"It's like Jerry Springer in the classroom."
Reporters Taft Wireback and Jennifer Fernandez interviewed more than 60 students and dozens of teachers, parents and administrators to get a picture of the problems of discipline and violence in Guilford County schools. The two-day series starts tomorrow. Here's a taste of what the students say:
Students harassed a Northwest Middle School teacher so badly that she left school one day in tears, said eighth-grader Jade Weaver, 13.
Megan Sappenfield, a junior at Ragsdale High School, said students swear and talk back to teachers all the time. Her Spanish II class is just "crazy," she said.
"We don't learn because people scream at the teacher and cut class," said Sappenfield, whose mother teaches at a district middle school.
"Someone threw an eraser at our teacher the other day," said Devon McCauley, 15, a Western High School sophomore, "and she kind of just took it. She didn't say anything or do anything."
Check it out Saturday and Sunday.
Update: The week's troubles with so-called hit lists spreads to more schools.
Comments (6)
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I'm becoming increasingly frightened of sending my child off to school. I have encouraged her, however, to break one of the school rules. She takes her cell phone with her and keeps it with her, ringer off, at all times.
And we don't know HALF of what goes on.
Posted on December 3, 2004 4:25 PM
After reading the above linked article, I called my daughter to report that two of the letters were at the middle school she attended, right next door to the high school she attends now. I said, "What surprises me is that this is happening at middle schools, not high schools." Her response was, "At the high schools they wouldn't take the time to write a note, they'll just tell you they're gonna kill you."
Yikes!
Posted on December 3, 2004 4:30 PM
Wow, the N&R continues to drive me crazy. Sometimes sloppy and incompetent, other times as good as any paper around, big or small.
I was so ticked the other day at a Letter to the Editor that contained absolutely false information that you let get by (that it was ABC and not local stations that chose not to run Saving Private Ryan on Veterans Day) that I wrote a scathing letter that was published on Sat. 12/4. Then on this same day, you guys step up and cover the violence in the schools issue in such a first-class/comprehensive way that I am absolutely blown away. Congratulations. I hope Sunday's followup will be just as excellent.
Brad Krantz
Posted on December 4, 2004 3:54 PM
Brad, I don't have anything to do with the editing of the letters (or the selection of them, for that matter, or yours wouldn't have gotten through :). But I know a little about it. We don't have "fact checkers" for the letters. We receive letters about thousands of topics, only some of which the editorial staff has first-hand knowledge. While they try to check the facts of the published letters, they sometimes miss falsehoods, even obvious ones. (And, in fact, that is one of the neat things about blogs: Y'all can correct a mistake I've made in no time flat, and I can get it corrected in real time.)
Anyway, sorry about that letter. Anyone who followed the "Saving Private Ryan" controversy knew that stations made their own decisions independently. I discovered that when I tried to tune in.
And thanks for the praise on the school discipline project.
Posted on December 5, 2004 6:22 PM
Why would or should you check facts on a letter to the editor? If the person misrepresents something THEY should be held accountable not the paper. Checking facts and fixing mistakes would mean changing the nature of the letter and I'm not sure the paper should do that.
If you want to sound stupid, and you want to do it publicly, the paper shouldn't have your back. (I have experience here!)
Posted on December 6, 2004 8:48 AM
Actually, we knew the facts about Private Ryan. In fact, we had editorialized about the subject and were fully aware that ABC had not pulled the broadcasts. That decision rested with chains such as Sinclair Broadcasting and individual affiliates. Mea culpa.
Somehow we simply missed the factual error in that letter. Chalk it up to human error.
We have had record numbers of letters this year and sometimes we slip up.
However, we have corrected facts in many, many others on much more complex subjects.
We appreciate Brad's outrage. We even edited his letter for style and grammar.
Posted on December 6, 2004 8:10 PM