Chaos at School: Shameful Mismanagement in Newark
by PubliusFrom the New Jersey Star-Ledger:
It’s like a jungle, some students say. Barringer High School in Newark is out of control.
Inside the three-story building of about 1,300 students, rats and roaches roam the hallways. So do random trespassers, students complain: about 29 different doors lead inside the school, which anyone can enter. At least a dozen different gangs recruit students. Last month, authorities said a 17-year-old boy sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl inside a classroom after school.
Students say Barringer is not only dangerous, it’s disorganized. Several weeks into the school year, almost none of them had correct class schedules.
Dozens of frustrated students recently walked out. Their protest during school hours was organized on Facebook, where a large number of student comments called for the return of the former principal, Jose Aviles. The current principal has been on sick leave, according to the district, but resigned Friday and will now be replaced.
Barringer once graduated prestigious alumni like Newark poet Amiri Baraka, Congressman Donald Payne and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. But now it’s just another example of a large urban school failing miserably. Its students are the unlucky ones who didn’t get into charter or magnet schools.
Read the whole depressing editorial here. We think the parents should explore a class-action lawsuit against city officials and the teachers’ union. Sure, there is probably some sovereign immunity for the officials, but how much more of this can we stomach.
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109 Comments
How's those unions dues working out for ya????
Usually problems like this start at the top. I'd fire and replace the principal with a Chris Chriti pit bull type administrator. Giving that person full support to work downward filling cracks and holes. Students come first, screw the union, get rid of failed faculty members. Only then will student grades and attitudes follow.
And another reason my kids are in private schools. Pennies on the dollar, I tell you.
Amiri Baraka. Great. A Communist/Marxist/batterer and anti-Zionist.
Around 1974, Baraka distanced himself from Black nationalism and became a Marxist and a supporter of anti-imperialist third-world liberation movements. In 1979 he became a lecturer SUNY-Stony Brook's Africana Studies Department.[citation needed] The same year, after altercations with his wife, he was sentenced to a short period of compulsory community service. Around this time he began writing his autobiography. In 1980 he denounced his former anti-semitic utterances, declaring himself an anti-zionist[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiri_Baraka
If a lawsuit is what it's going to take, so be it.
At this point in time, this may be the only way to fix school districts that are broken.
Being this is in New Jersey, the Governor is probably enjoying the self-destruction caused by the unions, to which he admittedly does not like.
Exactly!! They're like the nanny who feeds arsenic to the kids.
FAILED!
The people that pay the taxes in each school district should have the option to close the district. If there is no value to the community, the public should not pay for the district. No school is a better option when the district has FAILED.
Private industry will solve it quickly – as will the neighboring public school district.
And if we don't start putting a stop to this come Nov. it will soon be coming to a school district near all of us
Maybe if the Unions didn't spend all their money on the Democratic election coffers, they could fix the damn problem.
Again: Unions are the single most destructive entity in the United States……….period.
I wonder why the number of doors in to a school wasn't that much of a concern in the 50's or early 60's?
Ah that "prestigious" poet (code word for "unemployed") that ….have generated controversy over the years, particularly his advocacy of rape and violence towards (at various times) women, gay people, white people, ….
Yeah, great stuff.
Chris Christie can only do so much and suing the district will only deplete more funds from the taxpayer. SUE THE DAMN UNION instead. Is there a statute that says the parents can't sue those cockroaches?
And the Teachers Union are "creating" our leaders of tomorrow.
Two words: Home Schooling.
Damn skippy! Mine too fortunately.
Yea, while whispering sweet nothings in their ears too…..
This a a microcosm of the Urban Cities run by Democrats and Unions- NY, Cal, Ill, Mich.
Visiting NYC and Newark NJ, is like being in a 3rd world country; with Rats, bed-bugs, disease, unsanitary conditions, Illegal Aliens running wild, poverty on display everywhere, the worst schools, rampant crime, and in NY, a Victory Mosque approved by the Democrat in charge! Mayor Bloomberg.
A true reflection of what happens when Citizens are dependent upon government, and government ignores their citizens and City. The children suffer.
The old expression comes to mind: 'Actions speak louder than words' Promises promises. Hey politicians, stop giving speeches. You don't come through. YOU LIE!
WTF are you babbling about now SmellyPee?????? Gawwwwd!!!
There's no "Joooos" related to this story. Why are you here anyway?
It's just another example of why Newark is a hell hole.
It is not a School, it is an SEIU training camp. Thats their Boot Camp.
Thank the DoE and NEA.
100 million to be exact.
I wonder who Oblahblah is going to blame the failure of THIS school on……….
Oops, my bad. How stupid of me……Of course it's "Bush" with his 8 years of failed policies!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiri_Baraka#Controv...
Everyone is quick to point a finger at the school, but it's a Government run institution what do you expect? Where are the parents? Where is the school board? Why hasn't some adult questioned any of this before now? It doesn't get like this over night. Unions too, the teachers are paying their dues shouldn't they at least make sure the schools are decent? This is an American Government Tragedy. This is what happens when we leave anything up to the government.
We have 16,000 new IRS agents and classrooms that are criminal. Priorities?
Boy Chris Christie really inherieted a POS set of Schools to work at cleaning up. He will win but it will take some time and a lot of dismissals.
On another bright spot for us it now appears that Michigan is going RED per Fox News this am!
He's actually got a point today that doesn't appear on top of his head….
Newark should be paved over and started all over again from scratch.
I believe Christie will make the most of it. Don't think it will be going into the union piggy bank as it usually does.
Working out great for the union members and not so good for the students. All acording to plan.
It is not the government per se, nor in a perfect world is it the teacher's union; it is the insidious infiltration of Marxists at all levels. Its time for a large dose of pesticide.
We have a socialist Fed Government making up their own Laws, and inner cities that are dangerous to innocent children. Oh wait, I forgot I'm a Constitutionalist Republican. I'm not supposed to be caring about the children; only Liberal Democrats are allowed to do that right?
Democrats and RINO's- Step away from your million dollar offices and let some Constitutionalists show you what fiscal Conservatism, low taxes, low spending, strong defense and Legal Citizens, can do to clean up, and clean out America. First stop: close up our borders and enforce existing "Federal Immigration Law" including Colleges, and expired Visas. Our children's schools and cities are overcrowded and a mess.
Yep …Rats and Roaches …disguised as School Administrators and Union Teachers.
Chris Christie sure does have his job cut out for him. While Chris actually WORKS …these other so-called educators show up for a paycheck. SCUM.
Publius,
Interesting article.
Now why don't you do a follow up, and report on how much the School Administrators are being paid, and name the Unions that are represented?
If it means to break the unions to survive to save the schools, then so be it!
Clown: "I wonder why the number of doors in to a school wasn't that much of a concern in the 50's or early 60's? "
Maybe because criminals were treated as criminals instead of aggrieved victims of society???
Amiri Baraka, one of society's perpetually aggrieved, is still a darling of the leftist hate America first crowd. It is your very side of the isle that calls his garbage art! Clown.
I still am of the belief that those dues aren't working out so well for the union members "in the long run". After all the $$$$$ of union dues invested on socialist/progressive candidates during elections and such. Won't leave too much left for said union member's retirement planning.
Hmmmmm, kinda like social security maybe????
jungle indeed
Nothing will change in the cities until the Democrats lose their death grip on the electorate. They can't run anything well. Nothing. They're to dumb to get and keep a job anywhere else and lazy, lazy, lazy. Remember the election board in Broward County and the "hanging chads"……..sheesh! This same species controls the inner cities schools and school boards.
Such a sad and pathetic state of affairs for what is recognized as our nations' 3rd oldest High School…..
Throw some money at it so it can FAIL ON A LARGER SCALE! Get rid of the union…then fire the incompetent staff! NO MONEY NEEDED FOR THAT!
Amen to that
"…..I wonder why the number of doors in to a school wasn't that much of a concern in the 50's or early 60's?….."
and
"……Ah that "prestigious" poet,….."
but let us totally ignore the topic of the article there SmedleyB,…….
I realize it sorta provides an example of all you stand for.
William Brennan was the leader of the liberals on the court, and Congressman Donald Payne voted against allowing Bush to be named as president in 2004, against counting the Ohio vote.
I'm not impressed with any of the three examplars of public school education, except maybe Congressman Payne.
Teach,….teach,…….what for,…….??????
it's sooooooo much easier just to print more food stamps and welfare checks.
Author suggested number of doors was a problem.
Author called that poet "prestigious."
What side is that?
Amiri Baraka is a leftist darling, teaching our kids today at such prestigious universities as Columbia, Rutgers and Howard. He is part of the blame America first crowd. Just another in a long line of the left's great American heroes. Right up there with BJ Clinton, Ted Kennedy, the peanut farmer, et al. And great non-Americans like Soros, Chavez, Castro and sidekick Che…
Well, that would be the leftist side of the isle. The blame Israel/America/Bush first (not particularly in that order) crowd, side. Clown.
And the same people who run this school are in the process of taking over healthcare. Ah, Great Society, lovely you are to view.
I am soooooo glad I left that area at age 19 and never went back even for a visit. Here's a idea for a "shovel ready" govt work program. Build a wall around the shithole that is Newark. Throw food over it every now and then. No one gets in or out.
You could spend a million bucks a year on each student in that shithole area and they would STILL fail.
He could just as well flush his 100 million down the toilet for all the good it will do there.
Author didn't suggest numbers of doors was a problem. Author reported that students complain that 29 doors opening to the outside lets unsavory and potentially dangerous trespassers inside. You just have to be able to read and think to actually understand the English language.
It is the left that has made the aggrieved clown-poet, Baraka, "prestigious". It is leftest academia and "prestigious" universities that allow him a job in teaching, clown. He is "prestigious" because he is a leftist American bashing clown that only a liberal would let anywhere near themselves.
and he was correct on both claims,…
I know it's hard to accept that one can be a lefty wacko and still be "prestigious"
as for the doors,…
it is not the number of doors that he was spotlighting,…….
it was the type of shifties that were using those doors,…..
to do "thar thang"
Who is Chris Chriti?
But but they intend to do good. That's all that matters.
This school -loosest possible use of the term- is an amalgam of every failed progressive policy. Every failed sociological experiment, Every failed economic plan. Every corrupt union initiative. Every failed collective educational blunder.
Which, would be all of them.
The shining brilliance of a domestic (Weatherman) terrorist. Yeah, take a bow Ayers, you putz.
Escape from New Ark?
I kinda like that.
If it doesn't involve copy and pasting from an external news source, Publius can't do it.
Which is fine, everyone has their place, and many more people are now aware of the issue than before.
c.mon…..barringer is the same as most of the public urban high schools……they are all traps. billions of dollars are wasted every year on the politicians, administrators and teachers in these buildings.
suibn]'
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Why would a leftist have a problem with the socialist welfare state of Israel?
Smedley,….oh,…Smedley,….Smedley,…..????
where are you,…..????
damn it nd,…ya spooked him away.
Despicable. Something needs to be done. I say we need to start with a TRUE zero-tolerance for student violence. If you fight, deal drugs, etc, you are OUT. Then include teachers on the zero-tolerance policy…if you can't teach, you are OUT. Finally, include Administrators. There is NO REASON for students to attend school without a schedule. If you can't make a schedule and supervise teachers, you are OUT.
As an aside, though…my school has bugs and mice, too. When I said something to the Janitor, he said that the use of poison to get rid of them is pretty much a no-no. He uses the "green" stuff that is on the approved list, and it simply doesn't work.
We also have a few violent kids – we know that they are violent, but legally they are required an education in the "least restrictive environment" which means that those kids are in school sitting next to your child or grandchild.
Trust me – the teachers are disgusted and disheartened, too.
You all know that it is all Bush's fault !
You can't blame the teachers or pricipal !
Just give Imam Hussein Obama more money and time and they will all be the smartest kids in the country.
We live in a suburb near Annapolis. When new to the neighborhood we thought we'd give the public school a chance. On one particular day a girl gave a bj to a boy in my daughter's classroom. The teacher said he didn't see it (or hear it, for that matter). The principal backed up the teacher. So did most parents. We decided it was time to start home schooling.
Indeed. Administrators in my county often make upwards of $120,000 – and I live in a poor county!
I feel like a broken record, but in my experience, most of the teachers aren't bad – but the Administrators and the laws are A W F U L!
How is it the fault of the teacher if drug dealers and violent children are not expelled? How is is the fault of the teacher if there are bugs in the building? How is it the fault of the teacher if there are trespassers? It's not. Yet all of those things make the teacher's job more difficult. LOOK INTO ADMINISTRATORS – Aren't they supposed to be in charge? That is where the problems begin. Oh, and the unions are a monetary drain. Get rid of them.
ok, so maybe this school going down the toilet is no great loss after all…
this school and its students are probably victims of the union orchestrated "Dance of the Lemons". since the unions have made it virtually impossible to fire even the most egregiously incompetent teachers, the best the administration can do is assign the worst of the worst to the worst of the worst schools. it basically dooms these sh!tholes to perennial failure.
The Israeli's force their youth, both women and men to join the military and defend their country. A leftist could never defend their country. Clown. That is why.
That school didn't do a thing wrong…it was the adults, unions, students and the morally banckrupt left that create these conditions. Why not have some people pride and you students start somewhere— clean up the yard at school, say no to the gangs. It's the people who make a place…if you want something done then do it you own damn self! Frankly I'm tried as hell of your whinning and waiting…maybe you need to start a tea party at that school!
"I wonder why the number of doors in to a school wasn't that much of a concern in the 50's or early 60's?"
The destructive and pernicious influence of the Welfare state. Oh wait, you were making a comment about black people again.
So, how many non-whites do you know beyond passive acquaintance, Smedley?
So sue the school district and deplete the funds until the taxpayers get brains and become responsible voters.
Amen!
I agree. Newark is a typical "inner city" like Harlem NY, with inner-city neglect, crime, unions, and Democrats. It's not right.
The Dems talk the talk, and take these people's Union Dues money and votes, enslaving them to Government Systems like Welfare, and three years Unemployment, with no "work-fare." So Crime is a career, and the schools are scary.
Many are brainwashed from grammar school to hate white people, but that only hurts them more because they alienate themselves from good people who would help them. It's a mess.
SmegmaB the Jew hating BIGOT has once again raised his snout out of the sewage to Oink…LOL Oink Oink little piggy!
"Parents should explore a class action lawsuit". Parents? PARENTS?? What goddamn parents? The PARENT'S ARE THE PROBLEM!! Those kids get out at 3pm and go home to a way more disfunctional place than the schools.
Another $100 million to support the status quo?
The problem isn't lack of money. The taxpayers are already being gouged. The problem is corruption, union/teacher greed, lack of competence and lack of morality. Pouring money into that context can only make things worse.
Actions speak louder than words. Money is the priority – it is the purpose. Everything else is pretense.
And the teacher's unions want higher pay and more benefits! For What? How much longer are Americans tolerate this behavior by Administrators, teachers and unions. This story tells of tragic events and no one seems to be ashamed enough to make corrections. "Fire them all"! Then start over. What is there to loose?
It's a typo. Chris Chriti = Chris CHristie.
Public schools mirror our culture plain and simple. When the society and culture breaks down the first symptom occurs in the schools. When teachers are expected to supervise, discipline, exercise, feed, console and console, provide ethical thinking and behavior, teaching becomes an after thought.
Want better schools and teachers – find better parents who expect their kids behave, learn and perform.
Maybe Christie should hire Michelle Rhee.
The really sad part is that the cost of public primary and secondary school tuition is now so high that we can send every single kid to private school (primary and secondary) and still have enough money left over to send them to college and have some money rebated out of the system.
It's not broken, it's been "liberated" by progressives into a production facility for future government dependents.
You people with school-age children amaze me. I would be down there doing something to save my kids, but I got my kids all through school and college. If you don't care about your kids I wonder why you had them.
Because they didn't have morons like you running around loose.
If they can get the union leaders out of there that will take care of the rats and roaches.
I'm just glad I live in AZ and in a good neighborhood.
I believe this school's situation is by design of the liberals. "Keep those unsavory 'ethnics' down and voting for "change" while we and our complicit union cronies keep getting rich!"
You are right sister! I hope the advent of the Tea Party, aka, the no-longer-silent Majority of Americans, will make a difference. I'm optimistic. It's not easy to over-throw power hungry megalomaniacs, but they're in our sights now, and we're not going anywhere!
good one
They have had it easy for so long, slithering around in the dark like moles. We are exposing them for what they really are. It will take a while for the voters to come around…….they are so dependent, vote for anything that offers them free stuff. But, at least we are on offense now and thanks to Crime, Inc., we will never be apathetic again.
I agree with you KSRich.
That, and I don't want them taught that Christian values are irrelevant.
Perfectly said- 'they've had it easy for so long, slithering around in the dark like moles'
Isn't that the truth. Robbing us blind. Not only of our hard earned tax money, but of our trust, and of the benefits of a better quality of life long before now. I've often wondered why there is sewer water running down the streets of Major Cities. Isn't that what we pay taxes for?
And the school children being neglected by the Government run schools, with teachers that are not held to standards, who are protected by Unions even when they fail to produce.
Yes we are on offense now. Can't wait to escourt Justice back into our Government! We've only just begun.
Well, I don't think the "hate Whitey" thing is as much a factor as the non-parenting parent aspect. I did not put a (s) after the word parent because i seriously doubt it would apply to more than a small percentage of students in Newark. A goodly percentage for that…..a goodly percentage for hip-hop/gang/thug life culture, and a very tiny percentage to "blame whitey". One thing for sure, throwong money at the will accomplish nothing at all
I dunno, even Snake (I thought you were dead) Pliskin might hesitate at going in there.
Keep in mind, that is if you made it through Camden alive and with some bullets left before getting to Newark
You just gave me a great idea for new Tea Shirt for Nov.3rd: We've Only Just Begun!
Think I should add……BwaaHaHaHaHaHaHa! ?
I don't even know why we bother with inner-city public schools anyway. It's not like you need a college degree to be a drug dealer or to sign up for welfare.
"And another reason my kids are in private schools. Pennies on the dollar, I tell you"
And if the voucher-crowd has their way, the same students mentioned in this story – including the 17 year old bathroom rapists – will be sitting in your kid's private school classroom. Something to consider.
"And if we don't start putting a stop to this come Nov. it will soon be coming to a school district near all of us "
How so? These same teachers union are everywhere,so how come we usually only see stories like this in inner-city public schools?
So what's new about Barringer? I went to an inner city high school (graduated in 1971) and guess what? We had the same problems even then! So how well has the department of NO-EDUCATION been doing? Well, other than WASTING our tax dollars the answer is SQUAT! But then again, the beautiful people's offspring don't have to worry about conditions like Barringer! You know the obamas, pelosis, kennedys, clintons, and so on and so on. They send or have sent their kids to EXPENSIVE PRIVATE SAFE schools where you don't have to worry about your personal safety on a daily basis, never mind getting an education! ABOLISH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, DISMANTLE ALL TEACHER UNIONS, and make the school voucher program and home schooling available to everyone! Our public school system is failing MISERABLY. It's time to fix it. Unions, money, and corrupt government intervention are not the solution!
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