In response to this morning's post "From the School House to the Jail House" I received this statement from Perspectives Charter School leaders:
Perspectives Charter Schools
It is unfortunate that recent national attention on Perspectives Charter Schools centers on the events surrounding last week’s food fight at the middle school on our
At Perspectives, we are focused on educating our children and preparing them for success in college and life. The Perspectives community includes five excellent charter schools around the city of
Last year, more than 90 percent of our seniors graduated and went on to college. We have
Regrettably, several of our young students made an error in judgment—as children often do—in participating in the food fight. The
We have been working closely with parents, community members and police to ensure that these students are treated fairly as they deal with the consequences of this situation. Perspectives’ leadership will stand by our students as advocates when they appear in court later this month. In the meantime, we will continue to concentrate on our primary role—teaching and learning.
Please feel free to call us with any questions or concerns. Contact Kim Day at 312-604-2122.
Sincerely,
Kim Day and Diana Shulla-Cose, Co-Founders
It is a shame that all to often, adults (and administrators) can so easily see and identify the errors in judgment of young people and others, but are blind or unwilling to admit to their own.
ReplyDeletePerspectives school leaders transferred responsibility for their kids to the police. They mistook pre-adolescent misbehavior for criminal behavior. Cardinal sin for middle school educators. The question remains--would this have happened if the kids were white or middle class? I think we all know the answer.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part is the copyright mark in the middle of the email.
ReplyDelete"A Disciplined Life"
Unbelievable.
Perspectives leaders are worried about the wrong thing, ie "recent national attention on Perspectives Charter Schools centers on the events surrounding last week’s food fight."
ReplyDeleteWhen you have 25 of your kids jailed for a food fight, of course you are going to be the focus of some media attention for a while.
Your job is to teach kids and try and rebuild trust with them and their parents.