.

Truly relevant stats would be how that school's performance measures up to the performance of other schools in similar neighborhoods.

btw, I'm not trying to defend this guy's position on this issue. He's dead wrong on that. But character assassination isn't the best way to make a convincing argument.

[ohioman]

One of these days this dirt bag principle will get his due.

[Puppage]

The guy apparently has done a great job turning around a crappy school

How? In what regard?

[VOA]

“I’m behind [Mr. Mickens],” she said. “A lot of these students don’t think they’re
college material and he’s giving them some sort of incentive, saying ‘yes
you can go to college.’”

I like the way this Rhodes Scholar mother (and the school principal) have
apparently used their razor-sharp logic to reach the conclusion that a high-school student
can't be both college AND Marine Corps material.

And excell at both.

Guess they are afraid that their kids' self-esteem will suffer when they meet
a former classmate wearing a Marine Corps dress uniform bedecked with ribbons
and earner of a graduate school degree....at the 10-year reunion.

[Mister Baredog]

They'd rather keep their "subjects" poor and ignorant, and easier to control

You are right. This is right out of the Demoncrat playbook. IGNORANCE IS BLISS, KEEP THEM ON THE RESERVATION

[PBRSTREETGANG]

If he's "educating" these kids so well why is it that he feels that the seniors are incapable of making an informed decision regarding their career/education options?

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The US Attorney needs to pay a visit to Mickens and counsel him on the repercussions of violating federal law.