Renfroe and Decatur High Lockdown Over
Decatur Metro | May 7, 2009
UPDATE 4: Many of the comments below are must-read/must-click. Also, the AJC now reporting this…
As many as 30 or more teens approached the entrance to Decatur High School around 3 p.m. Thursday, while students were in class, police said. A bus driver who didn’t recognize any of the young people as students there, called the school resource officer who called Decatur police.
So I guess that means Maria’s note below should be read as “outside on the DHS campus” and not “off the DHS campus.”
UPDATE 3: Sounds like whatever happened, it didn’t happen at either school. Maria Lewis just sent out this note to residents:
For the safety of our students, on Thursday afternoon, Decatur High School and Renfroe Middle School were both placed on lockdown in response to a situation that took place outside of the DHS campus. No CSD students were involved or harmed in this incident. At this time all of our students have been safely released under the advisement of the Decatur Police Department.
UPDATE 2: Lockdown is over. Irishlass reports in the comments that police have suspects in custody.
UPDATE 1: The AJC has the details. No one is hurt. Police suspect several students are armed. And then this “[Maria] Lewis said there was a situation outside the school, but she could not release any details.”
Scott writes in…
There’s been a news copter hovering over the high school for like a half hour and my wife just drove by and said there’s a bunch of cops out front.
There are also reports of the choppers on Twitter.
What’s up?
Latest from Decaturish
Decaatur High and Renfroe are on Lockdown. Apparently there might be a group with guns in the school:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2009/05/07/lockdown_decatur_schools.html
From ajc.com:
Two Decatur schools are on lockdown while police check to see if several students on the high school’s campus are armed.
Students at Decatur High School and Renfroe Middle School, both in downtown Decatur, are prohibited from leaving, Decatur schools spokeswoman Marie Lewis said.
DeKalb County news Decatur Police said no students have been injured, but they are taking precautions and checking several teenagers seen outside the high school.
Lewis said there was a situation outside the school, but she could not release any details.
From the AJC:
Two Decatur schools are on lockdown while police check to see if several students on the high school’s campus are armed.
Students at Decatur High School and Renfroe Middle School, both in downtown Decatur, are prohibited from leaving, Decatur schools spokeswoman Marie Lewis said.
Decatur Police said no students have been injured, but they are taking precautions and checking several teenagers seen outside the high school.
Lewis said there was a situation outside the school, but she could not release any details.
__._,_.___
I was able to pick up my son from Frasier Center and everyone was very nice and calm. Decatur police seem to have it under control, whatever “it” is.
Rumor is that there was a disturbance involving teens near the Square, and one possibly armed teen fled towards DHS. This is pure rumor, not first hand.
Looks like the lockdown is over. Don’t know if that means they found the suspect(s) in question or what. But glad no one was hurt.
from ajc.com
Lockdown lifted at Renfroe Middle, Decatur High
By MEGAN MATTEUCCI, MARCUS GARNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, May 07, 2009
A lockdown has been lifted at two Decatur schools.
Decatur High School and Renfroe Middle School were locked down while police checked to see if several students on the high school’s campus were armed.
Recent headlines:
Lockdown lifted at Renfroe Middle, Decatur High
DeKalb drops D.C. lobbyist
Jaheem Herrera’s mother appears on ‘Oprah’
• DeKalb County news Decatur Police said no students have been injured, but they are taking precautions and checking several teenagers seen outside the high school.
City Schools of Decatur spokeswoman Marie Lewis said there was a situation outside the school, but she could not release any details.
An automated phone system has called parents to report the lockdown. Students walking home were also ordered back to the building, parents said.
About 775 students attend the high school and about 500 students attend the middle school, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
The schools are about a quarter of a mile apart.
I passed DHS about 3.30pm and three police cars with lights flashing were outside, two young black males were being arrested and the officers had them pressed very firmly up against the police cars in handcuffs. They seemed to be searching them too.
Another young black male was standing some distance away talking on a cell phone and one of the officers was yelling at him. No guns drawn and traffic going south was not being stopped, the police cars were blocking part of McDonough St.
CBS is reporting six people being detained. Bullets found on one. No weapon found. Dogs sniffing area in case one was stashed.
OK, now that we know everyone’s safe…what the heck happened?
I received an out of office reply from Juanchella Francis at DPD.
Kudo’s to the CSD and staff at DHS and RMS. I was in RMS during the lockdown. The response was quick, organized, and efficient. It is nice to know that CSD had a plan in place, and could execute it when needed.
Church St. at Commerce blocked at 6:15p; locks of police, yellow tape, onlookers — is this related?
There was a report on a Yahoo board that 30 kids from DeKalb Alternative were hanging out outside of DHS at school release today. ?????? Don’t know if it’s true – it’s just a parent’s report. I certainly hope that CSD will issue a full explanation by tomorrow.
My daughter told me that there was a gang fight in downtown Decatur. Don’t know if that’s right either. That is just what rumor is around Renfroe.
Well I am junior at Decatur High and I know that in the square around Decatur Train station there be fights here and there. Some black boys from other schools like DeKalb Alternative schools get out like hours before Decatur do. So they be standing around the school or around the square I guess waiting to start trouble. I know tuesday may 5th when i went to the square I saw some of the boys up there but its just a everyday thing to see them hanging around. I know its possible that they are the same ones. I thinking that because at DeKalb Alternative schools they wear White polo shirts with khaki pants as a uniform and the boys being arrested wore that. I heard that they came up there to fight a boy that is in a different gang and the boys coming to fight them is in a gang called the FAM. This generation has new gangs called BLACK MOBB and THE FAM. They hate each other to the point where they will kill.Its stupid but teens don’t care.
The video on CBS46’s web site in consistent with what HELLO29 says and includes someone in khaki pants and a white shirt being detained.
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/19398592/detail.html
Lets hope this is not the beginning of a bigger problem! The community and schools need to take this very seriously.
I personally witnessed one individual cuffed and taken off a block from the campus. The person was probably unfamiliar with the area, because he attempted to escape from the persuing officer through an area from which there was no escape.
Thanks for all the info everyone. With help of the local media and your detailed reports, we’re starting to piece this thing together.
I’ve added another update above with a link to a revised AJC article that talks about who called the police.
Hello29, would it happen to be that “The Fam” or “Black Mobb” is based out of Decatur or has members at Decatur High?
[edited: no personal attacks]
Leave Hello29 alone. He may not even be a Decatur kid… he may be an adult just posting to stir things up. On the other hand, if he is a kid, how about just thanking him for being forthright enough to put forth what may be some valuable information?
Also, from my experience online, the grammar/spelling that kids use when online or texting is very different from what you see them compose in school. It makes me crazy to see my kid’s emails and texts.
Incredulous post should be deleted
There should be no “making fun” allowed on these posts
I am consistently amazed [edited: no personal attacks]. And this is Decatur?
Move on everyone, or the comment thread will be shut down.
Good lord Jeffrey. It’s quite obvious that this site isn’t populated by teenagers posting in “non standard” English. Hello29’s post was completely out of character for this site and this thread in particular. Maybe DHS kids communicate that way when texting one another, but joining a discussion with adults just might be an occassion to make use of what you call “formal English.” And sure, he/she got his or her point across, but in a way that (I am sure you will agree) would fail any 9th grade composition class.
DHS’s mission isn’t to eradicate the use on on-standard English. But it should include giving its students enough sense to know when to turn off a dialect that evidences a minimal understanding of the English language.
DEM wrote: And sure, he/she got his or her point across, but in a way that (I am sure you will agree) would fail any 9th grade composition class.
But this isn’t a composition class. And you’re not the teacher. By the way, no use of dialect ever “evidences a minimal understanding of the English language.” You don’t know how this person writes when they write their academic papers. This is an opportunity to take a hard look at your assumptions.
I think we can all agree the incident yesterday is what’s important here, not the grammar of a commenter. Personally, I want to know whether I should be worried about gang violence the next time my family and I take a walk through the square. I hope this was just an isolated incident and not an ongoing problem and I look forward to hearing more about what exactly occurred from anyone that has additional information.
“Good lord Jeffrey. It’s quite obvious that this site isn’t populated by teenagers posting in “non standard” English. Hello29’s post was completely out of character for this site and this thread in particular.”
Which is why it’s more likely that Hello29’s post was written by a troll in order to stir things up or to make some vague point about the DHS student population.
Regardless, it’s a bit curious that several of the Decatur Metro readers reacted as if Hello29 was crashing their party, merely for not sounding like everyone else. Also, that this “intrusion” must automatically lead to the unwarranted impugning of the Decatur schools.
Have you read the college acceptances list for DHS seniors for this year? Clearly, someone is learning to write. Acceptances include Harvard, Yale, Duke, Stanford… the list goes on.
Mr. Fixit, where can you see that list?
It’s one of the supporting documents for the Superintendent’s report for next week’s BOE meeting. Goto the meeting agenda for next weeks meeting click on the superintendent’s report overview and scroll down to the bottom where you will see links to supporting docs. It’s the last one on the list.
The college acceptance list is also on located in the DHS Newsletter – “The Bulldog Blast”, April 2009. You can find the link on the DHS web site under the “in the news” section. Quite a varied and impressive list.
The slang used in the supposed high schoolers comments was slang as it is spoken. The written grammar was pretty darn good. Many of the children that go to DHS come from families that speak like this. While they may be taught to speak, read, and write proper English, it may not be supported in homes or neighborhoods. I thought DHS did at spectacular job during this situation. Kudos to good decision making and leadership.
It should also be noted at DHS always scores top 5 in Georgia SAT scores each year. And, DHS was placed on Newsweek Magazines list in the top 5% of all public high schools.
CSD Superintendent on DHS, RMS lockdown: http://www.dhs.cityschoolsofdecatur.com/news/news206_files/LockdownParent_Letter.pdf.
Does anyone have any idea why these Dekalb Alternative kids felt the need to descend upon DHS in a group of 30-50 at once? What were they after? Is there some kid at DHS that was the target of these kids or did they just want to enter the high school and create mayhem? I understand that there is an ongoing investigation, but it would be helpful if our police department could let us know what was behind all of this as soon as possible. It also wouldn’t hurt to hear from the folks at DeKalb Alternative. I’ve never heard of anything like this before – it seems almost like something out of a movie.
Juanchella? Are you there?
Written language and spoken dialectic are two different expressions of communication, and the written component should be strict and concise as possible–even in a blog posting which is still written language.
That aside, it is good to see that school officials and the Decatur police were very responsive yesterday. The problem may be that there are still groups of rowdy teenagers hanging around the square–there was today–and the longer they remain there the greater chance there is of something happening. Hanging out is one thing–lots of kids do that, but when they start to get rowdy they should be dispersed. I’m sure the businesses around the square would agree.
Perhaps we all need to get in touch with the principal at DeKalb Alternative and figure if there is a better way to get these kids home – setting them loose en masse on MARTA does not seem like the best idea. We have a lot of kids who walk home from school and pass through downtown Decatur. It is not comforting to know that roving bands of dozens of kids who did something serious enough to be actually expelled from a public school are running loose in Decatur.
Many of these kids were expelled for carrying weapons to school.
Here is his email:
Here is the link to email the Dekalb superintendent’s office: http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/tellus/
At the very least, I’d like for them to explain what the heck is going on and what they plan to do about it.
It is my understanding they were after a specific child. Apparently vendetta-ish. Thank goodness it was averted. Could have been a horrific, and national news story.
It only takes a few of these incidents coupled with the economy to set Decatur back about 30 years.
Once this starts it’s very hard to stop without stepping on some folks with really big toes.
Please stop talking about my grammar I was just trying to help. I am a girl too. I think its sad when someone is trying to help for once people always want to talk about someone based on the way they look and act. I know some of your kids who go to DHS wouldn’t even tell you these things.
Black Mob and Tha Fam is not in DHS I know people in the school who hang with these people, but is not in it or no longer with him. These gangs call themselves music groups, which they were in the beginning, but later started battling against each other and started killing innocent people. When Kids fight its not longer one on one action its your squad vs. my squad.
Please stop talking about my grammar I was just trying to help. I am a girl too. I think its sad when someone is trying to help for once people always want to talk about someone based on the way they look and act. I know some of your kids who go to DHS wouldn’t even tell you these things.
Black Mob and Tha Fam is not in DHS I know people in the school who hang with these people, but is not in it or no longer with them. These gangs call themselves music groups, which they were in the beginning, but later started battling against each other and started killing innocent people.
About the 30- 50 students coming to DHS, When Kids fight its not longer one on one action its your squad vs. my squad. They want to show show is the best by the number of people they have with them and even who has the most weapons.
I wonder if Hello29 asks her teachers to stop talking about her grammar? If she does do they have to listen? Is she still in school? Does she even live here?
At least we don’t have 30 Deep here yet although they may have been the crew that grabbed the jeans in Decatur a while ago.
If the cops do what they have to do to stop the problem it won’t be long til most of Decatur is marching with the ACLU against the cops. Been here before.
DM, shouldn’t that be “own” and not “on?”
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
As far as I’m concerned, if I can understand what the person was trying to say, the person has communicated with me, and that’s the purpose of language after all, isn’t it?
I think the grammar-snobbery witnessed here is another example of how web-anonymity can bring out the worst in people.
If we were all sitting in room together talking about the event and a high school student walked in talk, I doubt very much the anonymice here would be so rude.
“Written language and spoken dialectic are two different expressions of communication, and the written component should be strict and concise as possible because the people communicating are not sitting together–even in a blog posting which is still written language.”
Sorry, my comma key sticks.
My comment wasn’t about her grammar it was about the fact that she wants everyone to stop talking about it. Center of the universe mentality all to common among modern youth.
[edited: no personal attacks].
Awww phooey.. I need a comma after “all” and a small “y” on “your”! Dernit! I’m glad I’m not the grammar police.
Why are right wing conservatives such mean people?
Why are right wing conservatives such mean people?
Actually I’m neither. My history includes a stint at Berkeley in the late 60’s and many other left wing venues over the years.
I’m not sure what in my comment about Dr. Johnson caused my moderation but censoring is a favorite tactic of the right and the left.
Usually when DM moderates me I know I’m getting close to the truth so thanks for the reaffirmation.
Criticism is not mean, hate speech no matter how load you shout about it.
Sorry fixit, my copy of Strunk & White is in the other room and it’s Sunday so I’m too lazy to get up.
So stop hatin’ on me fo’ bein’ lazy!
decatur is a pretty [edited] up town, i had a lousy experience in their very divided school system. i’m sure that all the authorities want to keep from leaking out any real information about this, it make everyone in decatur look bad. i’m not really surprised. be careful, get more involved in the school system. how are u gonna think everything a certain way if ur not really there involved in the stuff. there are lots of drugs in decatur high school too which makes no sense, its too small to have drug problems.
Skidmore, thanks for your comments and I am pretty sure there are drug problems in all high schools to some degree, but I am also aware of this email from the DHS principal dated 4/29/09:
Today we had the DeKalb County K-9 unit come to Decatur High. There were 6 dogs in the unit, 5 trained for drugs and 1 for weapons. Our procedure is to place the school on lockdown when they are here, meaning there is no interaction with students at all. The dogs sniff lockers and common areas.
They also walked the upper parking lot. The dogs stopped at a couple lockers and a couple cars. When this happens we search. In our searching we did not find anything that was a cause of concern. I am very happy to report we are drug and weapon free.
there are drugs at every hs. decatur is no different.
I’m a conservative. I do not care about the grammer that was used and am glad for the inside information. I only thank God that both my children got home safely that day and that we are leaving Decatur. I have had enough of my children being bullied and Mr. Austin doing nothing but punishing my child when he tries to defend himslef against the three boys who routinely attacked him until I withdrew him from school.
…..obvioulsy I am beginning to rant and will stop myself here. Although clearly, I still have a lot to say….
Where are you going that’s safer? This isn’t being flip or critical but I wonder what choices really exist outside of sending one’s children to the controlled environment of certain (not all) private schools. I’ve lived and visited many places around the country and the state of Vermont is the only place that seems safer than Decatur to me. Even there, I would except a lot of the Northeast Kingdom and Connecticut River Valley where the illicit drug trade and bad economy has brought a lot of crime and undesirables to the area.
sorry for the duplicate info…CSD Mom is too quick
oops should have refreshed first
There were four Decatur PD officers on the Square hanging out at 5:15PM – presumably watching. Also two on Church St a block east of DHS at the same time, likewise.
Anyone hear/know what this is? There are also three separate reports on Twitter of choppers over Commerce around this time.
I have the same question as Swill. Does anyone know the answer? The block of Church St – Commerce was closed down at 6pm with yellow tape and police cars on all sides. Is this related?
Swill wrote:
Ummm….
I don’t even know where to begin here. Would it be possible to start another thread based on this post?
OH…..MY…..GOD.
Our gallery is right across the street from the MARTA station and we see this every day. When we have noticed it becoming particularly unruly, we have called the Decatur Police. They have always been very responsive to our calls and take appropriate action. However, in my opinion, I think some proactive action needs to take place, the First Amendment notwithstanding. I don’t know what the solution is but its a matter of time before……….
[edited: no personal insults]
While this comment certainly is troubling and of serious note, we don’t have any confirmation of this element of the story. Therefore I’m uncomfortable with spotlighting it.
Talk about the need for investigative reporting. You look up these two gangs and all you find are self-produced YouTube videos.
Hello29 communicated quite effectively. Did you have trouble understanding the dialect used, Incredulous? (Or you, runswithdogs?) I’m certain that the diploma requirements at Decatur High (or any other high school) do not include the willingness to use formal English in every communication. Are you suggesting that the school’s mission is to eradicate the use of dialect and/or nonstandard English?
The problem you two are having with the Hello29 comment is not about grammar–it’s about usage. The grammar and mechanics were not perfect, but pretty good. High school graduates should be able to communicate with the appropriate level of usage (standard/nonstandard; formal/informal) Your dubious assumption that the use of nonstandard English–ON A BLOG COMMENT PAGE!!!–implies the inability to communicate in formal English, [edited: no personal attacks]
Agreed. Runswithdogs comment also was edited.
Sorry, direct link was truncated. See first In the News item on the following:
http://www.dhs.cityschoolsofdecatur.com/
I think she’s OOO. Here’s the automatic reply I received from her yesterday
“The Community Relations Office will re-open Wednesday, May 13, 2009.”
Bad timing.
That’s horrifying. If it’s truly a vendetta, it was not averted, only sidetracked for the time being.
Interesting theory.
I’d say that Decatur’s in its best competitive position ever. People are waking up from consumer-induced comas and doing a bit of soul searching and finding they’d really like to get out of the cul-de-sac and back to a real community. Decatur’s one of just a hand full of these actual “communities” in a metro area that’s doubled its population in the past 30 years. That’s nothing but good news.
As long as Atlanta maintains its second-tier city status thru and after the recession, I don’t see how Decatur loses 30 years. In fact, I’d say its guaranteed to prosper.
Oh and PS, something about this story still doesn’t make sense. Why would 30-50 kids descend upon DHS to pick a fight?
I agree, I talked/write differently at work and when at home/texting. Please find something else to complain about.
HELLO29, don’t worry about the grammar police. You should see how often they correct my on spelling!
I for one really appreciate the inside info that you provided. And am even more appreciative for the follow up response to my question about the mob of students. I’m still amazed that so many kids would think they could all come down to DHS, and NOT expect the police to show up. Hopefully they’ve gotten the message that you can’t do stuff like that here. The police are always just two minutes away. This ain’t DeKalb County.
Thanks again and I hope you enjoy the rest of the school year without further incident.
Thank you Hello29. And don’t worry about the complaints on your grammar – unless.. of course.. you are writing a Language Arts paper… but things are more informal here. Also, please stay around b/c it’s good to have a voice from the teens who live in Decatur. I’m glad you are here.
Just an observation, but I find it seriously interesting that it’s the typically most conservative voices who are focusing on grammar here. I mean, come on. There’s a million other elements to this story, and instead we devolve into criticizing a high school junior’s writing habits?
Maybe its just a bleeding-heart vs. every-person-for-themselves mentality.
But here’s the crux of the issue in my opinion; is it worth criticizing someone’s grammar at the expense of losing a potential source of information?
Oh and David, I’ll need to deduct 5 points for the lack of commas in the above comment.
Sais who? Are you the blog grammar police? Is she writing a dissertation for her Doctorate, or posting something on a local blog? Get real and stop being so judgemental.
Why is this post in quotes? Are you quoting yourself? I’m afraid the internal affairs division of the grammar police is going to have to issue you a citation.
Just because she wants us to stop picking on her doesn’t mean that she thinks she’s the center of the universe. She just wants you to stop being mean. Since when does not wanting to be abused equal narcissism? The Dr. Johnson’s dancing bear comment is just plain ugly.
BTW, if we are going to be the grammar police, let’s take a look at your post. First of all. Your first statement really needs to be two sentences. Please insert a period after “grammar,” and capitalize the “i” in “it.” The second sentence in that paragraph is not a sentence at all. Please add a verb as well as a subject.
Looking at your second paragraph, never begin a sentence with “Or.” The abbreviation “Dr” needs a period after the “r.” Also, if the statement following “Or” was actually a complete sentence (which it is not) you would end it with a question mark rather than a period, since it is interrogatory. Also, if I was you, I would replace the comma after “well” with a semicolon.
Welcome back to moderation David.
Here’s one reason:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/05/10/not-just-the-party-of-no-the-party-of-hell-no/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog
Yes, its my communist agenda and not the insanity that is online comments that leads me to moderate.
DM…you raise a good point.
Is it worth criticizing? I believe so.
When I went to public school, back in the day, there were stupid people. What shocks me is the lengths that people on this blog will go to defend stupidity. The conservatives are pi–ed that this student even made it to junior year, while the defenders feel that some are not understanding or too benighted to grasp the whole…jeez….dialectic and texting thingamajing…..pathetic.
I’m just amazed that people on either side would publicly take a vigorous position over a sample of one.
I like a little more evidence of a problem before jumping into my “what’s wrong with America” speech. But that’s just me.
It’s funny how people need to address the comments of others with sarcasm when they do not have a valid argument.
Written and spoken language are two different things–that’s all I was saying. I’m glad HELLO29 posted what she did, but after her post there was a discussion about grammar. If we were all sitting together and talking (instead of writing) then the ambiguous rules of dialect would apply, but, as it is, we are writing and ambiguity is bad in written language.
Also, is it wrong to say that the way people communicate reveals the way they think?