Regarding the recent conviction (N&R) of an Eastern High School student of raping a fellow student in a mobile classroom, I must say I was quite disturbed by the whole episode.

The rapist received a sentence of nearly seven years, and everyone involved is reported as trying to assign or avoid blame, which is quite natural I suppose.  However, presiding Judge A. Moses Massey took a wider view...

"The schools' problems are a result of the disintegration of family values in our society"

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I looks like the High Point forced "Choice Plan" might not be very good for actually educating children.  According to the N&R's reporting of data requested by our school board, suspensions are up and passing grades are down at the three affected high schools.

ABC of Guilford County's Tim Mann wonders if the culprit for the statistics might be the profound amount of upheaval and disruption that the High Point Plan caused in the student population...

"...Has this plan created such turmoil in these children's lives that it's affected their ability to concentrate in school?"

Dr. Grier agrees that some of the numbers are "disappointing", and he also sees some kind of weird redemption in the higher suspension rates.  The article gives us Dr. Grier's take on the higher numbers...

"...the rise in suspensions should dispel the commonly held belief that the central office is encouraging teachers to suspend fewer students."

That "commonly held belief" is so last year.  In my opinion, this year's higher numbers are actually a validation of the former super-double-secret-wink-and-a-nod policy that, by all background accounts, were aimed at keeping all but the most egregious school disrupters in the classroom.  That unstated policy now seems to have now been lifted due to public outcry.  I think we are now getting real-world numbers on that count.

If the High Point numbers hold up after comparing them to other Guilford County high schools, our Board of Education is going to have to give this whole thing a re-think.

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Update 10:16a: The article referred to below is no longer available online.  My guess is that it was meant for publication at a later date.  But I promise it was available earlier.  Until it is back up, just consider this to be advance commentary on a sad state of affairs.

Update 10:24a: JR, in a comment below: "...we've taken it down. There are several questions still unanswered that fairness requires us to get answered before publication. You'll see it soon, though." 

Fair enough, John.  You might want to get Matt to ask Skip how he thinks continually making unsubstantiated racism charges is helpful in eradicating the problem.

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I've looked twice now in my home delivered copy of the News & Record and cannot find that this article made it to press: "Officials discount charges of racism from Alston".  It did make the on-line edition, though.  That is curious, but no where near as curious as the content of the article.

Matt Williams' contacted several members of our City Council to respond to County Commissioner Alston's pronouncement that some of the city's staff are racists.  Of those Council members who Matt was able to talk to for the story, reactions were either muted or non-existent depending on if the council member is white or black.

White folks Perkins, Gatton, Phillips, and Holliday's reactions can be best summarized as, 'That's just Skip, he's crying wolf again.'

Black folks Burroughs-White, Johnson and Bellamy-Small reactions can best be summarized as, 'We don't want to talk about it.'

Neither set of responses is satisfactory and only leaves the door open for Alston to go on his merry way spewing his I'll-shut-them-up-with-a-single-word mantra with a Tourette's Syndrome-like regularity.

Charges of racism used to be serious and taken seriously here in Greensboro, but not anymore.  Skip Alston and other black leaders cited in the article have effectively numbed us up and dumbed us down to the point that the average Guilford County citizen wouldn't recognize true institutional racism if it slapped us all up side the head.  And that is the tragic but inevitable result of all of this unsubstantiated race baiting.  Pitiful.

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