Headline from Lebanon Democrat on Thursday, July 1 2008: Suspensions increase in Wilson County high schools.
Why do we include Hall in this? Because the biggest problem is Lebanon High School aka “Fight Club High” and Hall appointed that Principal while he was in the midst of his power grab as interim director in Jan-Jun 2007.
Interesting quotes out of the story and our impressions of them:
“According to the Title IV board report that David Burton presented the Wilson County Board of Education Monday night, the number of students suspended from LHS during the 2006-2007 school year swelled from 298 to 579 in 2007-2008.”
LHS went from 298 to 579 in one year???? That’s a 94.3% increase. Horrendous. That’s only a LHS. To be fair, for the High Schools system total, the suspension increase was 49.6%. LHS accounted for 281 of the 391 increased suspensions. OK, a 49.6% increase is still Horrendous, only slightly less so.
“Burton attributed the drastic increase to a variety of things, such as a new principal staff with aggressive techniques.” “They’re more accurate in reporting,” Burton told the board.”
So the former principals just let fights happen without doing anything about them??? New principal staff is aggressive??? Sounds like spin by me trying to cover their friends inability to enforce discipline BEFORE fights occur. We all know families with children at LHS, we all know what Hall’s appointee is like, this increase does not surprise us.
“Burton said a trend has been rising in which students fight one another and are recorded, only to have the altercation posted on internet sites like Youtube.”
Thus the new name for LHS “Fight Club High”. Great reputation to have in the Middle Tennessee Community? Great Legacy Hall and Davis!
“”There’s a high percentage of repeat offenders. We’re seeing the same students over and over again,” he said. “About one-third of the students suspended are freshman.”"
High Percentage of repeat offenders??? We’ll lets put them in MAP or expel them. How about legal action in the court system for assault and battery? If the kids know that they get a free vacation at home without any real punishment, they will keep fighting to get out of school. Hey, test is coming up, lets go fight and get kicked out so we can take the test later on.
“Director of Schools Mike Davis said that the number of students actually expelled however is down systemwide from 60-some to only four.”
Anyone see a problem here? A 49.6% rise in suspensions system-wide and a 93% decline in expulsions??? Expulsions plummet and suspension explode. Sounds like they are trying to avoid expulsions for political reasons. Step up and be a man Mr. Davis. Tough love, not sissy love. Kids will respond to real discipline, not paper discipline.
“Burton clarified that not all suspensions are for acts of violence. Threats, intimidating behavior as well as drugs or tobacco are also ground for suspension. However, 563 of the suspensions at LHS were for violence.”
WHAT? Burton said not all suspensions are for acts of violence???? Technically true, of the 579 suspensions at LHS, 16 were not for violence. (Thank you Lebanon Democrat for reporting the actual number rather than joining Burton’s attempt at spinning). So Burton makes it sound like violence is not the only reason, he’s downplaying the seriousness of all of this. Numbers show that 97.2% of the suspensions were due to violence.
In a non-quoted part of the story they report that drug/tobacco/threats related suspensions are down 5%. So, if we assume that if the LHS 16 non-violent suspensions were all drugs/tobacco (although they may not be, some may be threats, but for sake of example we will assume all were drug/tobacco), that would mean that those suspensions are only down by an actual number of 2 this year. If threats are factored out, then the drop may be just by just one. Big deal. Davis can claim “I reduced drugs and tobacco suspensions by one student this year, never mind that violence surged by over 280.”
“Cook said the numbers for violent suspensions show a real reason for concern. “Of 563 instances, there are only 180 days in a school year. That’s several a day at one school.”"
Ms. Cook, that is an average of 3.13 students being suspended per day. Probably 1.5 fights per day since it takes at least two to fight, any more in a fight we can call it gang fighting. Extrapolate that out, that would be 15.65 students per week suspended and 7.5 fights per week.
“Davis and board member Greg Lasater said they didn’t want LHS to have a bad light shown upon it because of the increased number.” “The majority of students are good kids. [LHS] is not an unsafe school, I’ve been there,” Davis said. “The number doesn’t show the true nature of the schools.”"
Mr. Davis must have spent his time holed up in the office too afraid to come out. That is a pathetic attempt at covering this up Mr. Davis and Mr. Lasater (side note, Lasater is running for reelection and does not want an out of control discipline problem in his district being used against him, so he is trying to spin, spin, spin).
LHS IS IN A BAD LIGHT THANKS TO HALL’S SELECTION OF A DO-NOTHING PRINCIPAL. People are talking all over town about ways they can get their kids transferred or possibly avoiding having to go there. Building a new school will not stop the violence, only real discipline will stop the violence. Davis, for a former military man, you are nothing but a paper tiger.
“Davis noted that many students are suspended for zero-tolerance acts of violence, such as bringing weapons to school. He cited an instance where a student at Mt. Juliet High School brought a butcher knife and threatened to cut another student, as well as an instance where an LHS student snuck a pistol into school before being reported by another student.”
Great that’s one weapon suspension out of 579 at LHS. Not the problem that Davis is trying to spin it to be. It should have been an automatic expulsion, not suspension, if you want real “zero-tolerance”.
“McNeese expressed concern about not expelling these types of students so the system’s graduation rate aren’t affected, which Davis assured him was not the case.”
Yes, Mr. Davis, this is the case. McNeese is the only sensible Board member at the meeting who saw the real political reason for lack of expulsions of these hoodlums running amok at LHS, threatening to ruin the experience for the majority of good kids there. Kudos to McNeese on this issue. Step up and face reality Mr. Lasater.
Davis and Hall now have an out of control High School (Lebanon) and an out of control K-8 School (north of town) where kids drank vodka on the bus, a substitute taped a 6th graders mouth shut, and teachers were asked to change grades by the administration.
The real question is: When will Davis take steps against those running these out of control schools? The answer is he will not, he is a paper tiger.
To involve the Sheriff Department in all of this, we must ask: “Why is the School Resource Officer at LHS ineffective in dealing with the kids to prevent this violence? Maybe Ashe needs to step in to save the School Board from itself??? Please Sheriff Ashe, we implore you to intervene and save our kids since the School Board is spinning out of control on the issue.
We are watching.
