Authorities found a student in possession of a loaded handgun at Riverside High School on Friday. It was last February when another gun was found at the school.
(Bring Your Gun to School Day at Riverside February 1,2011)
Remember, Riverside was one of the three lower performing schools forced to inexplicably change principals last year, in order to remain eligible for a state grant.
(Williams relents on principals' removal - City of Buffalo - The Buffalo News)
From today's Buffalo News, here's an update on how that great plan is working out...
At Riverside, teachers who requested anonymity said they think discipline in the school has gotten lax in the past year or so.
“All the administrators at our school are not tenured. They are afraid to do anything,” one teacher said. “We have no detention anymore. Really, there are students roaming the halls everywhere. Students are allowed to come late to class. There might be 40 students in the hallway. In my opinion, if you let the little things get out of control, then the big things happen.”
As I said a year ago, Riverside's problems were not caused by the principal or the teachers. Mike Mogavero was a very good principal, in my opinion. People can only do so much with what they have to work with. Did the suits in Albany think a new principal would result in gang affiliated students from broken homes all of a sudden getting accepted into Harvard?
At the end of the day, it starts with responsible families. As a sub, I see it every day from Kindergarten through high school. The students in many of the schools are not taught the value of an education at home and come to school unprepared. Unfortunately, the first time they are faced with any real consequences for their choices is when they are sentenced to prison. It's not the schools causing the problems. It's the parents of many (not all) of these students and the students themselves. You can't force people to value education.
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