Detroit High School Students Suspended for Demanding a Better Education

April 2nd, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

 

Source: Detroit Free Press

The poor status of American public schools is the dirty little secret school officials like to sweep under the rug, but students at Frederick Douglass Academy in Detroit are saying “no more.” On Thursday, about 50 students from the all-boys school were suspended for walking out of class in protest and simply demanding a better education from the school.

“We’ve been wronged and disrespected and lied to and cheated,” senior Tevin Hill told the Detroit Free Press. “They didn’t listen to us when we complained to the administration. They didn’t listen to the parents when they complained to the administration, so I guess this is the only way to get things solved.”

The boys walked out in frustration over several complaints, including a lack of consistent teachers, the reassignment of the school principal, educators who abuse sick time, and a shortage of textbooks. One of the boys’ parents, Sharise Smith, said a math teacher has been absent for more than 68 days and her son was given an A in geometry without taking a final exam.

“It was by default, just for showing up. It wasn’t because he earned an A,” she said.

Seniors at the academy are worried they won’t be prepared for college much less their future. Seventeen-year-old Hill told The Detroit News that so many teachers have been simultaneously absent from school that dozens of students had been forced to simply gather in the gym or other common areas. They’ve also gone for long periods without homework, the results of which were seen on Hill’s placement exam at Bowling Green State University where he plans to attend next year.

“I literally couldn’t answer a question on there,” Hill said. “Right now, I’m not going to be as successful as I should be because I haven’t been properly taught.”

 School officials seem to be approaching the issue very casually. Detroit Public Schools spokesperson Steve Wasko said the Frederick Douglass teachers who abuse sick time “will be reprimanded,” and the district aims to keep the school open while adding new courses like debate and engineering. Smith’s not buying it.
“They’re pushing smoke up parents’ butts,” she said, “and the parents better get the hell up and do something different.”

I’m with her. It’s amazing officials had time to suspend these boys for their protest but couldn’t manage to call substitute teachers in to educate them.

Seniors at Detroit’s Frederick Douglass Academy Walk Out in Protest: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • Lalatarea

    the problem is no one is grading the teachers! they teach for a cpl years and get tenure and they’re pretty much guaranteed a job and a paycheck no matter what even if they molest a child its near impossible to fire a teacher. they need to be graded on how much their students learn and paid or not paid accordingly!

    Watch the film WAITING FOR SUPERMAN

  • aLoveForFashion

    Students shouldn’t have to go to private school in order to receive a good education. These student WANT to do something with themselves and be greater, but the city/school will not invest in them. They complain about the state of the black child’s mind, but when they step outside of those complaints they do not want to help. The teachers and administrators should be place under a microscope by the school district of Detroit, and they should not be let up until change happens. For adults complaining and not caring about these children, maybe they should think about who is going to be in charge of taking care of them when they are older…The children they are neglecting now.

  • Jetsfanpepsi@yahoo.com

    These black boys wanna learn!!!!!!! and the system turned their backs !!! That’s fucked!!!!!!

  • RedButterfly81

    Well, at least they want an education instead of Jordans, iPhones/iPads and other materialistic stuff these young people want nowadays.

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  • F3ral Anarchy

    this is absolutely crazy!  And people wonder why i plead for folks to try to send their children to private schools. 

    • Neecee401

      There’s a problem with private schools… Most people can’t afford it.

      • F3ral Anarchy

         most private schools including the one that i went to have scholarship programs.  quite a few guys a graduated with got full rides as scholar athletes.  you think all those black kids in college are paying for it?

        • Candacey Doris

           Yeah, but at the secondary school level, a lot of scholarships are granted through exams, you have to qualify. And if you don’t have proper teaching in the first place…

        • FromUR2UB

          The problems I have with that are:

          1) Private schools still have the right to be selective, so everybody’s kid is not going to get in. 
          2) There was talk of a voucher system for poor kids to attend private schools, a few years ago.  This would further derail funds from public schools in urban areas, and the kids who aren’t selected to attend the private ones, will be the worse off for it.
          3) The private schools will more than likely be outside of their neighborhoods, across town.  The kids’ schools will not be within walking distance.  They will always have to travel to someone else’s neighborhoods, to get an education.

          These kids are doing the right thing; they’re trying to fix the problems where they live.  If they put a petitiion together, I would happily sign it.  If someone from Detroit organized a fundraiser to do what the school district won’t or can’t do, like buy enough textbooks so that each student can have his own, and equip the schools with computers or any other learning tool needed, I would gladly donate to it.

          But first of all, something needs to be done about that trifling faculty whose teachers are only collecting checks. These teachers don’t take their jobs seriously and should be fired.