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Worcester Superintendent Melinda Boone: No Cops At North High, Offers Insanely Idiotic Plan Instead

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So we’ve written a few articles about Worcester North High recently, particularly after the 5,000th bomb threat of the year a couple weeks back, during which a couple fights started in which three students were arrested, a vice principal spat on a teacher was assaulted. It’s become very, very clear that there should be a full time police presence inside the school. Anyone who disagrees with this is an anarchist. Period. Kids have a right to learn, and teachers have a right to do their job in safety. Some kids obviously don’t take teacher’s authority very seriously, so a cop needs to be in there full time, throw a few kids against some lockers, and then the message will be sent that North High is an institution of learning and not the Bronx Zoo. Apparently Superintendent Melinda Boone thinks this is a dumb idea and has come up with her own plan. Italicized are pieces from the Telegram’s article about her plan, follow by our bolded thoughts.

In an email Friday night, Ms. Boone said the action plan calls for redeployment of the police liaison who currently serves the North Quadrant. The administration’s request is for that officer to have a daily presence at North during student arrival and dismissal times, as well as to continue to support the North Quadrant.

AKA the plan is to have police outside of the school before and after school ends. That should definitely do a lot to fix problems inside the building that happen DURING school hours. Definitely. 

She said police were not consulted on the plan.

Right. Because there is no plan. Everything is fine at North. Sure some teachers are getting punched in the face and principals are getting spit on. No need to consult the police about this. It’s not like any of those things are against the law. 

Some on Thursday said they believe police need to be more involved. “Hundreds of kids want to be there, and they’re not safe,” said parent Vincenza Fichtner, who submitted a petition to the School Committee asking for sustained police presence in the building. A high school senior has also submitted a petition for police officers at the school that he said garnered 454 signatures from students and 80 signatures from staff. The school has an enrollment of about 1,340 students.

So high school students actually start a petition that garners the support of over 1/3 of the students and nearly the entire faculty, and Boone’s plan is to ignore them? Yea, that sounds like a great way to teach kids that when they act like dignified young adults they’ll be treated like dumbass children who aren’t taken seriously. 

Not all those who spoke Thursday believe police are necessary, however. In addition to a parent who said he didn’t want police in the building, Leonard Zalauskas, president of the city teachers union, said he personally doesn’t see them as necessary. Mr. Zalauskas said Friday the union has not taken an official position on whether increased police presence is needed in the building. He said reaction among the 10 to 12 teachers he’s spoken to so far has been evenly split on the prospect.

Ya see that? That’s why teachers don’t get paid as much as they should. Their union sucks. The official position of the union should UNDOUBTEDLY be for police inside the school during school hours. Lenny obviously isn’t looking out for the best interests of the teachers he supposedly represents. Cops will make it easier for teachers to do their jobs. Instead of having their classes disrupted by dooshnozzle 19 year old freshmen, or breaking up fights in the hallways, teachers will actually be able to help the hundreds of good kids at North High School that actually would like to learn something if cops are in the building. It’s insane that the union wouldn’t support this 150%. 

In her remarks to the committee, Ms. Verdier said the majority of teachers at the school agree that they’d like to be more involved in decision-making processes at the school. “That’s something we’ve been asking for years,” she said. “I do think it’s very important for the teachers to have a voice.”

Wait a minute. So you’re telling me that teachers want to be involved in the decision making processes at the school? You mean like, professionals? No, no, no, that’s a stupid idea. Only people like Melinda Boone, who wouldn’t know what a classroom was like if it jumped up and bit them, can possibly make decisions about processes in schools. After all, they have to justify their existence and six figure salaries. Meanwhile teachers with Master’s Degrees should be treated like the unskilled laborers that they are. 

Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. Every once in a while Superintendent Boone tosses on her finest pant suit and goes down to an elementary school for a photo op. So I guess that makes her an expert on what it’s like to be a teacher in the Worcester Public Schools. She would know a lot about this from her experience as an administrator in Virginia. 

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The plan’s assemblies for students on topics such as nonviolence and personal accountability, will give opportunities for students to report concerns anonymously and will create focus groups with alumni in the school who have found success. The school will also hold a meeting with families and a variety of community groups, including Black Legacy and the Latino Education Institute, to focus on their concerns. 

Oh yea, that’ll fix it. Definitely. Meetings with “Black Legacy” (whatever that is) and the “Latino Education Institute” sound like a much more effective way to combat violence and anarchy. Or if that doesn’t work just have a student assembly where you teach them about “nonviolence and personal accountability.” That will definitely stop kids from getting in fights. Because they clearly don’t know that they have the option to be nonviolent. Thankfully Melinda Boone’s plan got here just in the nick of time. 

It will also offer a 12-week training session on parenting topics for 20 parents at Worcester Academy that will include bus passes, dinner, childcare and interpreters. Administrators will also meet more regularly with students, Ms. Boone said, while the school will run social/emotional groups in conjunction with You, Inc. for 40 students.

Oh good, we’re gonna teach 20 selected parents how to be parents, and we’re gonna pay for their transportation to this meeting, baby sitters, food, and of course interpreters, because if you don’t speak English in America it’s everyone else’s job to adapt to you. And if that doesn’t work You Inc will fix all of our problems by having 40 of the 1,354 North High students in for some emotional support pow-wows. Why didn’t I think of that?

Ms. Boone Thursday likened her action plan to one on poor graduation rates she implemented two years ago. That plan, she said, resulted in the graduation rate at North High jumping from 55 to 71 percent in that span.

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Ya see that? That right there represents everything that is wrong with administrators. “Hey, look at my chart I’ve got over here. When I first got here graduation rates were 55%. Now they’re 71%. You can tell it’s more because the bar is taller. I did that!! Now give me a raise.” Meanwhile to get those numbers they tell principals to pass kids along, focus on useless standardized tests, and never, ever suspend kids unless they kill someone. 

The North High safety plan was created to deal with safety concerns at the school that have surfaced in recent months. There have been four bomb threats this school year and a brawl involving dozens of students earlier this month, causing many in the school community to worry about both safety and the school’s reputation. Ms. Boone began her presentation Thursday by attempting to set the record straight on what’s actually occurred in the schools. She said bomb threats tend to come in “waves,” and that recently such threats have started on the North and South Shores and then come to Central Massachusetts towns such as Auburn and West Boylston in addition to Worcester.

So let me get this straight. The 5,000 bomb threats to North High this year aren’t really a big deal, because in some random town in the South Shore bomb threats came in “waves.” Gotcha. Nothing to see here, just your standard wave of bomb threats. Thank God it’s nothing to worry about. 

She also spoke to the events of Jan. 23, when 599 students were absent from school following threats to school safety made on social media. Ms. Boone said she believes the 599 figure is misleading. North High on a typical day sees about 130 students absent, she said, while other students counted as absent are actually receiving education in alternative settings. She suggested the more accurate number of students absent above the norm would be 380.

Translation – North High School is lying about their attendance. The 599 kids who didn’t come to school because they enjoy living were not actually absent that day. Only 380 of them were. So clearly there’s no big deal with 380 kids missing school because they don’t wanna die. The school obviously added the other 219 absent kids to their numbers because they’re just drama queens like that. Even though she doesn’t have any data to back this up, it’s definitely true. After all, she’s an administrator so clearly she’s smarter than everyone else. 

Any rational person looks at this and thinks that this is the dumbest plan in the history of plans. So guess who agrees with her of course? If you said the hippie protesters then you clearly understand the mentality of the hippie protesters. One of these hippies is named Chris Horton. Here’s what he had to say about it:

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My experience has led me to believe an increased police presence does not make students safer. It increases the alienation of students from the authority of the school.

Just for the record, Chris Horton is NOT a teacher at North High school. But yet he still believes that police will magically “alienate students from the authority of the school.” Whatever the hell that means. 

Students who are up to mischief can always time it to the absence of the police patrols. More police in the school will do nothing to slow the collapse of authority and may even accelerate it. And the police presence increases the pressure to criminalize student misbehavior, feeding the “school to prison pipeline”.

As soon as someone mentions “school to prison pipeline” you can tell they’re a hippie protester. Basically the gist of what they’re saying is simple – schools suspend too many non-white kids and the non-white kids become adults and go to jail. Therefore the school is responsible for this. And why would we want to “criminalize student misbehavior?” Kids should be allowed to fight each other, call in bomb threats, punch teachers, and spit on vice principals. Anything less is racist. 

Students are misguided in demanding more police presence. Instead they should be demanding more direct student responsibility and authority in running their own school and holding each other accountable. Teachers and administrators cannot impose this responsibility on students but should be ready to support them when they organize to demand it.

Yea, you kids think you want cops at your school, but that’s only because you’re a bunch of dumbass kids. You should listen to old hippie protesters like Chris Horton. You don’t need cops in your school to protect you. Instead you should be DEMANDING “authority in running your own school.” Because logically it should be the students in collaboration with hippie protesters and Melinda Boone who run the school. 

This whole thing is insane. I’ve gotten tons of email from a bunch of different North High teachers. The message has been the same – there are tons of great kids at North and they’re getting a bad name because a handful of knuckleheads call in bomb threats and make the news. They would all like to be able to teach in an environment that doesn’t have a bunch of bullshit distractions on the regular. Not one of them is against having cops at the schools. None of them supports Dr. Boone. I for one don’t think she should be fired because it’s not her that’s the problem, it’s what her position stands for. You fire her and another useless administrator in pant suit will replace her. She’s just towing the company line. I urge the good men and women who teach there to continue to send us anonymous emails so we can continue to shed the light about what is actually going on inside that school.

P.S. Some kid made a fake Melinda Boone Twitter account and it is phenomenal.

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9 Comment(s)
  • George
    December 16, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    Is this a real statement? “so a cop needs to be in there full time, throw a few kids against some lockers, and then the message will be sent that North High is an institution of learning and not the Bronx Zoo”. You are the problem it seems, you thug bastards.

  • pM
    February 9, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    Geez, even WRSD has police presence daily. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about!

  • Got Nukes
    February 8, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    This is what happens when you hire based on color instead of qualifications…..

    • KKK John
      February 8, 2015 at 10:18 pm

      the end is near brother

  • Beetle
    February 8, 2015 at 11:07 am

    I see this problem with administrators at my job all the time. They’re too busy looking out for their own salaries and are unwilling to sit back and truly make the hard decisions. A police presence at that high school has been warranted for over a decade…. Dr. Boone doesn’t want to be known as the black female who started instituting a continous police presence in our school system. Period.

    That being said, if I were making a six figure salary, theirs no way my kids would be going to North and I wouldn’t give a fuck about your kids either. Just keep the $$$ coming.

  • RSoxGuy
    February 8, 2015 at 10:50 am

    Isnt North the same school your buddy Carlo “Im blacker than black DAM IT LISTEN TO ME!!!!” Baldino taught at? Hmmm…. Very telling.

    Voting in those Libtards for the past 30+ years to every off ice in the state and their “feel good” policies is coming back to bite all of us in the ass. This is the shit storm you end up with. Supers who dont have a clue yet are fawned over and cant be critized.

    You tell me that if Dr Boone was white,. Clive McLeftLane , Calro “I WANNA BE BLACK, WHY WONT YOU LET ME” Baldino would be screaming about how “white people” just dont understand black youth, they arent down with the struggle, they dont get it, they dont know what its like….

    How much you wanna bet you get called a racist because you call into question Dr Boone’s plan when it has absolutely nothing to do with skin color and instead everything to do with liberal ignorance and stupidity?

  • True Worcester
    February 8, 2015 at 10:26 am

    This is a much better plan than any feeble attempt you can muster to resolve the situation. Whether or not you like the people who find themselves in the situation, police are an intimidating force and do not assure safety in anyway.

    Also in true Worcester fashion, the reason why I live here, is rarely do I ever have to worry about the neighbors calling the police of something stupid. Please don’t fuck that up turtle idiot

  • KAOS
    February 8, 2015 at 10:00 am

    Just as bad, she was given a vote of confidence by our esteemed school committee members and had her contract extended. Who is more to blame , the superintendent or the people that put her there?

  • FACTMAN
    February 8, 2015 at 9:00 am

    Wow That fake Melinda Boone twitter was awesome! wish twitter was around when I was in high school.

    Boone and that Hippie protester sound exactly like someone who has never actually attended a Worcester public school. In Mr Rodgers’ land of make believe that shit they propose will work but not in reality. It all comes back to one thing they base their thinking on—they think every student WANTS to learn. The truth is a lot of them don’t so they cause trouble . EVERYONE would be better off if those troublemakers are left behind and/or thrown in jail.

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