No FL student beaten unconscious twice - Follow up to the story

[DoYouEverWonder]

Last night I posted a thread about a horrible situation that was going down at a high school in North FL. Well, amazingly things have taken a turn for the better. However, the local mullet wrapper, the Gainesville Sun does not do the real story justice. (see my comments below)


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5387778

Bradford combats violence issue

Nov 18, 2005

STARKE - It was the parents who were asked for answers in a forum at Bradford High School Thursday night.

Bradford County Schools Superintendent Harry Hatcher opened the meeting in the high school auditorium by asking what the district could do to make the schools a safer place, and the answers came parent-by-parent. They asked for better communication between the school system and community; mental health counseling for students; more diversity education; and a re-instituting of prayer in school. Community members also said high school parents need to be more involved with their children.

The well-attended meeting was arranged to respond to parents' concerns after a 14-year-old was assaulted twice in school in retaliation for reporting two boys she said groped her in class. The boys and three females each were suspended from school and face criminal charges in the incidents.

The 14-year-old's mother, Jackie Howard, attended the meeting and thanked the community for its support.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/LOCAL/51118001/1078/news&template=printart

Unfortunately, the Sun leaves out some major elements of this story. I happen to know one of the parents that is involved and who attended the meeting last night. What the Sun doesn't talk about is how Superintendent Harry Hatcher got the situation under control. How Hatcher went to the students themselves and met with them to work on what needed to be done to solve the school's problems.


However, the best part of this story was the students themselves, who laid out the problems and came up with some of the best suggestions about how to solve them. Here are just a couple of their requests, which the adults have agreed to implement:

It turns out most of the kids don't want the bullies in their classes. They want to learn and they want to feel safe. They have asked that these students be removed from the general population and that while classes are in session that they stay in their own room, where they don't have to do anything.

Also, the students asked, yes the student asked, that the police send in the drug sniffing dogs more often and on a less predictable schedule.

In the meantime, the police are investigating the arson and expect to make at least a couple of arrests soon.