Back when I was about 5 I attended my first summer camp at Hudson Montessori School. Despite being my first summer away from my parents, I was at a camp in the same building as my preschool and I felt fairly comfortable. Having my parents a mere 15 minutes and 10 exits away didn’t hurt either.
One night, having already been put to sleep, I shot out of my bed and ran into my parents room with a faceful of snotty tears and described to them the unconscionable horror of my day – horror that manifested itself as an insidious nightmare.* An older counselor that seemed to be 34, but was likely 15, had unleashed a LeBron James-esque dunk on our little playground basketball hoop. I think he actually broke the entire thing. (By these standards I would pee on myself at any NBA game). I was terrified of this counselor’s Herculean strength, the rim, the game of basketball, and who knows what else. I was a child, and needed protection, even from the most ridiculous things. Having lived through childhood, adolescence and most of my young adulthood, I can understand the fear and posturing that envelopes a person through their life journey.**
It was something like this...
On September 18th of this year, a wild Western shootout took place in New Haven, Connecticut. Between the 3-4 perpetrators and the police, approximately 20 rounds of bullets were fired.
By way of charter and magnet schools, as well as increased parental accountability, New Haven has been constantly moving forward in the area of education reform. Innovative scheduling, relentless construction and varied monies have pushed New Haven’s efforts to the top desk in the land. Despite not getting some of the “Race to the Top” funds from his inaugural education reform package, President Obama and his administration have commended New Haven’s Tier System of ranking school and allocating proper funds. Each of these things is to be bragged about and displayed proudly, but none of them can disguise a horrendously reckless decision.
Putting a high school in the infamous “downtown club district” was shortsighted and arrogant. I spent more than a few weekends in that cesspool of drunken filth and danger. Whether cops were subduing a suspect, derelicts were throwing bottles from atop a parking garage, or men were acting like lecherous heathens, this district is an utter embarrassment to the entire city. Despite the cities impotent attempts to curtail this behavior, a high school was built here. This clash was bound to happen
Like Whodini said, the “Freaks Come Out At Night” and the kids have to go to school during the day. All this seems to have been forgotten when they cut the ribbon and christened this school a shimmering beacon of hope, both functionally and architecturally. Children should not have to step over beer bottles and pools of urine to get to class, at least not until college. Bullet holes should not be a part of the everyday lives of anyone, but unfortunately they are. Many neighborhoods of New Haven lie in the grip of crime and poverty. School must be a sanctuary away from these daily demons. When 20 semi-automatic rounds are fired, and bullet holes lodge themselves in the walls of your school, you city has failed you – miserably.
These aren't books...
At 5, I was terrified of a camp counselor breaking a basketball hoop, how is a high school student supposed to learn when there are bullets flying around his/her school at night? Since they can’t move the school to the more sensible location of across the street and down the block, it is due time to take the nightclub owners to task, or just move them, all of them. An educational facility has no business in the nightclub district.
*I don’t know how parents translate the choked, sob filled rants of their children, I may have a lot to learn…
**Braggadocio even! (for youngsinglelovetomingle)
