When Public Schools Are Too Dangerous Even For Ex-Cons

Names are not used in this story out of respect for privacy.

About twenty minutes after school one day last fall, one of my best and favorite students was angrily ripping down different posters in the halls. Not used to seeing him act like this, I stepped in asked what was going on.

He showed me his notebook, which was soaking wet. "I dropped my notebook on the ground accidentally and it fell in a puddle of piss."

Sure enough, his notebook stunk like urine. I asked how it happened.

"Kids are pissing in the halls now because they can't get into the bathrooms."

A recent spate of arson in the bathrooms had caused all students to get a key from one of the roaming hall monitors if they needed to use the facilities. In a large school, it's hard to find the bathroom monitor.

Recently, I spoke with a man from a local group that walks the halls of troubled schools and helps clear up the hallways. "Hall-walking" is a favorite pastime in our school. The man's group is made up largely of ex-convicts who now come into schools to help prevent violence and to connect with wayward kids. They are an awesome bunch of guys taking personal responsibility for the community and the schools. This group did not renew their contract with our school when it expired last Friday. They had seen enough, and they'd only been there a few weeks.

The man described to me a scene he saw in Stairwell 4: "Kids were smoking pot and spreading feces on the wall right next to them."

Our school is on the brink of collapse. There is little to no community involvement. The office of a prominent Democrat congressman, who is affiliated with the school, had no idea that the conditions were so dreadful. No one from the office had contacted the school since August, said the staffer I spoke with.

If the leader of a congressional district doesn't even know that a school is crumbling in his community, why should the community care?

There will be all kinds of debate in this administration about what social programs need to implemented and what changes to No Child Left Behind need to be made to better our public schools. Education courses will continue to focus on methods of teaching the "diverse learner."

I would argue that it's much simpler: People in communities of high poverty and high income alike need to take pride in their schools. People need to stop excusing outrageous behavior on the part of students, teachers and administrators by blaming the problems on poverty, lack of resources or No Child Left Behind. Teachers need to step up, use their smarts and teach with passion. Parents--whether they are single, addicted, divorced, imprisoned, etc.-- need to demand that their kids are getting the leadership they deserve when the come to school.

At some point, the excuses need to stop and people, regardless of race, color or creed, need to get it right.