Erica Bryant

@Erica_Bryant_

The last time I was at East High School, I watched a boy try to ask a question about a tornado. It was a Friday morning and there was blood on the floor, spit there by a student who'd been punched in the mouth on the way from his previous class. Another girl walked in dripping water from an ice pack she held to her eye. They both looked down or out the window as two other boys got in an argument.

Eventually the bigger of them had to be escorted from the room. The smaller one shouted loudly after him that he ought to go perform a particular sex act.

The teacher told one girl to get off of her desk, stop talking and put away her phone. The girl stayed put, telling the teacher she was almost finished with whatever she was doing. The teacher told another boy to stop walking around the classroom and talking loudly. He ignored her.

Just a typical Friday morning, the teacher would say later.

She tried her best to get through her lesson about severe storms. At some point a quiet student who was sitting in the back asked a question about the tornado that had just happened in Oklahoma. The teacher barely heard it because the boy who had been escorted out was back, and walking around the classroom shouting. She started to answer, but then another kid was sitting on a desk, or walking around the room or swearing at somebody and that was that.

I thought about the boy with the tornado question when it was announced that East is likely to be reorganized, closed or turned into a charter school due to persistently poor graduation rates. Slightly more than forty percent of students graduate in four years and so the state has ordered Superintendent Bolgen Vargas to remake the high school. As one of that science teacher's students once suggested, "What they need to do is have a school for the kids who make As and Bs."

I think she meant that schools should offer a space for the kids who want to be respectful, to ask questions about the subject matter and do their work. Too many classrooms are hijacked by kids with behavioral problems. Teachers can't teach when they are always putting out fires. Students can't learn if they can't get their questions answered.

There is a trend away from suspending students. But there ought to be more programs strictly for students who follow the rules. Students who are respectful and follow directions ought to have their own classrooms in which there is zero tolerance for disobeying teachers, swearing and disrupting lessons. If you break the rules, you are out. Reentry could be gained by doing some community service or something like that.

I am sure there is some reason why some students in Rochester behave badly. Many are victims of trauma. Many have parents who don't offer support and stability. They are victims of circumstances beyond their control and they should get counseling and other support to help them deal with adversity. But they should not be allowed to ruin the educational opportunities of kids who don't have those problems.

The kids walking around the classroom swearing get the most attention. There are many more kids who have questions about tornadoes. They deserve better.

Twitter.com/Erica_Bryant_