Are some charter schools preparing black boys for prison?

Democracy Prep Charter Middle School in Harlem was an attractive choice when I was searching for school for my son about a year ago. Having just moved from Brooklyn where I’ve lived for over 20 years. I was rudely awakened by the shortage of good middle schools in the Harlem area and particularly in district 15. A friend of mine informed me of Democracy Prep and I went to the open house and decided that it sounds like a good fit for my son. I remembered sitting in the orientation session and marveling at the no nonsense and sound academic model presentation. For a starter I like the idea that students have to wear a uniform and that accessories and other distracting personal effects are not allowed. Scholars must abide by school rules and orderliness and so on. I particularly fell in love with their reading marathon program called  “word count ” where scholars are  rewarded based on how many words they read per month. I love reading and I taught it’d be huge incentive for my son who loves to write but a little lazy when it comes to reading. Fast forward, the first trimester was like Xmas, My son got mostly A and Bt and everyone was happy including the school of course. But as the second trimester begun in January I noticed that he started to complain about how he doesn’t fit in with the kids and how they used bad languages – and how they don’t like him because he’s different and so on. Yes, he’s different in the sense of not being street smart. He was never allowed to venture out by himself because I was a little too paranoid about him traveling alone. Not to mention that he’s sort of an absent minded professor. But academically, he’s very smart. So in my view, I believe his behavior started to change somewhat because he was trying to fit in. I now know first hand what peer pressure means. I started to notice frequent behavioral comments on his weekly progress report. I evetually learned that those comments adds up  to detention, then interrogation (called reflection) and then suspension. I went to a colonial boarding school in Nigeria and when you get suspended it meant your have committed a serious crime – like skipping school for days, stealing, falsifying your report card, cheating on exams, having boys over in your dormitory etc. So when my son told me he’s been suspended, I was outraged. So I demanded to meet with the principal immediately. She explained that once a scholar is sent out twice in one day, he/she will be automatically suspended. I was really shocked to hear this so I asked why was my son sent out at all? And I found out a the litany of allegations – called deductions, detentions, interrogations – called reflections, then suspension. I couldn’t believe the extreme disciplinary system – that resembles a police station where offenders are booked and then jailed. But in this situation, scholars are suspended. I was flabbergasted and my journalistic instinct was automatically activated telling me there’s something worth investigating. So I  decided to take advantage of the open door policy and started showing up unannounced to observe the classes in session to find out what rules my son is breaking that’s resulting in being send out almost daily and led to three suspensions in three months. On my first visit I was struck by the robotic and monotony style of teaching whereby teachers are programmed to literally clock every second of the lecture through a count down, while simultaneously monitoring every movement and body language of the scholars. And the scholars respond in non- verbal slew of what seem like a sign language – spirit fingers meaning show of support, brain match means I agree with you, track your speaker means focusing on who’s talking – pound it out means you answer the question correctly and so on. So now I understand fully well why my twelve year old who is very creative and loves to be in motion would feel like he’s in prison having to endure ten hours of these monotonous daily routine – without any sports activities or recess and lunch breaks of 15-20 minutes in the same classroom. I don’t know many adults who would survive the same condition daily.  I sat in about about fifteen sessions and observed my son and the other scholars. Yes some of the scholars were very quite and not interactive, and yes some including my son were somewhat restless after a while.  I know for sure that the latter category – in which my son belongs were very interactive, usually enthusiastic and tended to raise their hands all the time to answer a question. In all fairness and sincerity, about twenty five present of the class have similar personality as my son. The endless list of actions that gets scholars railroaded into detention and ultimately suspension are “not spontaneous on queue, clapping three times instead of twice as prompted, slouching over the desk, looking back at another student, talking, mumbling to yourself, fake coughing or sneezing, asking to go to the rest room, raising your hands too long, clearing your throat or if you dare breath too hard. I found this preposterous. So the process of elimination automatically follows in a robotic manner by the teacher announcing – “that’s one” meaning a deduction, then if a scholar says what did I do, “that’s two”, calls out the teacher. The third deductions is automatic send out to “COLUMBIA” the detention room managed by two African-America male coaches. And by the way all the teachers are white and from out of state but they school’s administrators managed to get two coaches that are African-American from the New York City area. Is there something wrong with that picture? Yes, in my opinion. Now in “COLUMBIA” the detention room, the coaches who are more like interrogating officers hand the scholars a three to five page packet called a reflection packet, asking the scholars to give an account of the incident that led to being sent out. This is where I take serious issues with the disciplinary structure at Democracy Prep. In most cases scholars are held for hours and not allowed back in class for the rest of the day. if their account of the incidents differ from that of the teachers who sent them out. Herein lies my sons faith. He always argues  that he was treated unfairly, and most of the time his account the crime he’s been charged with always differ from the teachers. So he wound up being held in detention for hours and misses an average of five hours of classwork a week. And his homework begins to accumulate and become overwhelming. So it’s virtually impossible to catch up with hours of class assignments for which he did not attend the classes and have to take the best guess, and piles of homework that normally takes three hours per night. He now spends endless hours catching up, not getting enough sleep at night and his grades are sliding. It is a vicious cycle that has to stop. And not just for him but for over fifty or more scholars who have been labeled “bad kids”.

 In my investigation, which entails hours of playing mom-detective/social worker, about three hours on average week spent at the school and combing through forty pages of documents that I demanded by force from the detention coaches/officers, about seventy five -sometime contentious- email exchanges between the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal and me. I then discovered that one particular teacher – my son’s writing teacher was responsible  for most of the sent-outs that had resulted in suspension. I had previously noticed a pattern of disciplinary excessiveness in her comments on the weekly progress reports and have raised numerous concerns about what I deemed an abuse of authority but the principal and the assistant principal defended her fiercely. This particular teacher continued to find a litany of reasons to send my son out of her class daily railroading him into detention knowing for sure that, that would lead to suspension. She has succeeded in stigmatizing him and that had led to being teased by some of his classmates and other students.  My son now suffers anxiety and have nightmares. Some of the  current writings in his journal reflects the covert psychological abuse that he’s had to endure up until present.  To stop the abuse I recently demanded that my son be taking out the writing class taught by the particular teacher but the school adamantly refused. When I informed them of all the evidence that I’ve gathered to formally address this issue they began to coach other teachers to make a case against my son. In the recent calculative approach to build a case against my son, they directed all his teachers to place a camera in all the classes he attend and one of the teachers videotaped during the lunch hour early this week. First, I believe they have broken the law by videotaping my son – a minor- without my consent, second I believe this is a careless action on their part to intimidate, harass and further traumatized a twelve year old whose passion is to go to school, work hard and become a roboticist.