A Massachusetts school that was called "exemplary" in a Harvard University study 15 years ago is now seeing parents demand the National Guard come in to help restore order.
Families are fleeing from Brockton High School, with parents choosing to home-school their children and teens or moving to another district so their kids don't have to face the violence at the troubled school. But the current state of Brockton High is worlds away from the institution that was profiled in the 2009 “How High Schools Become Exemplary" study.
The study detailed how teachers came together in their own time to reshape the whole curriculum and transform things at the school. Over the course of 10 years they implemented a system that saw every single educator, from gym teachers to guidance counsellors incorporating a huge range of skills into their classes and sessions, including reading, writing, speaking skills and reasoning.
READ MORE: Kaylee Gain, 16, 'may not recover' says family after teen left 'brain damaged' in fight
The current state of Brockton High is worlds away from the institution that was profiled in the 2009 'How High Schools Become Exemplary' study (Boston Globe via Getty Images)By the end of this process Brockton, which sits 25 miles south of Boston, had gone from a school where the unofficial motto was "students have a right to fail if they want to" to one of the highest performing public schools in the whole country, according to the New York Times in 2010. Cliff Canavan, who has been a math teacher at Brockton High for 22 years, told the New York Post: “We used to have a timeframe where people were traveling from across the world to come and observe how we manage a large school as well as we do, and produce the educational results that we do. Things have changed."
Inside WW1 military hospital abandoned for decades before new lease of life
The school's superintendent, Mike Thomas, puts the breakdown in discipline in the school partly down to a Massachusetts law that prevents students from being suspended. He cited a conflation of factors he believes was made worse by the Covid pandemic and the impact this had on lower-income families. Around 70 per cent of students at the school come from lower-income families.
Math teacher at Brockton Cliff Canavan, who has been there 22 years, said things have changed at the school (Boston Globe via Getty Images)The situation at the school was starting to get bad four years ago so Kyanna Washington decided to home-school her daughter Kalani rather than enroll her in Brockton. Kyanna told the Post: “I wouldn’t let my daughter go there.
"I seen two or three videos. You couldn’t tell who was fighting who. And I told my daughter, ‘You’re not going to this school.' She knows kids that go there. She has her best friend goes there. And the child is scared. She’s just hoping to get through school every day."
And Kalani is just one lost student in many. According to Massachusetts Department of Education data, Brockton has lost almost 500 students since 2020 and seen a decline in enrollment of about 12 per cent. While some of this may be down to the pandemic, the rate is much higher than the average decline in enrollment in public schools across the commonwealth, which is 3.5 per cent.
Despite the problems Brockton is facing, Thomas, Canavan and others praised the great majority of students and the dedication of the school's staff (Boston Globe via Getty Images)The school's discipline issues gained attention earlier in the year when the Brockton School Committee asked Massachusetts Govenor Maura Healey to send in the National Guard to increase security and supplement staff. Healy's office denied this request but did order a "safety audit" funded by the state to look into the school's problems.
Parents, students and community members have described how fights in the school are rampant, while people often get hurt and trampled during stampedes of students rushing to film fights and post them on social media. Students partaking in illicit drug use and sex in empty stairwells and classrooms has also been reported, as have off-campus fights.
Students partaking in illicit drug use and sex in empty stairwells and classrooms has also been reported (Boston Globe via Getty Images)Brockton public schools said in a statement: "The challenges Brockton High School is facing are nuanced and complex, and the school is moving day by day toward improving its culture. An essential part of meeting our goals — which have no true ‘finish line’ but rather are an ongoing and everlasting effort — is having stable leadership."
Despite the problems Brockton is facing, Thomas, Canavan and others praised the great majority of students and the dedication of the school's staff. Brockton has recently seen a number of notable achievements, including taking first and second place against a number of competitors from around the country at the Global Economic Symposium. And 11 Brockton students were recently recognised in the Scholastic Art Awards.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
