I almost didn’t notice the piles of dirt that now represent the future of our high school, the demolition site that has been twenty years in the making. A lot can happen in the two years it is supposed to take for that building to be completed. But the dirt and the rubble are an encouraging sight.
Half of the teachers at our school weren’t with us the year that was very nearly our last. None of our students were. Neither was our principal.
It was five years ago and perhaps it’s time to forget the whole thing—but I’m not going to.
Somehow it doesn’t seem right. The students—and to some extent, their parents, and perhaps also some of us on the faculty and our principal at the time Pam Jackson—kept this school open. If they (if we) hadn’t, there wouldn’t be a pile of dirt and a set of fancy blue prints for us now.
Welcome to the Twilight Zone of education: South Central Los Angeles—where the official dropout rate is fifty percent and the actual one is near seventy percent; where matriculation to college is talked about constantly but achieved rarely because many students cannot, on their first try, pass a high school exit exam that could more accurately be given as a high school entrance test; where a lunchtime dance or a pep rally or a cultural celebration can turn suddenly into a race riot; where school colors and gang colors are the same; where actual lockdowns happen more often than lockdown drills; where drug dealers sometimes show up for career day just to “keep it real;” where it is not uncommon for twenty percent of a school’s teachers to be out on stress leave at any given time, and for corruption on all levels to be rampant and unchecked.
So what happens to a high school that graduates more than ninety-five percent of its students, most of whom go on to universities and do not engage in ethnic violence or gang banging, and whose state test scores far outpace the surrounding neighborhood high schools, the district as a whole, and even the state and national averages? What happens to a school like this?
It gets closed down, of course...
…almost.
Hey Strauss! I just got chills as I read this post. I'm so glad that Middle Collge HS will finally (hopefully) get the school they/we have always deserved, for the prospective students that will attend. They will not have to worry about protesting, being bused to an abandoned elementary school near LAX, or have to smell the fumes of the cars that speed by on the 105 fwy. Glad to have you back in the blogging world. I haven't seen your posts since "larrystraussonline." Keep us updated.
ReplyDeleteLizeth Guevara
Wow Strauss! You have trully captured everything we had to go through since '04. I remember the protests were the police came and threatened to give us tickets. Walking out of homeroom to go protest during school hours and getting in trouble for it. Playing like little kids on the slides at 98th Street Middle College Elementary School. Having to breathe in all the toxic, vehicle pollutants from the 105 fwy traffic. All these struggles have been worth it just to keep our beautiful (not at first look, but through all the experiences) school open. So the Roa legacy can keep going and so others can experience all the opportunities MCHS has to offer to persevering students. Thank you Strauss for reminding us of these struggles!
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