Reply to How did Herndon/Westfield HS go from top to bottom?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "How did Herndon/Westfield HS go from top to bottom?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]First of all, it is beyond insulting that the some are comparing the creation of a school whose immediate borders so happen to majority poor and Hispanic, with the deliberate policies of redlining/segregationist housing that forced African Americans to live in specific areas. African Americans didn't have a CHOICE where they could live, whereas the Hispanics do. No one has forced a single Hispanic to live all together in Dogwood/Hutchison/Herndon area. An African American man before the 1960's and before could only live in one section in a city even if one didn't like that certain area and could afford otherwise, whereas everyone today has the freedom to live wherever they please.

LOL to anyone who thinks the School Board is going to care one bit of creating a supermajority FARMS school. Why is it that Keys Gamarra talks so much about racial equity but sent her kids to the whitest school in the county? Why did Karen Sanders spend tens of millions @ West Potomac to increase capacity for the Waynewood kids when Mount Vernon has plenty of empty space? Why has Tholen shot down every attempt to diversity Langley?

These individuals won't care about any cries accusing them of being a hypocrite or the negative publicity as long as the 'core' constituents are happy.[/quote]

Two reactions:

1.  You can feign all the outrage you want (because we all know very well by now that your only interest is not being redistricted to a school that has a large Hispanic enrollment, even if it's still plurality Asian), but there's a reason why the concepts of "de jure" and "de facto" segregation are routinely used with the understanding that, in some instances, de facto segregation can be just as pernicious as de jure segregation.  FCPS used to have de jure segregation, and no longer does, but it does have de facto segregation due to a combination of historic zoning, geography, and decisions made by prior and current School Boards.

2.  You are right that the likes of Keys Gamarra (who sent her own kids to Madison), Corbett Sanders (who has done everything she could to make sure West Potomac kids don't have to attend under-enrolled Mount Vernon), and Tholen (who reversed a "pro-equity" staff recommendation that would have added some apartments to 2% FARMS Langley for the first time) are hypocrites who pay lip service to "equity" while perpetuating their own privileges.  However, these old women may not still be School Board members if/when FCPS gets around to building another school.  Their successors, who may actually believe the things that Keys Gamarra, Corbett Sanders and Tholen pretend to believe, are likely to oppose concentrating poverty in a new high school - and indeed even the current School Board members may be sensitive enough to the optics to avoid doing it if they were making the decision.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics