Looking at Wake's suspension and dropout rates

Well, here we go again....talk of insubordination. In order to help balance the budget teachers have endured step freezes that have been in place for 2 years as well as a cost of living freeze. Now, can this be true? BEV wants us to work for free one day next year? I'll have more soon!!!!!

We had a series of misfortunate events - aren't all mistakes. My child got her first ISS for not turning in her homework on time - 3 days. Then another 5 days of lunch silent suspensions for standing up for herself on the playground. Then things got more serious. 10 days total in school suspensions since March - here's what we learned. Do not under any circumstances trust your teachers. Do not under any circumstances swear on the playground - even if no staff actually hears it. He said/she said is not always on the side of right. Never, never go into a teacher's classroom by yourself - and never take the classroom candy while you're in there.

Results - as expected - my child, age 11, now hates most of her teachers, distrusts the AP and Principal (they are not your friends - never tell them anything important). And, she's lost all that classroom time. Suspensions for little things are a horrible thing, and teach horrible lessons, with bad long lasting results. So if they tell you it's for your child's good - it probably isn't. Why make children hate school - no wonder the Wake County drop out rate is so high - kids are burnt out by the time they get to HS. And yes, we are not perfect in our house, but at least we were trying to get it finished until this last round. She's threatening to run away she's so angry and I'm scared to death she might really mean it - all over school suspensions.

This post is a perfect example of why the Wake County Schools and its teachers will never win. Read through the comments here and you'll see hardcore suggestions about dealing with insubordinate students----make 'em clean toilets, send 'em to boot camp, make their lives so uncomfortable that they'll choose to act differently.

Then go back and read through the comments about the insubordinate students from a few months back who were intentionally trying to disrupt science classes about natural selection and you'll see an entirely different attitude----they were just kids being kids, how come the teacher couldn't control them, how can we expect any different from middle schoolers.

Are you honestly telling me that there wouldn't be outraged parents suing the school system the minute their precious little babies were required to clean toilets because they were being insubordinate?

And are you honestly telling me that there wouldn't be outraged commenters on this board harping about how "cruel and unusual" the school system was for making kids clean toilets because they were being insubordinate?

Until our community comes together and decides what exactly it is that we want from our schools----in terms of discipline, instruction, calendar, elective offerings, grading practices etc---there will never be peace and collective efforts to move forward in a positive direction. Instead, we'll be sentenced to never-ending arguments by duplicitous fools.

Moral of the story: You can't hold a school system accountable until you decide what you want to hold them accountable for. Right now, Wake County is in the unenviable position of trying to serve a thousand masters, and every one of 'em is complaining when they don't get their way.

Ridiculous.

“Looking at individual schools this year, one big red flag is that Knightdale High had the most teachers of any school requesting to leave. But the school had a relatively low number of people requesting to work there. The school's results on the latest Teacher Working Conditions survey are pretty bad.”  -Keung Hui, WakeEdBlog

http://www.ncteachingconditions.org/reports/detailed.php?siteID=920-466

Do me a favor and look at these numbers some. They are very different than other schools in Wake and almost all other schools in North Carolina. School leadership and student conduct sections are lop-sided!

The way I read this survey the KHS teachers did on the internet there is not an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in this school between the teachers and the principal Miss Jernigan.

School administrators consistently do not enforce rules for student conduct. School administrators do not support teachers' efforts to maintain discipline in the classroom. Teachers do not feel comfortable raising issues and concerns that are important to them.

Teachers do not consistently enforce rules for student conduct because of principal history of lack of support and protection of the teachers and lack of leadership skills. She's just Carla to us. Evrebody know one AP will give you lunch detention for stuff that get you suspended at other schools for real. Students do not follow rules of conduct cuz they are joke. SMH 

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If only they would research back to the 1940s and compare. You probably will find a large drop out rate. But less suspension rates. Then compare the rates from the 1960s on . Its only after gathering Facts, not Listening to Voices before you can fix any problem. When you act on peoples complaints it usually does not solve any thing. But merely clouds the issue's and by dealing with the actual facts. You will get to the core of truth.. Why this was not done years ago, Means some one was concealing the facts.

11k/140k or 8% kids being suspended seems a % I would expect. Kids show little respect for authority today and their parents don't care or are absent ... so the disrespect category does not surprise me ... also, having space for only a few hundred kids in the Atlernate Schools is a joke.