DCHS Students Brawl at Gallery Place

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I went to Wilson in the mid-90s. I was one of those loud black teenagers hanging out by the Tenleytown metro and loitering in Metro Center. I was disruptive and annoying to commuters on the trains. Now, I am a highly educated professional mother of two posting on DCUM (and I have the HHI that goes with that). Now, I ride Metro home and sometimes encounter today’s version of me and my HS friends. While they may annoy me, I can look at them and know that the way they are acting after school on the train with their friends is in no way indicative of who they are as human beings and what they might go on to achieve as adults. When you are in DCPS, the Metro is your school bus and the behavior you see on the trains is for the most part teens being teens. I see the white Metro commuters eyeing these teens, and I just know that they don’t see them the same way I do. They look slightly afraid and definitely dismissive of these children. The general tone on this thread confirms that. It makes me sad.

Sorry, I disagree. How you act in public absolutely is indicative of who you are as a human being. I absolutely agree that often times, it has no bearing on the adult you become, but if you act, all the time, in public, like a loud, disruptive, annoying idiot, then that's who you are. You can change, of course, and I'm certainly glad you did, but let's be real - many kids (of all races and SES backgrounds) don't, and remain the same annoying, self-centered assholes to the day they die. Just with jobs and high SES.

Absolutely, talk about rationalizing bad behavior! It is okay that you were rude and poorly behaved as a young adult just because now you have a high HHI? Sorry, that is not what I consider good education.

Nah, guys. I read her post differently. I don't think that she's rationalizing the violent behavior at all. She was just sharing her story and reminding us that not all of these loitering teens are necessarily dangerous or going to grow up as criminals. I think we all need to remember how we were as unsupervised teens sometimes. I also think the point about the metro being essentially a school bus is important. Kids on private school shuttle or school buses also have drama, we just don't see it. Of course, this has nothing to do with condoning the outrageous violent acts. This is just a off-shoot conversation about how we look at our loitering kids in this city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the Wilson poster. My point was not to condone this fight or any criminal activity perpetrated by DCPS students. I don’t disagree that these are concerning events. My teens being teens remark was more about the general behavior of teens on Metro. But even with respect to the fight, all teens do stupid things, but you don’t hear people reacting this way when kids in the suburbs do stupid things, whether it is fighting in a public place or just general bad public behavior. No one says “I would never send my kids to MoCo schools” based on the behavior of some bad apples in the bunch. I read the article about the McLean/Langley incident in the McDonald’s – that didn’t sound that much better than this fight, I mean, police had to disperse 100s of teens from a McDonalds? (and of course, we are missing the live footage that makes the Gallery Place fight such an attention getter) Teens do stupid things and don’t think about the consequences, or who could be hurt by their actions. Probably a lot of them are just caught up in the crowd and go along with the bad behavior because everyone else is doing it. Then they grow up and learn to make better decisions. DCPS kids don’t have a monopoly on bad teen behavior. But because there are enough DCPS students roaming around Metro with bad behavior and therefore much more visible to the community, people feel justified in making these broad generalizations about the whole school system. Basically writing off the system and all its students.

If you can't distinguish police dispersing a large crowd of kids exceeding the capacity of a fast-food restaurant after a basketball game from groups of kids brawling with each other in a Metro station at rush hour, then you probably deserve whatever mayhem periodically happens at Wilson or involves Wilson students. There is footage of the Langley/McLean "incident" on YouTube. The kids are loud and unruly, and some undoubtedly had been drinking. They are not fighting or kicking the shit out of each other. Equating the two situations, or filing it under "kids will be kids" is one reason why DCPS high schools continue to have a crappy reputation. Thuggish behavior is met with shrugs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen kids sit on the stoop of one school and they curse and harass every white person who's walking from thecstadium-armory metro. They are AA students but they will not harass any AA people walking pass but whites a fair-game. I can't wait til school closes for the summer.

Oh, but things will only get worst in DC once the summer vacation rolls around. Just wait until to we hear about all the flashmobs, civil disobedience, and attacks on random people this summer. I actually, appreciate it when school is in session because it keeps the unruly children off the streets. During the summer it's a free for all. All types of chaos and mayhem will be upon us this summer.

[Anonymous]

White male principals are bad and white female principals are not worthy at the high-school level. Pretty much sums it up.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:White male principals are bad and white female principals are not worthy at the high-school level. Pretty much sums it up.

I'm curious, would the 05/02/2013 13:51 poster who wrote "Applause to you and to 'word salad lady.' The levels of thinly veiled racism and racist microaggressions are staggering not just on this forum, but on this entire website" care to comment now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen kids sit on the stoop of one school and they curse and harass every white person who's walking from thecstadium-armory metro. They are AA students but they will not harass any AA people walking pass but whites a fair-game. I can't wait til school closes for the summer.

Oh, but things will only get worst in DC once the summer vacation rolls around. Just wait until to we hear about all the flashmobs, civil disobedience, and attacks on random people this summer. I actually, appreciate it when school is in session because it keeps the unruly children off the streets. During the summer it's a free for all. All types of chaos and mayhem will be upon us this summer.

I get what you're saying. DC's toothless enforcement of already slack oversight of juvenile offensives is worrisome every year.

[Anonymous]

There used to be a curfew just 2 or 3 years ago--I think it was 15 and under had to be off the street by 10 on weekends 16-17 was 12. I realize enforce is tough but curfews at least put the really laissez faire parents on notice to get some boundaries for the kid's behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Horrible, and sad to think what these brawling thugs progress to later:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/he-was-almost-unrecognizable-beating-victims-wife-testifies/2013/04/30/59ee8078-b1a6-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html

No way will I send a child of mine to a DC public high school.

That's ridiculous. My son is at Banneker and that would NEVER happen at Banneker. Never.

This shouldn't happen at ANY SCHOOL THAT GETS TO HAND-PICK THEIR KIDS!

McKinley is an application school.

[Anonymous]

This happened after school and curfew would not have been appropriate.

Don't get it twisted Banneker students was fair game of Cardozo's students and there was plenty of fist-a-cuffs at the metro.

This happens at all schools just ask the metro-police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened after school and curfew would not have been appropriate.

Don't get it twisted Banneker students was fair game of Cardozo's students and there was plenty of fist-a-cuffs at the metro.

This happens at all schools just ask the metro-police.

If I'm decoding the above correctly, Cardozo students went after Banneker students in retaliation ("fair game") for some insult or injury, and this took place at or near a metro ("fist-a-cuffs {sic} at the metro" and "metro-police").

Did I get that right? Was there a Cardozo v. Banneker brawl as well?

BTW, breaking down the size, demographics, SES levels, test scores, etc. of those four schools is pretty interesting. The rankings I see on greatschools.org look like this on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 is best, see below). The precise methodology is unclear, though cannot be purely test scores, as Walls is the highest performer across the board, with Banneker not far behind. Note that where schools share a score (9, 6, and 4, below) they are listed alphabetically.

10 - Banneker
9 - McKinley
9 - Walls
8 - Ellington
7 - Wilson
6 - CHEC
6 - Phelps
4 - Ballou
4 - Cardozo
4 - Coolidge
4 - Dunbar
4 - Springarn
4 - Woodson
3 - Roosevelt
2 - Anacostia
NR - Eastern

I'm counting on our own Swedish Chef to make this as clear as mud-wrestling.

[Anonymous]

"This happens at all schools just ask the metro-police."

Hmm, anyone see the Gonzaga boys brawling in the Metro lately?

What say you Word Salad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened after school and curfew would not have been appropriate.

Don't get it twisted Banneker students was fair game of Cardozo's students and there was plenty of fist-a-cuffs at the metro.

This happens at all schools just ask the metro-police.

What are you talking about? No fights at Banneker.

[Anonymous]

Ok, that's your story and you're sticking with it. Can someone say cover-up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"This happens at all schools just ask the metro-police."

Hmm, anyone see the Gonzaga boys brawling in the Metro lately?

What say you Word Salad?

NP. As a Visi alum ... the Gonzaga boys are probably to busy smoking pot or doing other drugs and planning drinking parties when they leave school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, that's your story and you're sticking with it. Can someone say cover-up?

Cover up? Let's think that through. Either the metro-police are covering up brawls between Cardozo and Banneker, or you're full of sh*t.

Tough choice.