DCHS Students Brawl at Gallery Place

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why many families won't even consider Wilson.

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why many families won't even consider Wilson.

[phone]

tons of families consider Wilson, mine included

CC resident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous 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. Do some critical thinking, y'all. Watch some Melissa Harris-Perry or read The New Jim Crow. Talk to the Black parents at your DCPCS. Leave your snug neighborhood bubbles. Think about why the sight of a bunch of Black kids talking loudly makes you afraid, but the sight of white boys yelling at a football game in a bar doesn't. Think about the lives of these kids' great-great-grandparents and how they compared to the lives of yours. Think about the long line of privilege that resulted in you, in this moment, sitting at a computer and making cracks that "Wilson students" (Black kids, don't even START to act like you don't mean Black kids) are "too stupid" to do anything but brawl. Just listen to the experiences of people whose life paths diverge wildly from yours. Listen with an open mind. You might learn something.

But I do think people need to readjust their outrage meters to consider that we live in an era where mobile devices share a bizarre range of wierd random public things that were never shared before (subway fights, gallon smashing, etc) It's really not newsworthy other than it will promote site traffic and get the attention of otherwise disinterested parties.

I agree. When I was in HS in the mid-90s, fights were common, on and off school grounds. Schools like the one I attended are routinely treated with derision on DCUM, but such behavior is nothing new.

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.

PP should be sad if she cannot distinguish between teens talking loudly on the metro and in the station versus a huge fight with arrests. What is your problem lady? You expect fights and mayhem? I see black middle aged people looking dismissive of bad behavior. You are prejudiced and if you condone criminal behavior then you have a real problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I agree. When I was in HS in the mid-90s, fights were common, on and off school grounds. Schools like the one I attended are routinely treated with derision on DCUM, but such behavior is nothing new.

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.

Did you kick the s*** out of other students in large mobs in metro stations? Did you mob-attack random adults who happened to be in the metro at the same time? Did you form flash mobs to do "swarm" shoplifting forays into the stores around Chinatown/Gallery Place?

The reason people are afraid of the DCPS students who hang around Metro Center is that some of them - not all, clearly, but certainly some - do really scary, awful things to innocent people and are a constant security problem for nearby businesses. I am not aware of any comparable group of kids, of any race, in the metropolitan region who pose a similar threat. I'm scared to think about my (OOB, traveling to Tenleytown) middle-schooler getting caught in the middle of this; I'm scared I could be hurt. And I'm also annoyed when I see irritating middle- and high-school students of any race acting stupid - including the white teenagers who have started hanging around on Capitol Hill smoking pot. If and when they gang-mug someone, I'm going to start giving them the evil eye too.

If you are so annoyed about teenagers (regardless of race) engaging in illegal activities such as smoking pot in a public space, what have you done other than bitching about the situation on DCUM? And why do you think smoking pot will lead to a gang-mug? More likely a trip to 7-11 in my experience.

[Anonymous]

I assume you are talking about the kids hanging out under the freeway at the skate park adjacent to Garfield? Send an email to Commander @ 1D and he will have officers roll through, either on foot, bike, Segway or cruiser. Also, you can attend the monthly PSA 107 meeting. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

This isn't a "teens being teens" problem. When the teens are fighting each other and assaulting other adults who are just trying to get to and from work, it's a serious problem.

Something similar is happening in Baltimore City with gangs of local teens attacking and assaulting commuter on bikes. The attacks are serious and cruel.

When teens are violent, it means they're out of control and innocent people are getting hurt. It's wrong to brush it off as "kids being kids."

[Anonymous]

As in Bawlmer, there have been a number of instances of kids assaulting bicyclists on the Met Branch Trailing the vicinity of the NY Ave overpass. Ya know, just teens being teens, and in no way indicative of who they are as human beings. I am sure they will turn out to be highly educated professionals (with the HHI that goes with that). BTW, please excuse the poor grammar.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Let's see white male principals are failing in the realm of operating school. There's been news worthy incidents at Wilson and McKinley this year the fights are only the latest. One thing for sure we have dodged a bullet because of all AA Superintendents we have had in position who appointed principals...they NEVER selected a white woman to run a high-school. Look at the former white male principal of Woodson HS. Don't evwn let me go there about the white male principal of Garnett-Shaw MS.

If whites worst fear is to be one and only in a school that's predominantly AA. Then our fear is to see a white male principal at the helm of a predominantly AA school.

As for Pope it always a funny situation when we as AAs see white on white brow-beating because y'all are relentless. You do know Pope was given hell by his own-kind because many thought he was sympathizer with the other race.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's see white male principals are failing in the realm of operating school. There's been news worthy incidents at Wilson and McKinley this year the fights are only the latest. One thing for sure we have dodged a bullet because of all AA Superintendents we have had in position who appointed principals...they NEVER selected a white woman to run a high-school. Look at the former white male principal of Woodson HS. Don't evwn let me go there about the white male principal of Garnett-Shaw MS.

If whites worst fear is to be one and only in a school that's predominantly AA. Then our fear is to see a white male principal at the helm of a predominantly AA school.

As for Pope it always a funny situation when we as AAs see white on white brow-beating because y'all are relentless. You do know Pope was given hell by his own-kind because many thought he was sympathizer with the other race.

I read your post twice and still can't decide if you it is a joke or if you are serious..........

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

There is an enormous difference btwn teens laughing and joking and yelling at each other on the metro vs teens beating e/o and others up. I Am white, went to dcps, and seeing rowdy in a fun way teens on the metro makes me nostalgic. I am totally willing to tolerate that. Beating people up, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's see white male principals are failing in the realm of operating school. There's been news worthy incidents at Wilson and McKinley this year the fights are only the latest. One thing for sure we have dodged a bullet because of all AA Superintendents we have had in position who appointed principals...they NEVER selected a white woman to run a high-school. Look at the former white male principal of Woodson HS. Don't evwn let me go there about the white male principal of Garnett-Shaw MS.

If whites worst fear is to be one and only in a school that's predominantly AA. Then our fear is to see a white male principal at the helm of a predominantly AA school.

As for Pope it always a funny situation when we as AAs see white on white brow-beating because y'all are relentless. You do know Pope was given hell by his own-kind because many thought he was sympathizer with the other race.

I read your post twice and still can't decide if you it is a joke or if you are serious..........

You mean you can understand it? You're one up on me. I just got that white male principals are bad . . . then she lost me.