Assault outside Wilson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone remind me please the final stipulations of the 2014 DME boundary review, which I think introduced minimum quotas for OB non-feeder lottery students at each entry class (1st grade, 6th grade, 9th grade) ? I cannot remember the final version or whether it was only for OB students or for OB FARM students....Or whether t was from 2015 or with a later roll-out date.

Please help.

From 2018-2019 DCPS and Wilson will have to set aside at least 10% of the new 9th grade seats for out-of-zone students who do not have a feeder right to Wilson.

That's about OB 50 students a year who will be admitted into Wilson from other DC middle schools (other than Deal, Hardy, Oyster-Adams).

By then the fantastic Deputy-Mayor for Education Abby Smith who tried to transform DC public schools into a city-wide lottery district by abolishing rights of access to neighborhood schools, and who is the proud mother of the above stipulation will be long gone from the District to avoid the shame and accountability of such a demential provision, which will only worsen Wilson severe overcrowding, and increase the disintegration within the school.

This is how they work. Michelle Rhee introduced the feeder rights, and then left , leaving us here bearing the overcrowding in my kids schools, Deal and Wilson (the latter has become dramatic - with 40 + student classes).

Then came the soft spoken Smith, who wanted to add on top her legacy, and introduced the additional OB set asides for elementary, middle and high school, which will make only things worse from 2018. And then she also left, leaving on us and on our kids her legacy of a mechanism which will be conducive to even more over-crowding . Injecting in Wilson a stock of 200 kids (50 x 4) who come from severely disadvantaged middle schools and backgrounds, while it might (or might not) provide some relief and help to a handful of them, will make no good for the others, who won't be able to fill the gap with the rest of the students (DCPS is cronically unable to provide remedial support). It will increase segregation inside what's already a segregated school (as all current parents like me know, students at Wilson create social clusters depending on race and SES status. It is not a socially integrated school. At all), and would just make things worse. Generate concerns and invert the IB enrollment positive trend.

This pure idiocy, and un-accountability traded for a bunch of votes and tag in the disgraced history of DC public schools (Central Office). DCPS would have already exploded wasn't for the perseverance and capacity of some Principals (Cahall was one of them) , teachers, local elected representatives (Mary Cheh) and the oversight and involvement of parents.

Mass. Avenue/Tenleytown Resident
(who is not from a privileged background, carries the weight of a huge mortgage, and sub-lets part of her apartment to pay for it, while trying to give her kids access to a good education and a safe environment)

So how to parents reverse this lunacy, I mean policy before it becomes effective? It threatens to exacerbate all of the problems that you identify at Wilson and other schools.

[Anonymous]

I really AM concerned that there is an uptick in the number of incidents involving Wilson students. This is my fifth year of having a student enrolled, and this school year has seen more worrisome incidents that the prior 4 years combined

[jsteele]

Did anyone hear anything about a large snowball fight at Wilson this afternoon? From what I understand, snowballs were being thrown at cars and even the police.

[Anonymous]

Don't know about that Jeff, but there was another incident at Judiciary Sq. where teens struck a man with a thrown snowball around 5 p.m. and subsequently assaulted him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone remind me please the final stipulations of the 2014 DME boundary review, which I think introduced minimum quotas for OB non-feeder lottery students at each entry class (1st grade, 6th grade, 9th grade) ? I cannot remember the final version or whether it was only for OB students or for OB FARM students....Or whether t was from 2015 or with a later roll-out date.

Please help.

From 2018-2019 DCPS and Wilson will have to set aside at least 10% of the new 9th grade seats for out-of-zone students who do not have a feeder right to Wilson.

That's about OB 50 students a year who will be admitted into Wilson from other DC middle schools (other than Deal, Hardy, Oyster-Adams).

By then the fantastic Deputy-Mayor for Education Abby Smith who tried to transform DC public schools into a city-wide lottery district by abolishing rights of access to neighborhood schools, and who is the proud mother of the above stipulation will be long gone from the District to avoid the shame and accountability of such a demential provision, which will only worsen Wilson severe overcrowding, and increase the disintegration within the school.

This is how they work. Michelle Rhee introduced the feeder rights, and then left , leaving us here bearing the overcrowding in my kids schools, Deal and Wilson (the latter has become dramatic - with 40 + student classes).

Then came the soft spoken Smith, who wanted to add on top her legacy, and introduced the additional OB set asides for elementary, middle and high school, which will make only things worse from 2018. And then she also left, leaving on us and on our kids her legacy of a mechanism which will be conducive to even more over-crowding . Injecting in Wilson a stock of 200 kids (50 x 4) who come from severely disadvantaged middle schools and backgrounds, while it might (or might not) provide some relief and help to a handful of them, will make no good for the others, who won't be able to fill the gap with the rest of the students (DCPS is cronically unable to provide remedial support). It will increase segregation inside what's already a segregated school (as all current parents like me know, students at Wilson create social clusters depending on race and SES status. It is not a socially integrated school. At all), and would just make things worse. Generate concerns and invert the IB enrollment positive trend.

This pure idiocy, and un-accountability traded for a bunch of votes and tag in the disgraced history of DC public schools (Central Office). DCPS would have already exploded wasn't for the perseverance and capacity of some Principals (Cahall was one of them) , teachers, local elected representatives (Mary Cheh) and the oversight and involvement of parents.

Mass. Avenue/Tenleytown Resident
(who is not from a privileged background, carries the weight of a huge mortgage, and sub-lets part of her apartment to pay for it, while trying to give her kids access to a good education and a safe environment)

So how to parents reverse this lunacy, I mean policy before it becomes effective? It threatens to exacerbate all of the problems that you identify at Wilson and other schools.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't know about that Jeff, but there was another incident at Judiciary Sq. where teens struck a man with a thrown snowball around 5 p.m. and subsequently assaulted him.

All this is so scary!

[Anonymous]

I dont care who attends Wilson. Wilson needs some rules and expectations - character, dress, for students who attend and to coordinate with local police to enforce behavior norms to and from school. I've been noticing the booty shorts (girls of all color) and pants by the ankles (boys of all color) and aggressive behavior / jostling/language (mostly kids commuting) for years. Other schools hold kids to honor and behavior codes because guess what, kids and communities alike benefit from expectations. You don't see Banneker kids in the paper for beatdowns; I'm guessing they don't run around in booty shorts and with their underwear showing either. Sometimes it can be that simple, and start there. Why is DC so frightened to ask more of public school students? There are a 1000 ways to implement good character education, but it rests on sincerity.

[Anonymous]

And to add on, I honestly think if Kaya, her new principal, Mary Cheh, and the police dont formulate a response to this we may be looking at youth riots in school/Tenleytown soon. The last two incidents (snowball/fight on platform / also the knifing) had comments about "kids ignoring police". I dont know about you, but when kids feel comfortable doing that - something is broken.

[Anonymous]

The last two mornings I have gone to the tenley town starbx and seen several groups of young boys hanging out and lingering at 9:15. Also groups of girls screaming ang horseplay in whole foods parking lot around 9:30. Apparently they have no reason to be in school. I've seen a morning arrest of a kid being walked down wisconsin in handcuffs -- none of the other kids around blinked an eye--and then another group of kids, one of whom was trying to provoke strangers, walking away from Wilson. There was definitely a different feel to the area, one I hadn't experienced in a long time. I didn't completely unsafe but felt a shift and was on higher alert. It's very concerning.

[Anonymous]

I basically avoid Tenleytown when the kids are coming in /going out and I'm a pretty hip mom who grew up in DC old Logan circle and old Dupont. We only live a few blocks from the metro but I dont want to deal with the hassle, get cussed at jostled or teased. I've stopped taking metro entirely and only certain bus routes. There are a lot of good kids at Wilson - I know plenty. There needs to be a school (with all its resources: Character ed, counselors, school discipline) and local policing partnership and it needs to start now. And if you live in the neighborhood and see a hassle, call the police. Do not let up. Pot in the alley, belligerence to poassersby : Report it. These few kids are messing it up for a lot of kids and for the neighborhood. I'm really, really tired of it. We have a vibrant community with teens, college students, retirees, office workers, families. These few kids dont know how to behave as part of a community and need to be shown the behavioral lines.

[Anonymous]

I hate to say it, but it seems like Principal Martin is out of her league - way out of her league. I suspect it is not a coincidence that all these problems are happening just as she takes over.
Signed,

Parent of a Wilson student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I basically avoid Tenleytown when the kids are coming in /going out and I'm a pretty hip mom who grew up in DC old Logan circle and old Dupont. We only live a few blocks from the metro but I dont want to deal with the hassle, get cussed at jostled or teased. I've stopped taking metro entirely and only certain bus routes. There are a lot of good kids at Wilson - I know plenty. There needs to be a school (with all its resources: Character ed, counselors, school discipline) and local policing partnership and it needs to start now. And if you live in the neighborhood and see a hassle, call the police. Do not let up. Pot in the alley, belligerence to poassersby : Report it. These few kids are messing it up for a lot of kids and for the neighborhood. I'm really, really tired of it. We have a vibrant community with teens, college students, retirees, office workers, families. These few kids dont know how to behave as part of a community and need to be shown the behavioral lines.

Agreed. And report it to the media too, so that our lovely Mayor, Chancellor and School Principal start taking action to preserve and improve Wilson, not to break it

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Did anyone hear anything about a large snowball fight at Wilson this afternoon? From what I understand, snowballs were being thrown at cars and even the police.

There was a fire alarm with immediate dismissal at 3pm. Students who got out of the building first started pegging people with snowballs on their way out of the building. This carried to the metro station and beyond.

[Anonymous]

Has Principal reviewed the records of OOB kids and sent back to home school those that don't meet the required attendance and gpa? I think this is at discretion of the Principal.

[Anonymous]

Has the Principal sent out any communications to families about the incidents discussed above? I would hope that she's addressing the situation with parents.