The News & Record’s Morgan Josey-Glover blogged the first GCS School Discipline Task Force meeting early this morning at GCS Central Office, a full report can be found here over at the N&R Chalkboard blog.
Early barbs were thrown, this from Josey-Glover:
Grier said at many colleges, new teachers are not being trained how to deal with student misbehavior or how to de-escalate confrontations. Grier added that he also hears from students that they want classrooms to be safe, non-disruptive and respectful for teachers and students.
So is this another case of Grier blaming the teachers again? GRRRR!!!!
Josey-Glover blogs:
To review, the committee’s task is to provide to the Board of Education with concrete steps to:
1. Reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions of students;
2. Improve the relationship between law enforcement utilized in schools and minority communities disproportionately represented in arrest records;
3. Facilitate greater communication and understanding between the community, schools, parents, SRO officers and students;
4. Improve the classroom education component of the SRO program and increase the safety of campuses with an emphasis on the growing gang concern.
They will meet again next Thursday, same bat time, same bat channel.
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In a related story, the N&R’s Jeri Rowe had a heart-to-heart with Board member Amos Quick, the metroliner locomotive behind the Task Force. Quick feels disheartened that he finds himself going to way too many funerals for young men in Greensboro and is determined to make a change. Good for you, Amos.
An excerpt:
“The stakes are very high right now. I’ve been to two funerals since last Thursday, and I can’t go to any more. God forbid, if I have to go to another funeral. It’s too much.”
In the past three months, our city — a perceived model of nonviolent integration decades ago — has seen four young men killed by someone with a gun: Eric Willis, 17; Kevin Womack, 19; Preston Angelo, 15; and the latest, Ernie Dixon, 16. There have been no arrests.
Remember their names. Because, here in Guilford County, in the midst of another hot summer, we should be sweating over what Quick calls a “crisis.” He should know.
Quick is 38, a 1986 graduate of Dudley High, a father of two teenage daughters. He sits on the Guilford County school board and works as the executive director for the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Clubs of Greensboro.
Today, he’ll begin steering a 23-member task force that intends to take on the behavior problems — suspensions, gang activity, you name it — that are killing education and opportunity at our county schools.
Meanwhile, he’s helping put together a yearlong summit that aims to help young African American men get the help they need, such as finding mentors and achieving academically. It all starts this fall.
He’s hoping to bring in columnist Leonard Pitts or basketball legend Magic Johnson to speak in September. But Wednesday, Quick wanted to speak for himself.
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Good for you, Amos. If there’s anything I can do to help, call or e-mail me.
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