Troubles at GDS high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently there have been a number of racially charged incidents at GDS HS in past few months. Some students on a sports team hazed an African american team mate in what was seen as a racial incident. Then someone supposedly wrote the N word on the side of the school in spray paint or marker

Anyone know what's going on?

Lots of rumors around the NW private school scene that the African american students are revolting against the administration and perceived injustices against them

Maybe someone who is not a student wrote that? Hard to believe a fellow student would write that and I have no affiliation with GDS except a few friends there.

[Anonymous]

Parents are upset with how a the school handled the discipline involving an AA young man. Many feel the school should not have involved themselves in something that happened off campus. This has obviously been simmering for months.
Hazing was hazing and dealt with.

But really it is this very sensitive incident from last summer that is creating the resentment.

[Anonymous]

OMG, talk about a humble brag! Sure, the comments about the Obamas and GDS are all the work of a troll! LOL.

Anonymous wrote:23:19, astute observations on some of the overheated rhetoric. As a former member of the GDS community, I don't remember parents or kids spending much time discussing Sidwell, except for key sports matches during the year, National Merit numbers, etc. Of course, folks are not oblivious, but really no different than any local school rivalries, including my flyover home town (though this thread refers to independents, not publics).

Sometimes I wonder if some of the animus directed towards the school arises from a poster's unconscious ethnic, racial, or religious bias. The school was founded by African-American and Jewish families who had been excluded by the Cathedral schools and Sidwell. Perhaps these posters do not know that the first family counts some GDS parents, former classmates and colleagues, amongst their friends. Maybe these people are simply invisible to them, hence, why the posters continue to cleave to the cudgel about the supposedly unwarranted security concerns when they clearly know nothing about the issue.

[Anonymous]

This is well put.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent at another school, and I'd say the disciplinary process at our kids' school and probably at many other independent schools should also be scrutinized. Our son, who is white, was a witness to an incident (not involving any racial or sexual dimension) that resulted in a disciplinary action against another student. An administrator met with our son to "persuade" him to hand over his cell phone to look at texts. Our son was not sure what to do, felt threatened by the administrator, and asked if he could talk this over with us. He wasn't allowed to do so and ended up allowing the administrator to see the texts. He feels terrible about this and the outcome for the other student.

Why not start a new thread talking about this parent and her child's experience at the other school? Seems irrelevant to this thread.

It's relevant because it suggests that at least some of the troubles at GDS high school involve issues that other private schools face as well.

It's only irrelevant if you think that the point of the thread is bashing/defending GDS more generally rather than talking about the specific challenges the school is dealing with right now. And those aren't whether the Obama girls will enroll. Those are what role parents and the board will play in school governance, whether the school remains committed to (and has an effective and intelligent way to implement) its diversity mission, and how to overhaul a disciplinary process that seems really arbitrary. These are serious issues and they have clearly affected students at the HS this year. The open forum had many kids (and some teachers) in tears. And the next day scores of kids just sicked out and stayed home. The parent forum the week after was a disaster -- it left parents questioning whether the Head has the capacity (or even the will) to work through these tough issues. Whether we get problem-solving or just PR in response to recent events remains to be seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Parents are upset with how a the school handled the discipline involving an AA young man. Many feel the school should not have involved themselves in something that happened off campus. This has obviously been simmering for months.
Hazing was hazing and dealt with.

But really it is this very sensitive incident from last summer that is creating the resentment.

This is sort of the prisoner's dilemma of progressives. How to balance two aggrieved groups - AA male on one hand, potential female sexual assault victim on the other. If this was a computer, we would call that thrashing - that's when your computer comes to a halt because it is trying to balance too many items at once.

[Anonymous]

That's true only if you see the dispute as pitting two symbols against each other. If you have a well-defined fact-finding process (and rules about burden of proof and jurisdiction), then you have a way to respond fairly and to take the interests of both parties into account. In the absence of clear rules and the ability to investigate, especially in a situation where There's no transparency or accountability, you get arbitrary decisionmaking.

The question isn't who is more oppressed (or which kind of oppression troubles us more), but what actually happened and what kind of disciplinary response (if any) from the school is warranted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Parents are upset with how a the school handled the discipline involving an AA young man. Many feel the school should not have involved themselves in something that happened off campus. This has obviously been simmering for months.
Hazing was hazing and dealt with.

But really it is this very sensitive incident from last summer that is creating the resentment.

This is sort of the prisoner's dilemma of progressives. How to balance two aggrieved groups - AA male on one hand, potential female sexual assault victim on the other. If this was a computer, we would call that thrashing - that's when your computer comes to a halt because it is trying to balance too many items at once.

It's a good example about why we need the same standards for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMG, talk about a humble brag! Sure, the comments about the Obamas and GDS are all the work of a troll! LOL.

Anonymous wrote:23:19, astute observations on some of the overheated rhetoric. As a former member of the GDS community, I don't remember parents or kids spending much time discussing Sidwell, except for key sports matches during the year, National Merit numbers, etc. Of course, folks are not oblivious, but really no different than any local school rivalries, including my flyover home town (though this thread refers to independents, not publics).

Sometimes I wonder if some of the animus directed towards the school arises from a poster's unconscious ethnic, racial, or religious bias. The school was founded by African-American and Jewish families who had been excluded by the Cathedral schools and Sidwell. Perhaps these posters do not know that the first family counts some GDS parents, former classmates and colleagues, amongst their friends. Maybe these people are simply invisible to them, hence, why the posters continue to cleave to the cudgel about the supposedly unwarranted security concerns when they clearly know nothing about the issue.

How is this a humble brag?

[Anonymous]

I will admit I was a little curious to know exactly what had prompted such problems at the school but now that I know the just of it, I don't think we need to have pages and pages more of details about these kids and the alleged incidents with specif details.

[jsteele]

If you have no connection to GDS or any other private school -- which I don't -- and you skip reading this thread for a few days -- which I have -- catching up on the thread creates the impression that the Private schools forum is a low-rent version of reality TV. As it happens, I hate reality TV. So, this series is cancelled.