Whitney M. Young Gifted & Talented Leadership Academy on Cleveland’s southeast side is scheduled to merge with other Cleveland schools, and many students and parents are unhappy about the change.
The National Blue Ribbon School currently boasts a 100 percent graduation rate and is one of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s highest performing campuses. Whitney M. Young also holds the distinction of being Cleveland’s first public gifted education school.
The merger of Whitney M. Young will force the high school students to attend John F. Kennedy School, while its elementary school program is set to join with Elliot Elementary School. District CEO Eric Gordon said the merged school will still offer gifted services, just not as a separate school.
After more than 50 students and community members (including City Council member Joe Jones and former councilman Zack Reed) presented concerns about the school merger at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, a protest was held this morning outside of the school including a walk-out staged by the students.
According to an email sent to Scene by parent Doretha Mitchell, “We are trying to save our high school because closing it will have a negative effect on our community.”
It’s important to note that the overwhelming majority of Whitney Young’s student population are students of color. Studies have shown that racial disparities in the educational field are still very much alive. White and Asian students are far more likely to have access to gifted or advanced classes, which makes Whitney Young all the more important for Cleveland’s black youth. For these students, Whitney Young is not just a school. It’s a safe space to foster the gifted minds that would otherwise fall victim to the unfortunate racial disparities and biases that exist within the field of education.
Whitney Young student Tonna Mockabee also expressed concern at a recent school board meeting about the potential violence facing Whitney Young students.
“Frankly, we do not feel safe,” she said. “We have been robbed, bullied and jumped by former JFK students.”
Student Austin Mitchell added, “The culture at Whitney Young is just completely different from the culture at JFK. “We come to school. We do our work. We take our tests. And we pass them.”
District officials, however, say the Whitney Young’s declining enrollment, down from 415 in 2007-08 to 183 today, is a major factor in dismantling the standalone school.
Zack Reed, Joe Jones and State Representative John Barnes urged the school board and district officials to personally meet with community members to provide a better understanding of the plan for Whitney Young. District CEO Gordon announced a meeting is being planned for May 9, and that the district is working with Jones on a centralized location.
This article appears in Apr 18-24, 2018.
I can recall various times in my life when I experienced bullying first
hand. It never really bothered me until I began to worry about the next
episode. It was the anxiety formed by the anticipation of it that created
the real fear. In retrospect I think some of it was nothing more than
someone trying to get my attention perhaps to form a friendship. But there
were times when I remember going to school and feeling absolutely terrified
of what was about to befall me that day. It was in the eighth grade when
the anxiety began to consume me to the point of not being able to eat, sleep
or enjoy everyday things. That was the year a new federal program
initiative rolled out; it was called the “focus group”. The purpose was to
re-enter juvenile malcontents into the general population of students.
Needless to say they wreaked havoc on the students by bullying and starting
fights with them. They were also instrumental in disrupting class.
Unfortunately for me my locker was assigned next to one of them who
resembled {in looks, words and actions} none other than Charles Manson
himself. The dude was just plumb crazy {or at least emotionally
disturbed}. He also sat in front of me during most classes so I spent more
time worrying about what he was going to do to me than trying to learn the
subject matter. We scuffled once during gym class but when the teacher
broke us up he blamed me for the incident. There were other students as
well who began to pick on me when they recognized my vulnerability.
Finally, after having watched {and grown tired of} my whimpering and weeping
my Father decided it was time to teach me how to defend myself. Every
night after school we would go down to the basement and practice three
boxing moves; the left jab, left hook and right cross. I was not allowed by
my Father to use these techniques until he was convinced that once a fight
started it would end quickly {hopefully with me as the victor}. Until then
he trained me to develop a certain mental toughness so as to ignore those
who were just kidding around compared to those who had malicious intent. I
engaged in eight fights during the second semester, was suspended for three
days and broke one knuckle. Nobody ever bullied me again. Fortunately for
my chief antagonist he was expelled so we never did have that “super fight”.
I would have leveled him. My troubles continued in high school though when
the second “focus group” initiative allowed for a eighteen year old drug
dealer to be admitted into the freshman class. He too did everything he
could to intimidate me but this time I was ready. Unbeknownst to me my
Father called the school principal before the start of class one day and
told him “I have directed my son to seek out and annihilate this worthless
slime ball before he has the chance to do the same to him.” Evidently the
dude was causing problems in other places as well and was expelled before we
could have fought. I would have leveled him too.
Bullying is one of the most demeaning things one person can do to another.
It is as though the perpetrator has so much disdain for another human being
they just have to act out on them in one form or another. Where does this
inner hate come from? What is accomplished by disrupting someone else’s
life {sometimes permanently}? Perhaps one solution is the “reality show”
called “Bully Beatdown” whereby a bully is paid $10,000 cash if they can
defeat the victims proxy in what appears to be a ultimate fighting
championship type venue. As expected the bully talks tough until they
realize what they got themselves into. The proxy usually makes quick work
of them and the money is then awarded to the victim followed by an apology
from the bully. This would make for a great fund raiser for schools {given
all the budget cuts} and perhaps restore order to a place that is supposed
to be reserved for learning. Sometimes some of the greatest lessons in life
can only be learned the hard way. To the victims out there across the
country; I got your back. To the bullies get out of our face or someday we
will level you too.
The public school system today continues to fail at educating our children
both in terms of job training and citizen awareness. The most powerful
country to ever exist continues to lag behind other countries when it comes
the very basics expected of this institution. The reason for this is
because of the bureaucratic non-incentives consistent with government waste.
Teachers are not held accountable as a unit manager would be held
accountable for their unit achieving objectives in a private corporation.
They are also not rewarded financially for the success of their students
when it comes to test results. And the biggest benefactor of all, private
enterprise is not required to reinvest in an educational system that
provides free training to future employees.
The time for privatization of public education is long overdue. We as a
country need to finally get serious about training and educating our future
citizens. It is time to use corporate property tax along with personal
property tax as a means of funding schools. Educational facilities from
pre-schools to colleges and universities need to be converted to entities of
private enterprise whereby an education is crafted as the finest product
available to United States citizens.
Every time I encounter someone in the workplace, I am reminded of just how
much we have failed to properly educate United States citizens in the
fundamentals of communication: reading writing, speaking and listening. Few
would argue that the time is long overdue for the United States to “get back
to
the basics” of a fully functional education system. We need to exclusively
focus on the development of communication skills from kindergarten to eighth
grade along with annual testing that measures aptitude and interest. This
is to determine what someone is good at combined with what they like to do.
Training in mathematics should be limited to addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. Unless communication skills are fully mastered,
there is no need to advance to high school.
For those who graduate to high school, the emphasis could evolve into a
curriculum of philosophy, sociology, economics, psychology, science and
religious studies. Books such as “For Dummies” and “The Complete Idiot’s
Guide” could be used to foster an understanding of different religions.
Athletic activity would be strictly confined to cardio vascular exercises
and all sports would be eliminated. While there would still be an emphasis
on communication skills, the focus would now be on developing a foundation
of basic knowledge so as to be able to graduate to college. Testing for
aptitude and interest would continue through high school increasing the
chances of picking the right field of study . Those not continuing on to
college would enter some type of apprenticeship training for the purpose of
learning a trade. For those who do graduate to college, the student would
continue to study an advanced version of the same curriculum as high school
but only for the first two years then they would complete their education by
strictly focusing on coursework designed to train them in their field of
study. Nearing graduation, internships would be required to begin the
transition to the working world. Think of how different our society would be
if our education system could just teach the fundamentals of reading,
writing, speaking and listening. Let us begin…again.
PS: The Cleveland School System is so ripe for this change.