School Closure Racist?

[scitsofreaky]

http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUS...47-c589c01ca7bf

DENVER - Attorney David Lane says he will investigate, pro bono, the possibility of filing a federal lawsuit against Denver Public Schools.

 

In February, the school board voted to close Manual for one year, then re-opening it for the 2007-08 school year with new students and staff. Black Church Leaders with the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance and Hispanic clergy with the Confianza Ministerial Coalition say the move by the district is a racist attempt at pushing minorities out of Northeast Denver.

 

Lane says he will look at whether the school closure is a civil rights violation. He says his law firm will investigate the possibility of filing a lawsuit in federal court to stop the closure of Manual. Church leaders say the decision was made behind closed doors, without input from the community until it was already a "done deal."

 

"We are not saying that the school was not in trouble," says Rev. Paul Burleson, President of the GMDMA. "We're not saying that our students do not need quality education, but the means and the method and the closed door tactics, we believe were illegal."

 

District leaders have said repeatedly that the decision to close Manual was made because enrollment had dropped at the school by nearly 50% over the last five years. In 2001, Manual High was divided into three separate programs each with a unique focus as an experiment to find a better way to teach urban students. Superintendent Michael Bennet has said that dividing the school was a failure that's why a new plan is needed at the school.

 

Last week, Bennet formed an advisory committee made up of community leaders, city council members, and the president of the school board to move forward with closure plans. The committee will re-design how the school will be run when it re-opens.

Plus there is a video if you click the link.

First off, I couldn't find the exact article I was looking for, but this will do. School closures don't really seem like a good idea to me, and I can't say I agree with the decision to close the school, but I find the reaction from the community to be outrageous. Some church leaders (who are the community leaders, surpise surprise) are claiming that this is just a way for getting "blacks out" of that area of Denver. What in the hell, that doesn't makes sense since they are going to re-open the school after just one year. But no, that makes sense, so instead they start chanting, "We shall overcome" like we have reverted back to the civil rights movement, and on the news they showed one pastor yelling to a congregation (or was it at the rally, I'm not sure), "We have Gawd on our side, so we will be victorious. We SHALL overcome." My god, are they going to start a holy war in Denver over a school being closed temporarily?

This seems to typify the racial sensitivity of Denver. A while ago (a few years back even) a mentally retarded boy was shot by a police officer. The boy, who if I am not mistaken, had a history of violence pulled a knife on his family, who then called 911, and the responding officer(s) ended up shooting and killing the boy. Don't get me wrong, I hate to hear about a child getting killed, but it wasn't like he was just some kid walking down the street, he was armed and unpredictable. But what took over the story- the officer was white and the "victim" was black. So there was a great upheaval by the so-called community leaders (who seem to only come up with big issues such as this, but I could be wrong), and even Rev. Jessy Jackson got involved, and they acted as if his race, and not the knife, was the reason for the shooting. Some claimed that if the boy was white, the officer wouldn't have used as much force, but the officer really had no other choice because many of the police officers before this incident didn't have tasers (which changed after this case, which is good imo, it shows the DPD are trying to learn from their mistakes)

Sigh, but I digress (that is a lot of digression).

I guess I'm done ranting, feels good to get my thoughts out. If anyone knows of anything I got wrong, please correct me. I honestly want to be wrong about this shit, I don't want the real world to be like I how I think it is.

[Padreko]

Well I'm not cracked out conspiracy theorist, but I do feel like race has an effect on the day to day intereactions between people. I mean is it really that hard to believe that a white officier would've used less force (or a different tactic in general) on a psyco white kid in an affluent suburb than on a psyco black kid in the run down trashy as hell ghetto? Don't get me wrong, I'm fucking afraid to walk through the city of rochester because I feel like people are going to mug me. But I can't be racist towards black people because I'm black. And I don't have an hard feelings on a white person who feels the same way.

 

Also, one other thing I'd like to point out is that I feel that shitty no child left behind legistation is at least partially racist (or just a result of the idoit legislatures who don't read things through carefully like with the US patriot act). As soon as the no child left behind bullshit was pushed through, instantly 3 innercity schools closed in the rochester city school district because they couldn't measure up to the requirements of NCLB. (what the hell is the city suppose to do with those extra students? the schools are already way overcrowded?) That also has an effect on suburb schools that, because of NCLB, want to keep minorities out of their schools through those particular programs that give urban students a better education (ie urban in suburban program blah blah blah) because theoretically the minority students will lower their overall performance. Lets not even go into the drama that starts when the city schools are literally forced to bus in minorities to the suburb, city schools are far to overcrowded.

 

Conclusion: School systems can be shitty, and the people in charge are also shitty. Racial issues suck and acting like they don't exist sucks even more.

[scitsofreaky]

Conclusion: School systems can be shitty, and the people in charge are also shitty. Racial issues suck and acting like they don't exist sucks even more.

I agree with everything you said here. I'm not saying racial issues don't exist, I'm just saying race isn't always involved in the ways the people seem to think. Like I said, it doesn't make sense that they would temporarily shut down a school for restructuring to get rid the "blacks" from a certain area of the city. It's not like people are going to have to move, and it seems many probably couldn't afford to move anyway, nor do they plan to.

And also like I said, I do not agree with the "restructuring" of schools like this. I hate the no child left behind bullshit. Why the hell would you keep funding from struggling schools?!? It doesn't make sense. At least one school has been permanently closed as a public school in the area.

[nirrti]

I agree with everything you said here. I'm not saying racial issues don't exist, I'm just saying race isn't always involved in the ways the people seem to think. Like I said, it doesn't make sense that they would temporarily shut down a school for restructuring to get rid the "blacks" from a certain area of the city. It's not like people are going to have to move, and it seems many probably couldn't afford to move anyway, nor do they plan to.

And also like I said, I do not agree with the "restructuring" of schools like this. I hate the no child left behind bullshit. Why the hell would you keep funding from struggling schools?!? It doesn't make sense. At least one school has been permanently closed as a public school in the area.

 

I don't know if it is racially motivated but how in the world can anyone with a bit of common sense think keeping even more money from a failing school, one which probably already gets the least amount, make that school better? One of the reasons why it's struggling in the first place is because it wasn't getting the funding in the first place.

 

This reminds me too much of when there were segregated schools here in the South(yeah, like that's changed. ) and black schools were given whatever materials the white schools didn't use anymore and got a fraction of the funding. It enrages me this still goes on under the guise of "incentives".

[scitsofreaky]

how in the world can anyone with a bit of common sense think keeping even more money from a failing school, one which probably already gets the least amount, make that school better?

Well, it's the government, so common sense isn't so common.