Superintendent Provides Detailed Update On School Lockdown
Decatur Metro | May 8, 2009 | 12:56 pmSuperintendent Dr. Phyllis Edwards updates the community about yesterday’s school lockdown and gives details about proactive steps being taken to protect CSD students.
Dear CSD Parents,
Yesterday one of our bus drivers noticed a large group of students, not from our schools, coming toward the high school from the area around the MARTA station and coming up from behind where we park the buses. I have heard reports that there were anywhere from 30 to 50 students. Fortunately, a crisis was averted because of the quick thinking and action taken by our staff members and CSD?s School Resource Officer Cameron Coltharp. Around dismissal time, Officer Coltharp notified Mrs. McCain-Fernandez and Mr. Roaden that the middle school and the high School needed to be locked down.
Contrary to some rumors, there was nothing going on inside the schools. I have heard that some students inside of DHS called their parents and reported that there was an active shooter inside the school. This was not the case. Sometimes cell phones can be a lifeline however, it is important for you to talk with your children about two things in this respect; 1) cell phones in use can jam frequency for the police and first responders and 2) information given that is just conjecture causes more panic.
At no time were the students in the high school or the middle school in danger. The buildings were locked down to ensure that the group of students approaching the school did not make their way into the building as the police went after them. Therefore, students were not released until we were absolutely certain that it was safe for them to go outside.
One of the students taken into custody was determined to be in possession of some type of ammunition, but no gun was found. Taking precautionary measures, the police chief ordered in the dogs to determine if any weapons could be found on campus. Students were released after it was confirmed that there were no weapon on the grounds.
When we received the word that it was safe to dismiss, the students were released to ride the bus and this was done in order by floors at the high school. We then turned our attention to the car riders and the many parents who were waiting to pick up their children. We apologize if this seemed to take a long time, but we were trying to get students out by calling their names in groups over the intercom system – then releasing them to their parents. While everyone is sympathetic to the concerns of the parents in this type of crisis, it is important that everyone remain as calm as possible as our first priority is for the safety of the children.
From the beginning of the crisis, I was in constant communication with Chief Booker, Officer Coltharp and our two principals. The chief, the SRO and I were all at the high school and on site as this was unfolding. Our principals and school administrators did a fine job of keeping things calm and orderly. Thanks to Mrs. McCain-Fernandez, some middle school students who were released before Mr. Roaden received the order to lock down, were gathered up from outside and taken into the cafeteria of RMS for their own safety. She and the other administrators should be thanked for their quick thinking. We used our emergency calling system, eblast notification and website to first inform parents that the two schools were in lock down. While frightening information to receive, I would certainly want to know this as it was happening rather than wonder why my child was not home on time or if they were out roaming the city during a crisis.
In response to this incident, our school resource officer has already been to the Alternative School in DeKalb and has had a conversation with the Chief of Security. A message was read over the intercom for those students stating that if anyone comes on to the Decatur High School campus, they will be arrested for criminal trespass. The MARTA police have been placed on alert and the Decatur Police assured me that there will be an increased police presence around the school.
Please know that the safety of your children is our utmost priority. It is sad that we have to deal with situations like this but since we must, I am glad that our people worked so diligently to maintain the safety and security of the students. We will certainly debrief this incident with our staff and the police department so that we can learn from this incident.
Sincerely,
Dr. Phyllis Edwards, Superintendent
Just a minor point of clarification, but the DHS principal’s name is Lauri McKain-Fernandez (not McCain).
My son goes to Renfroe Middle and walked home and was never on lockdown. I am still confused by the situation. He calls me everyday to let me know that he has made it home and minutes after hanging up with him I received the call that the school was on lockdown. This has somewhat tarnished the City of Decatur’s image in my opinion. The residents of the City of Decatur need to reclaim the square and the Marta station on Sycamore from the thugs that frequent it.
Great job CSD and great letter!
The more we are involved we can help keep this crime away!
Glad to see the response towards the high school, marta, and the dekalb alternative school! Thank you!!
Stella, my RMS student was also already home (after having ridden the bus)–I think they just put Renfroe on lockdown because there were probably still kids wandering around and also because of its proximity to the high school. Or maybe some of the Renfroe buses also pick up high school students?
Metro,
Obviously this is the first place many of us look for info on breaking news. Thanks for being there! What would we have done if you’d been taking a nap while this was happening? Or hobnobbing with your friends from the ajc? Seriously, though, I know we all appreciate the quick access to info and the opportunity to get first-hand accounts through the comments.
Ya know.. the more I think about this thing.. the more it ticks me off. Am I nuts to think that it’s just a really bad idea to allow 30-50 alternative school kids to just hang out together, unsupervised after school? There has to be some way to control that type of situation. I needed to vent so I decided to shoot the Dekalb Alternative principal an email. It probably won’t do any good b/c my guess is that DeKalb Alternative can’t legally keep them after school, but it sure made me feel better to send it.
Here is the email I sent – I know… it’s hysterical.
If I get a response… I’ll post it.
Mr James:
Below is the letter that we received from our City Schools of Decatur superintendent. Apparently, we narrowly missed a crisis brought on by your students.
I find it very troubling that students from your school are banding together groups of 30-50 and apparently trying to gain entrance to our high school. Clearly there is some issue with your dismissal procedures. As you know, many of these children are in your school because of possession of weapons or acts of violence at their home school. It seems that you should take the responsibility to ensure that they are either returned to their homes or supervised until a responsible adult can pick them up from school. Does it not seem negligent to you to just let them loose in the afternoons? We have children as young as 9 or 10 walking home from school through downtown Decatur. It is very scary to me as a parent to think of the danger that these kids have been in without us even knowing it.
I predict that your response will include some sort of statement that Dekalb Alternative is not responsible for its students after dismissal. Perhaps that is true technically/legally, but I think it’s a cop out. If the unspeakable had happened yesterday I as well as the press and residents here in Decatur would consider you and your fellow DeKalb Alternative administrators directly responsible. I don’t think that you want a child’s death on your hands – especially now that you know that there is a serious problem.
Please begin work immediately to establish policies that ensure the safety of your own students as well as those who come into contact with them and please let us know what those new policies are. Our superintendent reports that you have read a statement on your intercom warning your students that they will be arrested for trespass if they come onto Decatur High property again. Sorry, but “reading a statement on the intercom” is not going to be enough. These children need to be under supervision after school, either at their homes or in an after school program at your facility. To allow them to wander the county at will puts our children in danger and is completely unacceptable.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Miller
Concerned Decatur Parent
I reiterate other comments about how invaluable this blog is for getting information out on so many different issues – big and small, funny and serious. I really appreciate this resource. You are a great benefit to a community of chit-chatters, over-achievers and opinionaters. Thank you (even when I disagree with some of the comments) !
I give huge kudos to all involved for keeping our community’s children safe. Especially the alert bus driver! It’s true, some Renfroe kids were already let out and the lockdown occured after Renfroe was released. It is my understanding that once the lockdown occured, those still at Renfroe were held.
Since police found bullets on one of the kids, I assume that they must have questioned him. When will information be released that sheds some light here?
Teenage fistfights are not typically broken up before they begin. As far as anyone can tell, a confrontation was averted because several Decatur school officials and police were smart and well-trained.
DeKalb Alternative is seven miles from Decatur High School. Short of microchipping/shock-collaring the kids, what can DeKalb Alternative’s staff do?
There’s a name for people who are supposed to supervise kids after school: parents. Until there’s a shred of evidence that DeKalb Alt.’s staff did anything wrong or bad, it’s unfair to poke at them here.
“These children need to be under supervision after school, either at their homes or in an after school program at your facility. To allow them to wander the county at will puts our children in danger and is completely unacceptable.”
This is pretty remarkable on many levels. Suzanne, you might reconsider and withdraw your e-mail to Mr. James. No one is empowered to essentially place an entire high school on after-school house arrest for no apparent reason. Teenagers have rights too.
I checked the DeKalb Alternative website.
Grim…
I think CSD did an amazing job handling this – no blame is laid on CSD at all.
OK, I get y’all’s points.
My email was heavy handed. I know that. I don’t think it hurts for the principal of DeKalb Alternative to know that some folks are not happy with the situation. Like I said, I understand that they may not be able to do anything about it. It doesn’t hurt to ask though and it doesn’t hurt to complain strongly about a situation like that. I see no need to withdraw my email. He’s an adult and a principal at a pretty tough school. I’m sure he can handle it and that his feelings are not hurt.
Teenagers are minors. These particular minors have done something serious enough to get kicked out of school. They have also often violated the law. Perhaps as an alternative to going through the juvie system, these kids could be prevailed upon to give up their afternoons and spend them in an after school program or at least to ride a school bus home for a few months until they can return to their home schools.
Is there even an after school program at all at DAS? Are there buses even available to take the kids home or have they been cut from the budget? What if DeKalb Alternative was more like a KIPP Academy – do minors have rights to only go to school for a certain number or hours? Dem, I know that teenagers have rights, but I wonder……. if an after school program was funded, would there be a way to make sure kids attend it or at least make sure that kids are not just let out of the building to go wherever.
I’ll ask more nicely next time though.
BTW, I know a kid who attended DeKalb Alternative. They are not all “bad kids,” and many including the one I know, completely turned their lives around. However, they do need more supervision than a typical child until they can get a handle on their situation. There’s no reason to not at least try.
I agree with many of you that Decatur did an excellent job responding to and averting what could have been a major trajedy. In my opinion, my child is safe because of how quickly and appropriately these folks acted. I think that we should, as a group, write letters to our Congressmen and Governor urging them to ensure that the children that were caught are treated appropriately, i.e., harshly.
If this group of kids only face a slap on the wrist for bringing ammunition on school property (a major felony), then we’re fighting a losing battle. If enough people get involved and we put enough political pressure on the system to treat these children as a group of kids who would have created another Columbine, then we will make the next group think twice. Moreover, the 8 that were caught will more likely sell their friends down the river when facing major punishment. Most of these thugs got away free and clear.
‘…it’s just a really bad idea to allow 30-50 alternative school kids to just hang out together…’
Assuming there was no law broken; are we willing to begin curbing the right to peaceful assembly? If it breaks down to yelling and causing a ruckus not being peaceful, I’ll just have to refer back the Leon’s late night boccie games discussion.
Really interesting dynamics in this story and in this day of excellent, real-time, reporting by folks like DM, we can begin to react without all the facts. Some apologies are due the city and the schools as I think they responded near-flawlessly. The mob mentality was evident on both sides here and I guess we will have to learn how to cool the engines a bit on breaking news or the real danger may be from us.
I think it’s interesting in checking out the website for DeKalb Alternative that the students there are not allowed to join teams and clubs because of their disciplinary status. Those might be the kinds of after school activities that could keep situations like this from happening. Not that I have any expertise in the matter
What if these are neighborhood kids? They could have been expelled from Decatur High. Which means technically they could have been on their way home. Now, probably not all 30 of them (if that’s even a valid number), but without all the facts, you really can’t discount the idea that this was a bunch of Decatur kids walking home from Marta. Can you?
I completely agree that the school really can’t be liable for these kids after school. If they’re in high school, I’d rather see them at after-school jobs than sitting around in an after-school program anyway. I don’t expect my own kids to go to after-school programs in middle school, much less high school. How could DAS compel these kids to do that? Come on. Where would Dekalb ever come up with the money for that???
If they belong in jail, then they’re in jail. If they belong at an alternative school for being expelled, then that’s where they are.
@lumpintheroad — Do you define ‘stepping up and contributing’ to exclude paying taxes? (or paying for Americorps)
I agree with the statements that CSD and city police did a good job. And the bus drivers for CSD are awesome. I’m not at all surprised that it was one of our great bus drivers who noticed that a lot of kids had showed up who didn’t belong there.
Even more remarkable is that, by 5:15 PM, DHS was putting on its Senior Boards with dinner, music, presentations, and community judges. Some kids were held at school until 4:30 PM, then had to rush home, change into professional attire, come back by 5:15 PM, and make a presentation of sufficient quality to pass the requirement for graduation! The kids and staff were awesome! You couldn’t even tell that there had just been a threatening incident with news helicopters and all.
Re DeKalb Alternative School: Understand that they can’t control what their students do once dismissed. Neither can RMS or DHS. But CSD would suspend or expel a child who committed certain kinds of crime in the community. I wonder if DeKalb Alternative can do that for the students who were apprehended. I know they are a school of last resort and I understand that all kids deserve an education, but at some point are some children too dangerous to be in a group setting? Do they need to be educated at home?
Finally, I think CSD considers this and other blogs as inflammatory or panic-evoking. But what is a parent supposed to do when they receive an automated message about a school lock-down and meanwhile they hear helicopters overhead? Maybe the school has to be cautious about what info it releases, but the community needs to know how dangerous the situation is and how widespread the danger is. It’s not just a matter of the child at RMS or DHS, but is it dangerous to get in the car and go anywhere else in the community? Or should one hunker down at home? What about other children at other schools or in daycare or at activities? These blogs can spread information quickly without having to the restraints that a school system has. If participants are responsible in what they post and the blogs are well-moderated, they can be quite useful in an emergency situation.
What an odd string. First of all, while the letter to the principal at DAS was harsh, I don’t think it was unwarranted at all. She scolded him but didn’t call him names or threaten him. The tone was angry, but it is certainly within the realm of normal behavior for a parent to be a little uptight in this situation.
It wasn’t like we sent a mob down to DAS with torches and pitchforks demanding that the principal surrender himself. One strongly worded email does not a mob mentality make.
People write far harsher letters to our own superintendent and principals all the time about topics that are relatively trivial. I’ll never forget the rant I listened to during public comment once at a school board meeting because a kid got an alternative meal since his lunch account was depleted.
Second, I don’t get this feeling that providing some sort of place for these kids to be after school or coming up with some way to at least make an effort to get them dispersed a bit and on to their home neighborhoods is somehow violating their rights as teenagers. I also don’t see it as a waste of money. Many of these kids need some guidance so that they can turn their lives around. I’m surprised that the alternative school kids are not allowed to be involved in any activities. It seems like a little time learning a sport, a hobby or a trade would help these kids and would be well worth the money and effort.
To me, not providing something to engage these kids after school is giving up on them. A bunch of these kids are in big trouble right now because they don’t have anything to do after school. It appears quite possible that no one knows and no one cares where they go or what they do once the dismissal bell rings. I find that sad.
Oh…… and BTW, kudos to CSD for being on the ball with this. They clearly do care about our kids and I appreciate that.
The question remains – what did police learn from the kid with the ammunition? I think it’s important to know what was about to happen. As of late Friday the police chief failed to return several calls from the AJC. If we are going to avoid troubling situations in the future, we need to know the facts.
If enough people get involved and we put enough political pressure on the system to treat these children as a group of kids who would have created another Columbine, then we will make the next group think twice.
—————
Except they did not kill anyone, did not have any guns, and there (thus far) is zero evidence that they intended to kill anyone, much less start a slaughter on the scale of Columbine. But you want to pressure politicians to treat them as potential mass murderers? And to what end, exactly — to put them all in jail for years for trespassing?
I don’t know if it was going to be a “Columbine” or a dance-off. No one but the kids, and most likely the police, know.
As a community, we should be given the facts. We should be pulling together, not criticizing each other or the schools.
Hi all,
As a parent in DCSS, I have to agree that something needs to be done about the Alternative School. There’s this thing called the School to Prison Pipeline and IMO, this school is only serving that pipeline. The idea to house over 700 students with serious disciplinary problems together from 8-2 and then cut them loose is ridiculous. I don’t profess to have a solution, but some kind of more even disbursing among schools, (or “small communities”) intense tutorials, after-school programs/mentoring – etc might be better.
That said – I hate to be the bearer of bad news – but there is some reason these kids descended “en-masse” on your school. You most likely have a gang within your own walls of some kind and if I were you, I would push hard to find out before the problem grows. Your HS kids weren’t just innocently sitting around and were randomly plotted against for no reason (blink-blink). Find out what is really going on here and address it.
To me, it looks like Decatur City Schools uses the same PR tactics as DCSS. You most likely have not been told the whole story. Ask the cops – they tend to live in reality.
Excellent point about school systems’ PR downplaying discipline and violence issues. Maybe someone should approach the DHS SLT to see if a parent/teacher/community based decision making body can be more genuine in its responses.
A lot of this is about money, as in shortage of. The special needs/behavioral programs in CSD have all new terminology, acronyms, and procedures for who qualifies for what. Best I can see, it means less kids get services which hurts all the kids because kids with inadequate attention distract everyone from the day to day business of education. But if you ask CSD administrators about this, including those over special needs programs, they will tell you that kids used to be labelled unfairly in the past when all they needed was some “tiered” interventions. I would be ok with reducing the labelling if it didn’t mean decreasing the number, intensity and cost of providing services to these kids. Were that many kids really overdiagnosed with problems? I doubt it. We’ve raised the bar for who is needy enough to get costly interventions but increased the number of children not adequately served and the risk that the entire classroom will be affected.
This problem is compounded by the movement at DHS to remove advanced content classes and put kids of all levels in the same classroom. The kids at the top are bored. The kids who struggle are overwhelmed and feel inadequate. When kids are bored, overwhelmed or feel inadequate, you see behavior problems.
Behavior problems mean burned out teachers. Burned out teachers do not deal as well with motivation and behavior problems.. so the problems get worse.. so the teachers are more overwhelmed… and the cycle goes on.
It will be interesting to see how this stew of reducing special services coupled with leveling tastes after a few years.
I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying Stella. Are you suggesting that outsiders coming into Decatur, and then local officials responding by all accounts quickly and efficiently, has tarnished *our* reputation? I don’t get it.
I was in Renfroe during the lockdown. Kids were coming out as I was walking in at 3:30pm for an after school club. The lockdown happened perhaps 10 minutes after dismissal.
I don’t know what happened with kids on buses, but I believe only the kids who were still in the building were locked in.
Agreed!
Hear, hear.
Thanks guys and gals. Always nice to hear!
But thank you too! Insightful comments and interesting discussion are definitely the life-blood of this blog.
DM …Thank You !! Thank You !!
There are occasions when the busses carry both DHS and RMS students at the same time, so your point is well taken.
Stella, my son came in the door from a bus ride from RMS before the phone rang, too. I thought it was peculiar but better to have a heads up than to be in the dark about such a situation. There are days when students stay after for various activities and clubs so it would have been worthwhile to know if the school was locked on one of those days for us.
When you think of what a short walk it is from the MARTA station to the high school, it is amazing that the problem was prevented so efficiently and so quickly.
As far as the ammunition goes, why have bullets if there is no weapon? Was someone else carrying the gun? Was a gun ditched before the youngster was caught? Scary stuff of course but big thanks go out to the DCS staff and our first responders.
Hi Scott. The Decatur police do what they can to keep things on the square under control and they do respond to trouble very quickly. Yesterday evening and today their presence, along with the MARTA police, was evident and their were no groups of people congregating. But, they can not be there all the time. Our experience has been that, after a few days, things will be back to normal, groups of young people, along with adults, begin to congregate on the square. The yelling, foul language, and the feel of hostility once again become evident. This is usually in the late afternoon – early evening but may begin earlier. Its not that our law enforcement people do not respond quickly and efficiently to trouble…they do. Its how do we curb the behavior before it becomes trouble? On one hand we have our first amendment rights to peaceful and lawful assembly. On the other hand we have assemblies for other purposes. How does one, given our legal system, tell the difference? I think this is what Stella was referring to.
Are we going to kick anyone who does not live within the CIty of Decatur out? The officers and school administrative staff did a wonderful job. The news channels, etc can blow things ‘way out.’ Also, with the summer events coming up, we will have more people coming into Decatur. Also, all kids from out of the City limits are not “thugs.” I went to the City of Decatur schools and it was wonderful. We would have lockdowns once in a while as the officers checked the lockers for drugs, etc randomly. The city’s reputation is ‘Good.” All parents need to talk with their children and discuss ways to handle themselves in emergency situations and how to handle themselves period, with respect for themselves and others.
oops..”THERE were no groups”.. not their. Don’t want to get bashed for my lack of command of the English language
Has anyone found out why these DeKalb Alternative students were going to CD High School? Is there “bad blood” between some students? Does CDS have gangs or pseudo gang activity?
Agreed. It’s kind of ridiculous to browbeat DeKalb Alternative administrators for not controlling kids after school hours. Even if they wanted to, that’s not within their power, nor should it be.
Look, it’s all well and good to get feathers ruffled and huff “Someone should do something about this!” Meanwhile, you’re overlooking the fact that (several) someone(s) DID do something that prevented something bad from happening. Instead of assigning blame and shaking fists at the sky, why not acknowledge the amazingly competent intervention that took place and be thankful we live in a place where that is possible?
I disagree somewhat Andisheh. I agree that Dekalb Alt’s hands are tied in terms of policing their students. They are the keeper of everyone else’s throw aways. However, their lack of response to the incident is unfortunate. A mob of their students, at least one with ammunition, trespassed at another school during school hours yesterday. However, their staff have been mute on the issue. Their website does not have any information on how to anonymously report knowing anything about the incident, their principal has not issued a statement requesting assistance in identifying these children, or even a statement articulating what a trajedy it was that their students were involved. In my opinion, their lack of response is negligence.
Agreed. And I know people are putting their heads together today to try to determine the best approach to not allowing this kind of thing to happen again. This incident has been just one more example of exactly what our community and city government stands for and what it will not tolerate.
If they did have an after school program, would you volunteer there?
I say this as someone who served a year with AmeriCorps at a charter school not too far from Decatur. One of our responsibilities was running an after school program. Many people in the surrounding community, including parents of children at the school, had strong opinions about how the program should be run. But when offered the opportunity to actually step up and contribute, no one did. So while I appreciate your concern, you’ll pardon me if I’m unmoved by this particular brand of moral outrage.
“Tragedy?” Really? Let’s keep some perspective here. ~30 kids were intercepted walking toward DHS. One was found to have some ammo on him, which, while disturbing and a crime, doesn’t come anywhere close to a “tragedy.” The death of John Henderson was a tragedy. This was, tops, an unfortunate incident and, thankfully, a non-event.
Frankly, anonymous sources have provided far more misinformation about what went down yesterday than legitimate ones. It’s the police who should be collecting information, not DAS faculty. And as has been reported, they have several kids in custody and no doubt will be talking to faculty and kids at DAS and DHS to get the full story. And this is in an instance where no violent crime actually occurred. So where’s the justification for setting up the Spanish Inquisition?
@ Russ: You know quite well paying taxes as required by a government and doing volunteer work as a VOLUNTARY volunteer are two completely separate things. Stepping up is giving willing to the community of your time and of your self. Paying taxes is just following your legal obligation.
Lumpinthethroat,
I’m not sure what your overall message is. You worked for Americorp, don’t think that yesterday was tragic, don’t think that DAS faculty should encourage an open dialogue about this, don’t offer solutions but discourage others’ comments.
If I am interpreting what you are saying, you’re saying that you’re unmoved by people considering ways to solve problems because low income parents, in your experiences, were not able to volunteer their time for after-school care activities. Is that surprising? Since DAS parents have failed with their kids, do you have any ideas about how to protect our children from their gangs?
When I encouraged having DAS’ principal step up to the plate and act in the interest of the community, your reply was, “why the Spanish inquisition?”. Do you believe that it was an adequate deterrant to have the principal get on the intercom and tell the 20 – 30 kids who got away that next time they’ll be arrested for trespass? Do you believe that a trajedy would only result from their pulling the trigger? Do you believe that a community should rely on police and not get involved in deterring crime? Thankfully, the DCS staff intervened and didn’t leave it up to the police to figure out that these kids were on campus without warning. I, for one, believe it is a trajedy that my daughter had to stay over an hour after school because some delinquents brought lethal weapons to hurt someone. I hope you don’t think that one child decided to bring a bunch of bullets alone just for kicks. I also believe that active communities deter crime.
That said, to deter crime, you must act swiftly, with certainty, and harshly. If we let this go without causing a fuss, I think that we are setting a bad precedent for our community.
lumpintheroad shows: where we go wrong but feel like we’re doing right thing. But I have to think, should these kids be treated even more harshly? DecaturHighDad, you backed up what lump was saying: people growing up with deficient households, as you get older, you need more stringent discipline.
“to deter crime, you must act swiftly, with certainty, and harshly. If we let this go without causing a fuss,”
Oddly, that’s how criminals work.
“Finally, I think CSD considers this and other blogs as inflammatory or panic-evoking.”
No wonder they don’t return my emails.
I’d just like to point out that none of the outlandish rumors that Dr. Edwards cites in her email were ever mentioned here. And I would just like to point out that one of the positives of a documented rumor tree is that they cannot “evolve” into even more ridiculous stories like they do word-of-mouth.
IF CSD does believe this, they have no one to blame but themselves. You can either choose to engage a local resource or not. If you don’t, they are much more likely to become rumor mills. But in doing so, you’re publicly accepting the site’s influence, and no person in power, regardless of position, likes to don influence on another.
The city has discovered that there’s nothing like a clarifying email/comment to clear something up. Perhaps CSD should take note.
For the record, someone else used my screen name here!
How did an episode in which CSD acquitted itself so well turn into Decatur Metro bashing CSD? Is this your way of sending flowers? Your at your best, Metro, when you spread the salve and encourage dialogue.
Um, was that really bashing? I was just responding to being called inflammatory. And that’s not the first time I’ve heard that coming through channels from CSD.
It might have been a bit assertive, but bashing?
I think its a pretty valid and well-reasoned point if that’s their view.
Actually I’ve had this name for quite awhile, at least a year or two, if not more, but I rarely read or post here. Somehow, two of us thought of the same exact name (I guess that’s not so odd since there’s around 2000 women in Decatur who qualify as “CSD Mom”). There must not be a mechanism to prevent duplicate “Name”s. We never noticed before because I post so rarely.
Uh, folks, I hear from a staff member of CSD that one of the guys in the 30+ crowd was a former DHS student who had been expelled. He then became a student at Dekalb Alternative School. In the past CSD had had arrangements with Dekalb county schools for types of special education, such as the center at Coralwood. We may have other Decatur students in Dekalb programs.
It may be that they learned little or nothing, which is what I imagine. BTW, how is it that you know about the AJC calling?
As for avoiding troubling situations, please let us know how you think knowing something about this one would avoid future situations. I think the overall response to this one, with no prior knowledge, was outstanding, but if you think we can do better, let us know how.
Hi Mom, on the contrary I’ve been posting under this name quite a lot over the last few months, so I wanted to be clear that your posts were not mine. I suppose one of us should change our name. It’s odd that two of us can have the same name. Oh well.
The “CSD Mom” with the blue/gray snowflake-like icon has now changed her name to “CSD Snowflake”. This seems to be a good choice on so many levels and should avoid confusing her with the frequently-posting “CSD Mom” with the brown placemat-like icon.
NellieBelle — Put it in context. We were discussing a particular school. I don’t have children. I live in Decatur and pay my taxes. I feel that’s contribution enough to pass comment on what happens to schools in my community — even if it relates to schools were I don’t volunteer or send kids.
My comment was intended to point out (to lumpintheroad) that we should not attempt to dispense credentials for commenting on community matters.
(BTW — and I do volunteer … just not on anything related to schools…)
I’m no expert on what they are doing at the HS, but I think you are missing big parts of the changes in your post. They are not doing away with the Advanced Placement (AP) program, which would be for the highest level classes. They are doing away with Honors classes. I used to teach also, and I think that they are on the right track for reasons I’d be happy to expand upon. From what I’ve heard so far, they are not experiencing, en masse, any of the problems you are alluding to. Your post sounds like fear mongering. Why do you do that, without any stated proof that it is really happening?
I know that they are not doing away with AP. I should have been more specific.
Do you have a child who has been a freshman at DHS in the past couple of years? I do. Have you taught high school? I have.
What’s your stated proof?
And I’m not fear mongering. There is no reason to be afraid… for those who were frightened.. my apologies. It’s just not an optimal situation but there is no reason for fear.
No, I guess that the problems aren’t en masse, but there are problems. Does DHS work for some kids, yes. Does it work for kids who have very high aspirations? Does it work for kids who are struggling? Maybe, maybe not. We shall see when the current freshmen and sophomores graduate.
I haven’t had a child who has been a freshman at DHS in the past couple of years but I’ve talked to many parents who have – they seem to be mostly pleased with how things are going.
Yes, I taught high school, including AP classes. I never found that the honors classes that I and my peers taught really helped those students aspire to any greater heights. It only made it easier for those kids to segregate and ensure that they would be in class with their friends/close peer groups. The non-honors, non-AP classes were only the “leftovers” (a self-inflicted term) and they worked hard to live up to their reputuation. AP will allow those with high aspirations to continue to follow their paths – we will continue to send them off to Ivy League, etc. schools. Hopefully, some more of the honors kids will decide that they can be AP kids. And as long as the teachers are well-trained and understand how to tap into the various learning styles of their students in the non-AP classes and push them to greater heights we may see a rising tide of achievement from the bottom up. I will choose to be optimistic, thank you.