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A Sorry State of Affairs
What does it say about your local high school when an afternoon "pep rally" occasions a major police presence?
I am talking about Woodlawn Senior High, the worst school in Baltimore County, according to recent test score rankings. Students were tested in four subject areas. Woodlawn's students scored dead last in three of those areas, and next-to-last in the fourth. This, despite the fact that the school has been ballyhooed over its "engineering magnet school program."
For those of you outside this area, our school system attaches a so-called magnet program to any high school whose student performance is unsatisfactory. The rationale being that those academic high-achievers attracted to the magnet program will improve the average performance statistics for the school. Apparently it's cheaper than raising the academic standards, or hiring teachers who can command the respect and attention of the students.
As I drove home from errands just now, I passed the high school's athletic field, where the bleachers were filled with students, who had apparently been given the afternoon off from academic endeavors to attend a football pep rally. When my granddaughter attended this school, the pep rally was "mandatory," which meant that they expected everyone to attend who hadn't already cut classes and gone elsewhere earlier in the day.
Two police helicopters were hovering overhead. No fewer than six patrol cars were parked in the lot of a car repair shop across the road. I did not check, but it's a safe assumption that there were additional patrol cars on the street bordering the opposite edge of the campus.
This was a teachable moment that was undoubtedly ignored. You can be certain that, in their zeal to leave the little darlings' self-esteem untouched, none of the responsible adults could be bothered to appeal to their sense of self-respect. At the very least, someone should have pointed out the massive police presence, and asked whether the students were ashamed or embarrassed in the slightest that their community trusts them so little.