Good will at Grimsley
I continue to be impressed by the efforts of a group of parents at Grimsley High School who are trying to address the root causes of recent disciplinary problems at the school. They call themselves Grimsley CARES.
Here is how they describe their mission in a letter:
Many of you are anxious to get involved with the process of helping Grimsley High School reach its undeniable potential to provide all students with the ability to excel in and out of the classroom. Many of us are feeling that the climate at Grimsley High School must change. Cathy Daniels-Lee and I have joined hands and hearts to create a Grimsley High School Community that CARES.
There are many aspects of our current school climate that need our support: a better understanding of all students’ needs; supporting our teachers' efforts and helping to improve faculty morale; ensuring a safe campus for all; looking at current discipline procedures and exploring if they are balanced and fair and how discipline procedures can be improved; looking at ways to nurture and educate our students outside of the typical classroom setting; igniting a feeling of school pride campus-wide; and becoming more community-oriented off-campus.
Some of the organizations that are willing to partner with Grimsley High School to date include: Guilford Education Alliance, Black Child Development Institute, Daystar, NC A&T State University, Trinity AME Zion Church, Unity in Greensboro, Greensboro Human Relations Commission, Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department – HOPE Project, Securing Hope Ministries, Genesis Baptist Church, and many concerned parents such as Nancy Winborn, Gay Brogden, Patricia Aronson, Bill Tourtellot, Kim Kirkman, Melissa Mitchell, Karen Foster and Beverly Blake Thompson, to name a few.
Various community leaders are preparing to meet with students and their community members from the neighborhoods who have been fighting to look at solutions to end the fighting. We are also looking at ways to support these communities with programs for tutoring, adult GED courses, computer labs and aid with expanding recreation needs.
We are committed to serving all youth at Grimsley High School and ask that you, too, make that commitment. This will require hard work, dedication, care and long-term commitment. We believe that by supporting our youth we will ultimately witness improvements in the overall performance of our students, as well as school climate, safety, discipline and morale improvements. This will require our consistent call of action from our School Board members to urge them to, and to remain constant in, the support of our concerted efforts. It will take all of us to come together and collectively care for our Grimsley community.
We are
GHS Community C.A.R.E.S.- Committed to Actively Reach Every Student,
Valerie Stern, Cathy Daniels-Lee
I imagine we've all had the reflexive to "throw 'em out" or "lock 'em up" in cases like the ugly fights at Grimsley in December between students from rival neighborhoods. That's understandable.
There is no place for that kind of behavior on campus. Those students have to be disciplined, by rule and by law.
But there is more going on beneath the surface.The issues and problems are still there. The fights are only symptoms.
Griimsley CARES wil meet its share of skeptics and cynics. But it's encouraging to see a school community behave like a community.
Comments (3)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
The entire community (parents, teachers, and students) needs to be involved in deciding what disciplinary policies should be. Without that involvement there will not be fair, consistent, and universally understood standards of behavior. And until students know what limits and boundaries exist they are going to push the envelope.
The absence of a community consensus on standards for student behavior is, in and of itself, one of the root causes of violence in schools. Students need to hear one clear voice, teachers need to know what backing they will receive, and the administration needs to understand what the community mandate on the issue is.
Step one in this process might be for the school board to hold community meetings, receive recommendations, talk to experts, and then tell the administration what policy it wants implemented. Until now, we have had an administration down process on discipline which we should replace with community up consensus.
Posted on January 21, 2008 10:46 AM
I agree. But how do we engage parents who are not taking part in their children's education?
For instance, are parents whose children were involved in the fights taking part in Grimsley CARES?
Also, how do we also involve those of us who don't have children in school?
We're still stakeholders.
Posted on January 28, 2008 11:13 AM
on tadalafil
Posted on October 25, 2008 10:10 AM