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Wilson High
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Anonymous
| I have changed my commuting route because I do not want to be in the same area, let alone a Metro platform or subway, with many of those Wilson kids. It's scary and sad. |
Anonymous
| Scary and sad? Spare me. Glad to hear you scurried away with your tail between your legs to a "safer" Metro station. |
Anonymous
|
I remember having been an unpleasant teenager, myself. That acknowledged, I'm also put off by the loitering gaggle outside the CVS. Since neighborhood parents are clearly forming a negative impression of the school because of this boisterous behavior, shouldn't the principal at Wilson try to do something about it? Maybe some kind of anti-loitering agreement with Tenleytown businesses or the MPD? It doesn't do any good to alienate the parents of potential students. Wilson and DCPS in general should be doing more to try to attract affluent families.
The kids I see aren't doing anything threatening or grossly inappropriate, but they're loud and inconsiderate. Not nice. |
Anonymous
| 16:20 again. Part of the problem, I think, has to do with the blahness of the Tenleytown strip in general. The kids would be less offensive if they weren't blocking pedestrian traffic. Not that it's ever gonna happen, but some kind of a public square with benches, etc. would give them a more legitimate place to congregate. More cafes and shops to browse through would also offer 'em something to do besides teasing each other in the make-up aisle at CVS when I'm just trying to grab that hypo-allengenic soap for DD and go on my busy way! You can see why they're all on the sidewalk instead of in Mattress Discounters, though. |
Anonymous
What time does this scary and sad scene usually take place? |
Anonymous
|
I have been on the inside of Wilson working (I will not say more) and it was a transformative year of my life. I learned more about myself and teens than I ever thought I would or could...and some of those kids are crazy outside of CVS, but that small part does not TOTALLY represent the whole.
I learned that there are DEEPLY troubled and bright students in that school who think it is amazing they go there, and I met a lot of students who were kicked out or "invited to leave" other schools and this is their last normal school option. I saw students working their asses off and I met students who had practically never attended classes. I saw deep racial divides and tensions, and I saw students of every conceivable race, ethnicity, and religion befriending one another. I saw gang members and students going to Yale. I saw drugs, weapons, art, theater, great pep rallies, passionate teachers, horrible teachers, great admins, HORRIBLE admins, a crumbling, disgusting school without working toilets and water fountains. I saw students fight, curse me out, curse each other out, get extra help after school. I saw students without enough desks and books. I saw a lot of metal detectors. I don't know what to tell everyone. There is a realness there that I had never experienced anywhere else (taught and worked in MANY schools) and it was overwhelming, sad, and beautiful. I would love to say I would send my kids there, but I have a pretty serious problem with the metal detectors (I KNOW THEY ARE NEEDED). I hate the thought of my kids passing through those every day to learn, too depressing. But I will keep my eye on the school and support it however I can. I need to see what kind of learner my kids are before I know if Wilson is an option. That is my take on it. I hope it is improving. The kids deserve it. |
Anonymous
| Poetic, pp. Thanks for sharing your experience. |
Anonymous
You owe me a new keyboard. 
|
Anonymous
If you ride the Red Line on a weekend evening, you'll regularly find American Universiy students doing the exact same thing. They speak loudly because they're soooo cool that everyone else needs to be blessed with their words. They use profanities in clear view of my 4-year-old and anyone else sharing the metro with them. Many of them are wearing what I call "prosti-tots" clothing, and the boys often have pants hanging off of their butts. SOmetimes they're drunk, or at least buzzed. They're also white. Are you running away from them? I swore up a storm in high school but didn't offend people because I was on a remote, elite boarding school campus with no one to shock but the ducks on the pond. I was probably a pretentious little arse on the buses and on the streets my first year of college, too. When my friends and I were THE COOLEST PEOPLE EVER (we also discovered sex and arty movies-- serious trailblazers, we). After all of my swearing and being a jerk, I managed two Ivy degrees and a productive life as a decent tax-paying person with a well-adjusted kid. Those Wilson kids might too, assuming that they don't internalize the impression that they are dangerous just because they're boisterous. There are many thoughtful threads here about the opportunities available out of Wilson. The academies, the AP classes, the kids getting into top colleges. The question is, do you really need your child to go to a school where each and every child is on that track, and succeeding is a matter of going in the same direction as everyone around you, or do you want your child to go to a school where the different origins, paths, talents, and futures that American children have are all apparent, and as a parent and child you'll have to participate in helping them choose the path that will lead to success? |
Anonymous
| Sorry, the kids outside the Starbucks and the CVS are not just being boisterous and behaving like all other high school kids letting off steam - when I passed by with my baby recently I witnessed one pulling out a BIG knife and showing it off to his gaggle of friends. Who all ooo'ed and ahh'ed. Obviously, I hurried away. I couldn't find a police officer so just got myself back home. Yes, those metal detectors are apparently needed. And maybe not working as well as they should. I think there is reason to be a bit intimidated by these crowds of kids that goes beyond defending modern teenage fashion. |
Anonymous
How do you know the kid was from Wilson? Did you see him leave the school and walk to Starbucks? Or are you assuming? If so, what are you basing your assumption on? |
Anonymous
My brother went to a very fancy and rigid prep school, and around 8th grade all of the boys grew obsessed with martial arts weapons, and brought throwing stars and the like, secretively, in their backpacks. Of course they got hell when they got caught, but many did it. I can't count the number of times I saw him and his friends showing off the ridiculous items they had. The difference is that kids in the suburbs do this in private spaces, and urban kids are out in public more. It's a terrible idea to have a knife, but all you just described is a macho boy showing his friends a status symbol. Since he was just showing his friends and not threatening anyone, let alone you, I think that hurrying off is a bit dramatic. |
Anonymous
You've made an excellent point but maybe not the one you intended. You're right, none of us know if Knife Guy is enrolled in Wilson. Let's assume he's not. But I think we all know that at least one or more of the other kids do attend Wilson. And that is *exactly* the line-up of the most violent incidents involving Wilson over the past 10 years or so, including shootings near school property. Someone not enrolled has a beef with someone who IS enrolled, and they play it out on or near school property. I was on a jury for one of these cases, and then there was a different shooting that occurred near the bus stop on the back side of the school in early 200~. |
Anonymous
Actually, my point stands. We don't KNOW that any of those kids are from Wilson. We know nothing about those kids, really. Every poster calling out the scary youths plaguing the CVS and metro seems to the be the parent of a small child and seems to have absolutely zero direct knowledge of the school or the kids who go there. And your jury experience proves nothing other than that there have been incidents of violence at the school, which I don't think anyone on here is disputing. Beyond that, though, I'm not seeing a whole lot of conversation about ACTUAL CURRENT STUDENTS and their experiences at Wilson. |
Anonymous
| Well, I do know that a teacher was seriously beaten by one or more students a couple of years ago INSIDE the school. There was also a shooting there several years ago. It's not exactly a warm and nurtuting environment. I know kids who have attended the school. Many did fine, but you have to negotiate a lot of minefields. |