Tiffany Wright's "Suspected" Killer Still In Jail, He Did It...Dead Children Can't Speak

Expected warrant keeps Mitchell in jail


Though state sex charges have been dropped against him, Royce Mitchell may not get out of jail anytime soon.

Federal authorities have placed a detainer on Mitchell and say they plan to serve a warrant, accusing him of violating terms of his release from prison in 2007. Mitchell has been under federal supervision for two years, after serving time on drug-related charges in a New York case.

Mitchell was accused last month in Charlotte of committing statutory rape with his adopted sister, 15-year-old Tiffany Wright. The pregnant teen was fatally shot Sept. 14 as she waited for her school bus. Doctors were able to deliver her baby, but the infant later died.

Mitchell, 36, was named by police as a "person of interest" in Tiffany's homicide. He turned himself in and was jailed on charges of statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Tiffany was the victim.

The sex-related charges were dropped Thursday after a DNA test showed Mitchell was not the father of Tiffany's baby. And with Tiffany dead, her statements to a detective that she had sex with Mitchell twice would not hold up in court, said District Attorney Peter Gilchrist.

A federal judge must now decide if Mitchell has violated terms of his post-supervision release agreement, which requires him to have a job, visit with a federal officer and stay out of trouble. The burden of proof is lower than in criminal court, said Greg Forest, chief of the federal probation office in Charlotte.

Jurisdiction over Mitchell's federal case was recently transferred from New York state to Charlotte, so Mitchell will likely face a federal judge here.

Mitchell remained in the Mecklenburg jail late Friday. Police say he also remains a "person of interest" in Tiffany's killing.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Charmeckda.com, Google Maps

"Why Do People Hate You?"...Boy Questions Pres. Obama

Fourth Grader Asks Pres. Obama: "Why Do People Hate You?"


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While much of America had its eyes skyward, tracking what was thought to be a boy in a run-away balloon, President Obama was dealing with another boy very much on the ground.

"Why do people hate you?" asked 4th-grader Terence Scott, posing the final question at the president's Town Hall Meeting yesterday afternoon at the University of New Orleans.

The youngster seemed earnest and genuinely distressed about harsh words he's heard people direct at the 44th President.

"They supposed to love you," said the youngster, "and God is love."

"That's what I'm talking about," said the president, grateful for words of kindness and support. He was on a trip to explain why it took him nine months to make his first visit as president to a city still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Mr. Obama tried to reassure the kid that it's not as bad as he thinks.

"First of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now," he told the 4th grader. But he conceded that "if you're watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time."

"You've got to take it with a grain of salt," the president explained. "Some of it is just what's called politics."

How do you explain hardball politics to a 4th grader?

"Once one party wins," said the president, struggling to find the right words, "then the other party kind of gets – feels like it needs to poke you a little bit to keep you on your toes."

Poke you a little bit? Is that what his political critics and opponents are doing?

"You shouldn't take it too seriously," was Mr. Obama's bottom line advice to the youngster.

He said a lot of people are losing their jobs or health care or homes to foreclosure. "They're feeling frustrated," he said, sounding as though he could forgive them for their bitter words and criticism.

And as president, he conceded he gets some credit when things go well and some of the blame when they don't. "That part of the job," he explained.

"So you've just got to keep on going even when folks are criticizing you," he said.

And after all, said the president, "I'm a pretty tough guy."

"Are you a tough guy?" he asked his 4th grade questioner. The kid seemed to accept the explanation as he got another hug from the president.

If nothing else, the youngster got a great story to write about in his next composition.



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Sources: CBS News, NY Daily News, Google Maps

Charlotte-Meck. DA's Office Rarely Prosecutes Killers Of Black Youth...Federal Probe Needed

(Chicago teens charged with murder of honor student. Four teens were charged with first-degree murder in the brutal beating death of a Chicago high school student that was caught on videotape. NBC's Robert Stafford reports.)

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(An Apopka, Fla., teenager is shot four times after he was caught having sex with the shooter's daughter, police say. WESH-TV's Craig Lucie reports.)

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Sex charges dropped in Charlotte bus-stop slaying

Prosecutors dropped a statutory rape charge against a Charlotte man accused of having sex with his pregnant, adoptive sister who was shot to death while waiting for her school bus.

The Charlotte Observer reported that Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said Thursday he had no case to base allegations that Royce Mitchell, 36, had sex with Tiffany Wright, 15.. The prosecutor said DNA tests showed Mitchell was not the father of Tiffany's baby.

Gilchrist says there was no other evidence to support the charge without Tiffany alive to testify about sexual contact with her adoptive brother.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police issued a statement criticizing the prosecutor's decision, saying they believe the have gathered enough evidence to prove probable cause.

Police call Mitchell "a person of interest" in 15-year-old Tiffany's killing on Sept. 14 but have not charged him.




Suspect in pregnant teen's death to lose Probation

Federal prosecutors are preparing documents to revoke Royce Mitchell's probation, which means he'll stay in the Mecklenburg jail until state charges of raping his 15-year-old adopted sister are dealt with, authorities said.

Mitchell, 36, is listed as a person of interest in the death of Tiffany Wright, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot in the head at a school bus stop Monday morning.

Her baby was successfully delivered at Carolinas Medical Center later that day, but the hospital has stopped releasing information about the infant.

After the shooting, Mitchell was charged with statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a minor.

Those charges constitute probation violations, and a Federal warrant is being prepared in New York that “will keep him from getting out of jail,” said Greg Forest, chief of the Federal probation office in Charlotte.

He was imprisoned on a drug-trafficking charge in New York in 1999. He was released in April 2007 and sentenced to four years' probation, Forest said.

Mitchell has a bond hearing scheduled for Sept. 25 on the Charlotte rape charges.

The announcement by Federal Prosecutors came on the same day that Charlotte officials fired Mitchell from his job in the street maintenance department.

Mitchell had worked for the city since 2007 and earned $25,808 a year.

City officials said that their background checks didn't catch his previous criminal convictions.

Kim McMillan of the City of Charlotte said that “after administrative review, the City of Charlotte has terminated the employment of Royce Mitchell for falsifying his employment application, which is in violation of city policy.”

McMillan did not say in what way Mitchell falsified his application. But city officials said Wednesday that as a result of the Mitchell case, they plan to expand background checks to include a search of federal offenses around the country.

Until now, the city's background checks have included local and state records, and Federal records in the Justice Department's Western North Carolina District.




Statement From District Attorney Peter Gilchrist: "No charges will be filed in Marcus Fluker's Death"

Here is the statement released today by District Attorney Peter Gilchrist in the shooting death of Marcus Fluker:

"THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE HAS DECIDED THAT NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED AGAINST C.L. MCCLURE IN THE SHOOTING DEATH OF MARCUS FLUKER

The investigation into the shooting death of Marcus Fluker by Mr. C.L. McClure has been completed and turned over to the District Attorney’s Office. The investigating officers utilized a procedure established by this office which allows departments to request that we make the charging decision. This procedure can be followed when investigation indicates probable cause to arrest is present but officers have questions and request we review the evidence they have gathered in order to determine whether charges should be brought.

On August 22, 2009, 76 year old C.L. McClure was sitting in his basement room cooling off after cutting his yard. At approximately 12:30 in the afternoon, he saw a young black male walk past the door of this room. He thought it was his grandson coming by to see him. When he didn’t come into the room, Mr. McClure walked to the door to see what he was doing. He was greeted by a young man with his face covered and armed with a weapon.

Mr. McClure was told to get on the ground. He was duct taped and robbed of cash and jewelry. Another man entered into the basement as well. Mr. McClure was asked who and what was in the main house. Mr. McClure told them his wife was upstairs and to please not hurt her. One man left the other stayed. Mr. McClure’s wife was also a victim of this home invasion when they entered the home and took items from there as well.

After a brief period, the other man left and Mr. McClure got off the ground, retrieved a gun he had in the basement, and went to check on his wife. He saw a number of young men running from his house into the woods. From previous break-ins at his residence he believed that the robbers were running to a vehicle on the other side of the woods. His wife told him she was okay and he got into his vehicle. His intention at that time was to get to their car before they did and to shoot out the tires to immobilize their car until the police arrived.

As Mr. McClure approached the area where he thought a car might be parked, there was no car, and instead he saw all the young men running towards him. At this point he fired a shot in the air in an attempt to scatter them away from him and his vehicle and back into the woods. Instead, they kept running towards him. Some passed in front of his car and some behind.

As Marcus Fluker passed his car he began to turn towards Mr. McClure. McClure, an Army veteran, had identified the weapon pointed at him at his house as some type of automatic weapon. When Fluker turned towards him he thought he was about to get “sprayed” by fire from this automatic weapon. He fired at him. McClure did not know if he struck him because Mr. Fluker turned back around and continued to run. At this point, McClure no longer felt in danger and did not fire his weapon again.

After the police arrived they went with Mr. McClure into the apartment complex where the individuals had been last scene. At this point, it was learned that Marcus Fluker had been struck by a single gunshot wound. At the place where he was found there was no gun. This location was not secure until the police arrived.

The investigation of this case recovered two firearms taken from Mr. McClure’s home and it is clear that Mr. Fluker was one of the individuals involved in the home invasion robbery. As a result of these events, Mr. McClure’s 70 year old wife suffered a heart attack.

In making a decision as to whether to charge Mr. McClure in this case, the District Attorney’s Office has considered all of the above facts as well as the law of self defense.

The only eyewitness to this shooting is Mr. McClure. The physical evidence corroborates what he told detectives. His idea to find the vehicle and try to delay the escape of those who invaded his home did not make him the aggressor nor did that take away his right of self defense.

Mr. McClure believed that his life was in danger and fired in self-defense. It is the burden of the State in a criminal case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a charged individual did not act in self defense. The State cannot meet that burden in this case as it appears from all the credible evidence that Mr. McClure feared for his life."



An understandable, but wrong, response


Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist will have to decide what charges to file, if any, against C.L. McClure in the shooting of a 15-year-old robbery suspect. But in a case being portrayed as complicated, one fundamental seems uncomplicated to us: you can't just track a boy down on the streets and shoot him dead because you think he helped rob you earlier.

We're sympathetic to McClure. His son says he and his wife were tied up and robbed in their home by four suspects. The fear and anger they must have felt are unimaginable. It's understandable that McClure would want revenge. And if McClure had shot one of the intruders in his home during the course of the crime, he would be much easier to defend.

But McClure, according to his son, Larry, jumped in his van and raced after the robbers after they had left. He caught up with them not far from his house and, his son says, fired the shots that killed Marcus Antonio Steven Fluker, 15.

We detest the actions of Fluker and the three other suspects who police say invaded McClure's home. But robbery is not an offense punishable by death. And as veteran criminal defense lawyer George Laughrun said, “Even if they were threatened, or felt threatened, you still can't walk down the street like in the Old West and take care of justice yourself.” Laughrun said a jury would have to decide “did someone have the right to be judge, jury and executioner?”

No one has that right unless they are acting to protect their own life. McClure's son said McClure believed he was in imminent danger, and he may well have felt that way. But the robbery was over. At that point, McClure should have called police, not taken matters into his own hands. If this model is followed, how long will it be before a robbery victim, seeking revenge, shoots an innocent person on the street?

Our justice system doesn't always work as well as we would like. It's reasonable to think in a situation like this that police might arrive too late to apprehend the suspects (though they did make three arrests in this case). Given our clogged prisons and flawed court system, any punishment is uncertain.

But the alternative – in which each of us can just mete out vigilante justice as we please – is a slippery slope. It might feel good in theory but in fact would make this community more dangerous.



City of Charlotte reaches Settlement in teen's Taser death

The City of Charlotte settled with the family of a 17-year-old who died in March 2008 after being shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer with a Taser, according to an attorney representing the family.

The out-of-court agreement was announced Tuesday by attorney Ken Harris, who represented the family of Darryl Turner in a suit against the city.

Harris said he expects other litigation in the case, however.

Turner died March 20, 2008, after a confrontation with police at a north Charlotte grocery store where Turner had worked.

The officer who fired the Taser was not charged, but he was disciplined by police.

Police later determined that Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. violated department policy with the way he shocked Turner with the Taser gun. An autopsy showed the teenager's heart was pumping so fast and chaotically from the stress of the confrontation and the Taser shot that it stopped pumping blood properly.

Dawson was suspended for five days without pay in July 2008.

In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Harris did not disclose the amount of the settlement but described it as “very substantial.”

City legal officials could not be reached.

While saying the settlement closes the case against the city, Harris said the matter probably is not closed.

“This is a tragedy that Darryl's relatives hope will never be visited upon another family,” he said. “In light of that perspective, I must note that there will likely be litigation in this matter concerning other parties.”

Harris did not specify who else might be a subject of litigation by Turner's family.

The Taser is a weapon that typically uses compressed nitrogen to shoot two tethered needle-like probes that penetrate skin and deliver an electric shock. It is designed to subdue a person temporarily.

The incident which led to Turner's death happened at a Food Lion store on Properity Church Road. According to court documents, police were called after the store manager asked Turner to leave and he refused. Store surveillance video showed Turner at the customer service desk, knocking over a display and throwing an umbrella. He then moved closer to a store manager and employee, at one point raising his arm and pointing at the manager.

The video then showed Dawson walking through the front door, carrying what appears to be his Taser. Dawson approached Turner with the Taser pointed at him. Turner took a step toward the officer, then continued to walk past him.

It was unclear from the video when Turner was shocked, but police said it happened as Turner stepped toward the officer.

In an investigation which followed the incident, police determined that Dawson held the trigger of the Taser for 37 seconds, until Turner fell. The officer later shocked Turner a second time, for five seconds. According to the CMPD report on the incident, a review board “determined that rthe initial decision to discharge the Taser was within our procedures, but the prolonged use of the Taser was not.”

In addition to the suspension, Dawson also was given additional training on proper use of the Taser.

In the statement announcing the settlement, Harris praised city officials for “their thorough investigation of this matter” and for the city's “openness throughout the process.”



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Sources: WRAL, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, MSNBC, WCNC, US Dept of Justice, Charmeck.org, MTV Videos, Creepygif.com, Charmeckda.com, Youtube, Google Maps

NC Parents In Uproar Over Pres Obama's Ed. Speech, Quiet About Failing Schools...Racism & Ignorance

News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, Whitehouse.gov----

(Many parents are in an uproar over Pres. Obama's upcoming school speech to America's students, however none of them have said a thing about America's failing public schools or our country's high drop-out rate.)

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(Republican Jim Greer speaks out about Pres. Obama's speech to students scheduled to be delivered nationwide next Tuesday.)

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(PSAs for Pres. Obama's upcoming School Speech to Students.)







Ire, accolades precede speech to kids

A Presidential Speech urging students to take responsibility for their own academic success is turning into a political flashpoint in Charlotte and the nation.

At issue: President Obama's 15-minute address to students at noon next Tuesday – and the U.S. Department of Education's detailed instructions on how to prepare students for it.

Some see it as an attempt to force government in general and Obama's beliefs in particular into the minds of kids. They're especially outraged by activity guides that suggest students discuss such questions as “What is President Obama inspiring you to do?”

“I am simply basing my opinion on what Pres. Obama has done thus far in his presidency, appointing czars with communist and socialist ties and speaking out against America and our founding fathers,” Hildi Chinigo of

Matthews wrote in an e-mail to the Observer.

Others see something to celebrate: “I think it is wonderful that the President is going to speak to schoolchildren,” wrote Maddy Baer of Charlotte. “Whether or not you voted for him or support particular policies, he is a role model of achievement for all young people.”

And still others are aghast at how much adult political bitterness is spilling onto a classroom event.

“Gracious, how deeply can this culture divide itself and still hold as a nation?” wrote Tish Signet of Mooresville.

As national bloggers and talk shows urged parents to keep their kids out of school, school districts around the region reassured families that no student would be forced to watch the speech.

All Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will show it, but parents can request that their kids not participate, said spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry, who said central offices have been bombarded with calls and e-mails.

“This is more of an opt-out thing. We're encouraging participation,” she said.

Officials in Cabarrus, Union and York County, S.C., also said student participation is optional and teachers have discretion about how to work it into lessons.

Some districts say no

Faced with criticism from GOP lawmakers and regular citizens, districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students.

White House officials agreed Thursday to post the speech online Monday so teachers and parents can be prepared. They also revised study guides that were “inartfully worded” – rewriting, for example, a line that suggested students “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”

But White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom stood by the overall approach: “It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously.”

She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.

At South Charlotte Middle, Principal Christine Waggoner said she's trying to avoid letting political conflict create student drama. She notified parents in her electronic newsletter that students who want to opt out should privately tell their homeroom teacher. Those students will go somewhere else during the speech. For instance, she said, eighth-graders will watch in the cafeteria during their normal lunch time; students who aren't watching can eat in the courtyard.

She said teachers have the Department of Education activity sheets, but it's up to them to create lessons. For instance, a weekly career-education class will probably focus on goal-setting. “Everybody can set goals,” Waggoner said. “I don't think they need to listen to a speech.”

Politics and the classroom

Obama will speak at a high school in Arlington, Va., on a day that's the first day of school in some states (Carolinas kids started last month). The speech will air live on C-SPAN and videostream on the White House Web site.

As the White House site describes it, “the President will talk directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed.” White House officials said Thursday they'll post the remarks Monday at www.white house.gov , allowing schools and parents to be prepared.

Bloggers, politicians and talk-show hosts seized on the speech and the Education Department's push to get schools to participate, getting the word out even before education officials had sent out news releases.

Florida's Republican Party chair, Jim Greer, issued a statement saying “President Obama has turned to American's children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American's youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves.”

N.C. GOP chair Tom Fetzer joined in with a different tack: “This speech is clearly political in nature and has no place in the classroom. Our focus should be improving our students' test scores, not the President's approval rating.”

Tammy Bruce, a Los Angeles-based conservative talk-show host, posted on Twitter that Sept. 8 should be “skip day,” adding that “parents are the moral tutors of their children, not a lawyer from Chicago sitting in the WH.”

In Charlotte, talk show host Tara Servatius brought up the topic on WBT radio, complete with an online poll on whether listeners would let their kids participate.

A moment for teaching

Ken Gjertsen, a school board member and CMS parent, said he had several e-mails from upset parents Wednesday. He said he understands concerns about whether the speech will be political and disrupt classroom time, but he won't keep his children away.

“It's a president of the United States who is deserving of respect, and if we can instill that in our schoolkids, that's a good thing,” Gjertsen said. But he added that it might have been smarter to schedule the speech in the evening, when children and parents could watch and discuss it together.

Amy Farrell, executive director of Kids Voting, applauded the chance for students to hear the president speak in language aimed at them, in a classroom setting.

“I would like to see this become an annual trend. It would be a neat thing for students to look forward to,” she said.

Farrell, whose nonprofit group promotes civic education, urged parents to seize the moment for a lesson: “Part of civic dialogue is there are going to be people you don't agree with. We need to teach students not to just yell at them or not go to school.”



President's talk alarms Parents

President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a speech to public school students Tuesday has sparked a revolt among Conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.

The uproar over the speech, in which Obama intends to urge students to work hard and stay in school, has been particularly acute in Texas, where several major school districts, under pressure from parents, have laid plans to let children opt out of lending the president an ear.

Some parents said they were concerned because the speech had not been screened for political content. Nor, they said, had it been reviewed by the state Board of Education and local school boards, which, under state law, must approve the curriculum.

"The thing that concerned me most about it was it seemed like a direct channel from the president of the United States into the classroom, to my child," said Brett Curtiss, an engineer from Pearland, Texas, who said he would keep his three children home. "I don't want our schools turned over to some socialist movement."

The White House has said the speech will stress the importance of education and hard work in school, both to the individual and to the nation. The message is neither partisan nor compulsory, officials said.

"This isn't a policy speech," said Sandra Abrevaya, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education. "It's designed to encourage kids to stay in school. The choice on whether to show the speech to students is entirely in the hands of each school. This is absolutely voluntary."

Obama's speech was announced weeks ago, but the furor among conservatives reached a fever pitch Wednesday morning as right-wing Web sites and talk show hosts began inveighing against it.

Mark Steyn, a Canadian author and political commentator, speaking on Rush Limbaugh's radio show on Wednesday, accused Obama of trying to create a cult of personality, comparing him with Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.

The Republican Party chairman in Florida, Jim Greer, said he "was appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."

And Chris Stigall, a Kansas City talk show host, said, "I'm not letting my next-door neighbor talk to my kid alone; I'm sure as hell not letting Barack Obama talk to him alone."

Previous presidents have visited public schools to speak directly to students, although few of those events have been broadcast live. Obama's address at noon, Eastern time, at a high school in Virginia will be streamed live on the White House Web site.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, made a similar nationally broadcast speech from a Washington high school, urging students to study hard, avoid drugs and to ignore peers "who think it's not cool to be smart." Democrats in Congress accused him of using taxpayer money -- $27,000 to produce the broadcast -- for "paid political advertising."

Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, said many of his members feel the controversy has put them in an awkward situation, vulnerable to attacks from conservative talk-show hosts if they open up instructional time for Obama's speech, and open to accusations that they have disrespected the president if they do not. "It's one of those no-wins," Garrett said.

In Texas, calls and e-mail messages flooded into the offices of many local school officials. "I didn't get a positive call all day," said Susan Dacus, a spokesman for the Wylie Independent School District outside Dallas.

School officials in Wylie decided to record the speech, review it and then let individual teachers show it, offering students the opportunity to avoid listening if they wished.

In Houston, teachers have been asked to tell parents if they intend to show the speech. The schools will provide an alternative class for those whose parents object, said a spokesman for the district, Lee Vela.

Some Houston parents, however, said telling children they should not hear out the president of the United States, even if their parents dislike his policies, sends the wrong message -- that one should not listen to someone with whom you disagree.

"It's difficult for me to understand how listening to the president, the commander in chief, the chief citizen of this country, is damaging to the youth of today," said Phyllis Griffin Epps, an analyst for the city who has two children in public school.



Three schools still Low-Performing

Intensive state coaching has done little to help improve student performance at three Durham high schools where students have a history of poor test scores.

So state officials said Thursday that they will step up their efforts to help Hillside, Northern and Southern high schools do a better job of educating students.

"When progress doesn't occur, there's an individual story about why it doesn't," Pat Ashley, a state education official, told the State Board of Education on Thursday. "We'll work with the superintendents and the principals and talk about what needs to happen to make change in those schools."

The three Durham schools -- three-fifths of the county's traditional public high schools -- have received extra attention from the state Department of Public Instruction for the past several years. They were part of a group of 66 high schools in North Carolina where passing rates on state tests fell below 60 percent.

But though 30 of the schools in that group have lifted their test scores above the 60 percent threshhold in the past three years, none of the three Durham schools has cracked the 50 percent mark. Southern High School's scores have gotten worse in three years -- its 32.5 percent passing rate puts it near the bottom of high schools statewide.

Six Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools were in the improvement program. Three have boosted their test scores above 60 percent, enough to no longer need the biweekly visits from coaches who work with principals, teachers and district administrators.

The state effort to assist struggling high schools was supposed to last three years. The push for the effort came from Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr., who has warned since 2004 that high schools were falling short of their constitutional mandate to provide students with equal educational opportunities. He once threatened to close poorly performing high schools unless they made sweeping reforms.

But three years after the effort began, state officials say they will keep sending regular help to 36 high schools across the state. The three Durham schools are in a group of 16 that will be in a stepped-up program of more intensive and individualized aid.

In a way, the schools where fewer than half of the students passed end-of-course tests will start from the beginning, with the state taking a fresh look at what those schools need to improve. The help and advice the state offers will be based on the new assessments.

Durham schools are making progress, said Chris Bennett, assistant superintendent for secondary curriculum and instruction for Durham schools. No one likes passing rates below 50 percent, he said, but students at all three high schools met goals for academic growth last year.

Southern's scores improved even though nearly 350 students left the school for a new public academy focused on health-care careers, he said. Southern wasn't able to benefit from the scores of high-performing students who transferred to the new school.

Teachers put a lot of effort into students' academic growth, Bennett said, and those gains will eventually lead to more students passing end-of-course tests, he said.

"We are very, very involved with working with those high schools to make growth and assist those students," Bennett said. "My curriculum team is constantly in the schools. The teachers are delivering that instruction to students. We've had a couple of leadership changes. I think we are starting to see these schools turn around."

State education leaders often say that turnover in the principal's office can result in low test scores, and Hillside and Southern have a history of losing principals.

Hillside's principal, Hans Lassiter, started work there last month. He replaced a principal who resigned after three years at the school.

Kenneth Barnes has been the principal at Southern since May 2008. He replaced a principal who'd been at the school four years.

Problems start long before high school, said board chairman Minnie Forte-Brown: Some students showing up not prepared for the work. But she sees improvement, with all three schools' passing rates improving last year over the year before.

"There's no doubt in my mind that those schools are turning the corner," she said.

Trilby McClammy, Durham's PTA president, doesn't buy the notion that principals bear much of the responsibility for low test scores. Many factors go into student achievement, she said, including good teachers, parent involvement and student responsibility, she said.

"The principals don't take the tests," she said. "The students take the tests."



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Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Charlotte Observer, News & Observer, Creepygif.com, Google Maps

2 NC Public Schools Could Receive Federal "Persistently Dangerous" Label...Student Assignment, Equal Education Watch

News & Observer, Charlotte Observer----

Incidents may lead to Federal label of "Persistently Dangerous" for 2 NC Schools


Assaults at two NC schools for Special-Education students, Longview in Raleigh and Metro in Charlotte, have put the schools at risk of being labeled "Persistently Dangerous."

Longview, a school with about 100 students of middle- and high-school age, reported a sexual assault in the past school year. The year before, the school had an assault resulting in serious injury and an assault involving a weapon.

Pamela Jerro, the school's principal, said the assaults involved a student touching a faculty member's breast, a student running into an adult while trying to escape a resource officer, and a student holding a drill bit to another student's face. None of the incidents resulted in criminal charges, she said.

Under Federal Law, a school can be labeled "Persistently Dangerous" if it has too many violent incidents during a two-year period. North Carolina has no schools with the designation. Under the law, students at a persistently dangerous school must be allowed to transfer.

Nearly 80 percent of Longview's students are emotionally disabled, Charlotte Hughes, an administrator with the state Department of Public Instruction, told state education board members Wednesday.

The school has security cameras, small classes, and has adults escort students to the bathroom individually, according to a written report to the board.

Jerro said the school had a good safety record.

"We do everything we can to keep staff and students safe here at Longview," she said in a telephone interview. "I think we do a pretty good job with the population we have."

Metro in Charlotte serves about 200 special-education students. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials declined to comment until the state board's official ruling.

State board member John Tate III said at a committee meeting Wednesday that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman was unhappy that the "persistently dangerous" label could be attached to Metro.

"He's very prideful of the work staff is doing for special populations," Tate said. "This population really needs a lot of TLC."

Department staff recommended that the state board put the schools on probation and have state administrators monitor them this year. But the board will consider exempting Longview, Metro and other small schools for special-education students from the persistently dangerous designation.

"It's unfair that they get on the list," said board Chairman William Harrison.

The states set out the criteria, and in North Carolina a school that has five serious incidents such as murder, rape, or assault per 1,000 students in two consecutive years lands it on an at-risk list. It's up to the state board to decide whether it will call that school persistently dangerous.

Because Longview and Metro are small, one or two reportable incidents can get them flagged, Harrison said. It's important to emphasize safety, Harrison said, but the board needs to find another way to consider the records of special-education schools.


Maryland names "Persistently Dangerous" Schools

Members of the Maryland State Board of Education didn't speak the words "persistently dangerous" at the most recent meeting, but they quietly voted to give the designation to seven more Baltimore City schools. Of the seven, many are being closed.

The schools to get the designation are Canton Middle, Garrison Middle, Hamilton Middle, Dunbar Middle, Samuel L. Banks High, Thurgood Marshall High, and Institute of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Last year, the board agreed that the designation uses criteria that are more stringent than most across the country. For several years, no schools were designated as persistently in many major urban areas in America that have larger school populations that Baltimore.

So this year, the board took action to fullfill its obligation under NCLB but is clearly trying to downplay the action.

The question remains whether the board will have to change its criteria if NCLB is not reworked in the next year or two.



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Sources: News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, Baltimore Sun, US Dept of Ed., Google Maps

NC High School Drop-Out Crisis Cost State Billions While LA High School Grad Rate Up 72.4% ...Learning Communities

Charlotte Observer----

(Drop Out Nation: Trailer)



(Is Year-Round School the answer to fewer High School drop-outs and better grades?)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Schools CEO says that Stimulus Funds have made a huge difference in his district.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Trading Summer Break for better grades.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Keeping College Kids on track.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Economic Stimulus: High School Diplomas

The Alliance for Excellent Education has a new brief out documenting the costs of high school dropouts, and it has some intriguing statistics about the Carolinas. For instance, if the nearly 46,700 students who didn't graduate from N.C. high schools in 2009 had gotten that diploma, the state could have benefitted from more than $12 billion in income they would receive over their lifetime.

Not only that, North Carolina would save more than $491.6 million in health care costs over the lifetimes of each class of dropouts had they earned their diplomas. If North Carolina’s high schools graduated all of their students ready for college, the state would save almost $97.4 million a year in community college remediation costs and lost earnings. Also, North Carolina’s Economy would see a combination of crime-related savings and additional revenue of about $233 million each year if the male high school graduation rate increased by just 5 percent.

South Carolina had fewer dropouts this, about 21,900 students, with lost lifetime earnings of nearly $5.7 billion. But the cost of dropouts is still significant. South Carolina would save more than $320.1 million in health care costs over the lifetimes of each class of dropouts had they earned their diplomas. If South Carolina’s high schools graduated all of their students ready for college, the state would save almost $54.3 million a year in community college remediation costs and lost earnings. And South Carolina’s economy would see a combination of crime-related savings and additional revenue of about $151 million each year if the male high school graduation rate increased by just 5 percent.

“As these findings show, the best economic stimulus is a high school diploma,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “Given the tremendous financial drag these dropouts will have on North Carolina’s economy, it is imperative that the state, as well as the Federal Government, focus attention on students most at risk of dropping out if it is to achieve long-term economic stability. In an Information Age economy, Education is the main currency.”

Nationwide, more than seven thousand students become dropouts every school day. Annually, that adds up to almost 1.3 million students who will not graduate from high school with their peers as scheduled.“Unless America’s high schools significantly improve their graduation rates,” Wise noted, “nearly 13 million students will drop out over the next decade with a massive loss to the nation of $3 trillion.”

Sounds like a wake-up call, doesn't it?

"The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools" is available at http://www.all4ed.org/files/HighCost.pdf. Info about the high school dropout crisis in individual states is at http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis/schools/state_cards.


Dropout rate declines almost 17% in L.A. schools

The dropout rate in the Los Angeles Unified School District declined almost 17% -- welcome news in a school system beleaguered by budget cuts and ongoing battles over future reforms.

The dropout rate for the 2007-08 school year came in at 26.4%, down from 31.7% for the previous year and among the largest improvements in the state. L.A. Unified still trails all other large urban school systems in California except Oakland Unified.

"We're starting to see the results of three years of work," said Debra Duardo, a onetime dropout who began the district's dropout-prevention unit. For one thing, there were 16,000 duplicate student records that, in effect, inflated the dropout rate. More important, school teams better coordinated diffuse services, she said, "to identify students at risk and decide who's working with a student and who's contacting the parents."

District officials also credited the conversion of large high schools into clusters of smaller academies, with the goal of quickly intervening to help students at risk of failure.

At South Gate High School, which has about 3,300 students, the dropout rate fell 1.5 percentage points to 20% while graduation rates jumped nearly 15 points to almost 83%.

Six-year Principal Patrick Moretta, who recently retired, attributed gains to factors including increased teacher support, a mandatory study hall for ninth- and 10th-graders, and diversion of more funding to the classroom. Athletics sometimes had to take a back seat, he said, with practices no longer held during school hours so coaches and students could devote more time to schoolwork.

Overall, the district's graduation rate rose 7.9% to 72.4%.

Both the graduation and dropout rates are approximations. The dropout rate is a four-year estimate based on two years of data that, for the first time, tracks individual students. But it can't tabulate dropouts who are listed as having left a California public school for another school. The graduation rate uses four years of data, but does not yet track individuals. L.A. Unified provided the data in advance of its official state release.

Among the results: Hollywood High cut its dropout rate nearly in half from 36.3% to 18.8%. Birmingham High in the San Fernando Valley increased its graduation rate from 77% to 91.1%. On the other hand, Jefferson High had an improved but still poor graduation rate of 48.6%. Ditto for the Santee Educational Complex, with a dropout rate of 41.2%.

These results burnish the record of former Supt. David L. Brewer, who was forced out in December although test scores rose. Brewer, reached in Orlando, Fla., credited Duardo as well as district principals and teachers who accepted responsibility for taking on the dropout problem.

"I kept telling people we were turning the corner," he said.

Whether these gains will be sustained could depend on how well the school system adjusts to reduced resources in the wake of state budget woes. The number of counselors taking part in the district's Diploma Project, for example, has been cut in half.

"I hope that program survived," Brewer said, "because it really focused on kids."


Urban High School's rare feat: No dropouts!

(Camden, N.J., school built around student's passions, community project)

CAMDEN, N.J. - Angelo Drummond wears a pressed white shirt and a red power tie for his two-hour presentation to his harshest critics — a panel of fellow students at Camden's MetEast High School.

The stocky 17-year-old lays out his intention to study through the summer to bring up his scores on the SAT and New Jersey's high school graduation exam. He also explains his senior-year project to plan a lounge where teenagers can hang out, study and avoid the trouble that snags so many in his city.

His peers tell the junior he needs to get his timeline together to apply for grants for the lounge, that he might need to scale back his ambitions for the project, and that he needs to learn more about how nonprofit organizations get grants.

It's an extraordinary display of wisdom for students in a city where dropout rates are consistently among New Jersey's highest and test scores are among the lowest.

Neither is the case at MetEast, which graduated its first class of seniors on Friday.

It opened in 2005 as a laboratory for education in a city where the schools are part of an entanglement of problems.

It's one of about 60 schools nationwide established with the help of Big Picture Learning, a nonprofit with offices in San Diego and Providence, R.I. Three Big Picture schools are scheduled to open in Newark this fall.

Advisers not teachers

The schools are small and very different from traditional schools. MetEast has just over 100 students — less than one-tenth the enrollment at each of the city's comprehensive high schools. The educators are called "advisers," not teachers, and they advise the same group of students all four years.

Classes are built around the idea that students will learn by following their passions. Students do internships. Graduation requirements include a senior project with the aim of doing some good for the community.

And four times a year, every student makes a presentation to a panel that includes students and adults from outside the school.

That's what put a confident Angelo Drummond put behind a lectern, explaining how he's come to know himself better by studying daily for the SAT. "This is something I'm very proud of because I've never stuck with something," he says.

Besides talking about their progress, the students also must moderate a discussion of a topic they chose. Drummond's topic is a gang shooting that happened days earlier in Trenton.

It's not esoteric for the audience. Drummond's peers talk about the gang members they know.

"Our students have the same issues, dilemmas and challenges as students at the larger high schools," says principal Timothy Jenkins. The graduating class includes students who became pregnant or homeless but still made it through school.

All 30 students who began as freshman at MetEast four years ago have graduated from high school somewhere, including a handful that have moved or transferred, Jenkins says.

That's a contrast to what happens in the city's two traditional high schools.

According to state Education Department figures, nearly 1 in 7 Camden High students dropped out in the 2007-08 school year. At Woodrow Wilson High, it was almost 1 in 11. Critics say those dropout rates are understated, but still, both schools were among the 20 in the state with the highest dropout rates.

All 28 students graduating from MetEast have been accepted to at least one college. Jenkins expects most of them to attend in the fall.

Learning Communities

Denasia Mixson, for example, plans to study criminal justice at Rowan University. She says she wanted to be a teacher until an internship in education soured her on the idea. Then, she interned in law enforcement, which made her want to become a homicide detective in her hometown.

Her big senior research paper is on what went wrong in the city that was once a major manufacturing hub. Her theory: the long industrial decline over the last several decades, along with the arrival of crack dealing in the 1980s.

The people who study Camden believe a major turnaround is possible only by improving the schools.

To accomplish that, the school district — like many across the country — is focusing on building small "learning communities" by breaking up bigger institutions. The Big Picture schools are a radical version of that.

In Camden, there's evidence that the concept is working.

The city's two magnet schools — one focuses on health careers, the other on the arts — have strong records.

But MetEast is different because its curriculum is further from the traditional and because it's not a magnet school.

And unlike charter schools that have sprung up in Camden during the last decade, MetEast is run by the city's school district.

Potential Model

Students don't need to meet any academic standards to get in, though they and their families do have to commit to follow the unusual model. Spots are filled through a lottery.

The school district sees MetEast as a model.

"They would not have thrived in the comprehensive high schools," says school district spokesman Bart Leff. "But they are thriving at MetEast."

During Drummond's presentation, adviser Keinan Thompson congratulates him for starting to take school seriously.

And Heidi Segall Levy, a project manager at Philadelphia's Community Design Collaborative, where Drummond is interning, says she'll work with him to focus his ideas for the teen lounge.

But it's the assessment from Mixson, the aspiring detective, that impresses Drummond. "You did a good job," she tells him. "You surprised me."

"It surprises me that you said that," he says, beaming.


High School Dropout Crisis Threatens U.S. Economic Growth and Competiveness, Witnesses Tell House Panel

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. high school dropout crisis poses one of the greatest threats to the nation’s economic growth and competitiveness and must be addressed, witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee today. Witnesses urged Congress to explore legislative solutions as quickly as possible.

“The crisis we’re seeing in our nation’s high schools is real, it’s urgent, and it must be fixed,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the committee. “It’s become increasingly clear that addressing this dropout crisis is one of the most important things we can do to turn our economy around and regain our competitive footing for good. We have a moral and economic obligation to ensure that, at a minimum, every student in this country can graduate high school prepared to succeed in college or the workforce. Our intent is to address this problem in this Congress in the most comprehensive way possible.”

Nationwide, 7,000 students drop out every day and only about 70 percent of students graduate from high school with a regular high school diploma. Two thousand high schools in the U.S. produce more than half of all dropouts and a recent study suggests that in the 50 largest cities, only 53 percent of students graduate on time. Research shows that poor and minority children attend these so-called “dropout factories” – the 2,000 schools that produce more than 50 percent of our nation’s dropouts – at significantly higher rates.

Studies also highlight the financial impact of the nation’s dropout rates. A recent report by the McKinsey Corporation showed that if minority student performance had reached white students by 1998, the GDP in 2009 would have been between $310 billion and $525 billion higher – or approximately 2 to 4 percent of GDP. The report also says the achievement gaps in this country are the same as having “a permanent national recession.

“Currently this Congress is grappling with massive economic problems. But the enormous cost of bailing out the banks, financial institutions, the auto industry, and AIG is still less than the economic cost of just five years of dropouts in the United States,” said Bob Wise, president, Alliance for Excellent Education and the former Governor of West Virginia. “That is why I believe that the ultimate economic stimulus package is a diploma.”

Cutting the dropout rate in half would yield $45 billion annually in new federal tax revenues or cost savings, according to a recent report by Columbia University’s Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Teachers College.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 90 percent of new high-growth, high-wage jobs will require some level of postsecondary education.

Cutting the dropout rate in half would yield $45 billion annually in new federal tax revenues or cost savings, according to a recent report by Columbia University’s Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Teachers College.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 90 percent of new high-growth, high-wage jobs will require some level of postsecondary education.

“Simply put, the world has changed and there is no work for high school dropouts,” said Dr. Robert Balfanz, Ph. D, a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University. “To meet its graduation challenge, the nation must find a solution for its dropout factories.”

Balfanz recent research findings show “it is often possible to identify as early as sixth grade up to half of the students who, absent effective interventions, will not graduate, and up to 80 percent by the ninth grade.”

Witnesses also presented data which shows African-America, Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native high school students have a far lower chance of graduating on time with a regular diploma.

“I echo the likes of Secretary Duncan and other education leaders when I say that education is the most important American civil rights issue of the 21st century,” said Michael Wotorson, executive director of the Campaign for High School Equity. “The one consistency in our education system is in our high schools that fail to provide students of color and youth from low-income neighborhoods with the high-quality education they need to succeed in college and in the modern workplace.”

Witnesses all agreed that a common core of rigorous internationally benchmarked standards will help ensure all students graduate career and college ready.

“We do not have to live in a country where three out of 10 students do not graduate on time, and where on-time graduation for minority students is a 50-50 proposition,” said Marguerite Kondracke, President and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance. “We have solutions on the ground, and legislative proposals that will bring them to scale.”

Other witnesses called for reforms that to make schools and teachers more accountable to their students.

Scott Gordon, the CEO of Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia, where 47 percent of the city’s public school first graders graduate from high school, discussed strategies that help his school turn around high dropout rates and low performance. The average scores for Mastery students increased 35 points per grade in every subject and violence decreased by 85 percent. The schools’ turnover rates dropped a third.

He urged teachers to take more responsibility for the outcomes of their students, and urged administrators and state officials to reward teachers accordingly.

“The structure of the turnarounds required that Mastery continue operating as a neighborhood schools and enroll all of the students currently attending. So, in many ways these turnaround schools are perfect controlled experiments on school reform,” said Gordon. “The same students, the same neighborhood, the same building – the only variable that changed was the adults.”



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Sources: Charlotte Observer, LA Times, News & Observer, MSNBC, Cato Institute, Alliance For Excellent Education, TIME, WRAL, Whitehouse.gov, ERIC Digest, US Dept of Ed.,US Committee on Education & Labor, Wake Ed, Wikipedia, Huffington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte Leaders Vote To Cut Education Dollars For More Jails....Char-Meck. DSS Corruption Probe Continues

Charlotte Observer----

New Jail vs. money for New Schools

(Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Commissioners OK new jail, but they've capped money they can borrow for construction.)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Commissioners agreed Tuesday to move ahead with plans for a new 1,700-bed jail, but they set up a tense debate for coming months: How to pay for that project without cutting back on money for school construction?

County leaders hope to open part of the jail on Spector Drive as soon as 2014.

The detention center is expected to cost an estimated $220 million to $240 million.

But meeting that goal probably will require commissioners to devote a major portion of construction spending in the short term on the jail, taking away from money that might otherwise pay for new schools, parks or libraries.

Commissioners agreed earlier this spring to cap the amount they borrow for construction in the coming years as part of efforts to get a better handle on debt.

Under the plan, the county would borrow no more than $150 million in 2010-11, and $253 million in each of the following three years.

When county staff first pitched the idea, one scenario showed spending a little over a third of the money each year on the jail, which was originally priced at $355 million.

However, County General Manager Michelle Lancaster told commissioners Tuesday they now anticipate needing $80 million for the jail in 2010-11 – just over half of the available bond money for that year. An additional $100 million would be needed the next year.

Commissioners will debate later this fall on how to divide up the limited pool of bond money, and some predicted the talk will be difficult.

“There are going to be some tough choices, I think for us to make and for the school board to have to make,” said Commissioner Bill James”

In recent years, the largest share of money borrowed for construction has gone for projects for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Commissioner Dumont Clarke said the cost of building the jail “is going to make it much more difficult, really almost impossible, for us to build schools at the same rate that we were hoping to do and other needed government facilities.”

The county has been planning for a new jail for years as a way to help address current overcrowding and a predicted growth in the jail population.

Mecklenburg currently has three detention centers: Jail Central in uptown, and Jail North and the newly-opened Jail Annex in northern Charlotte, with more than 2,800 beds currently. The actual capacity, however, is smaller because officials separate men from women and older inmates from teens.

Crowding has been an issue at the jails for years, and at times hundreds of inmates have had to sleep on the floor.

A 2008 consultant's report estimated the county would need about 4,500 new jail beds by 2030 based on projected growth. But it said that number could be reduced by about 23 percent with reforms to the local criminal justice system.

The county has made some changes recently, including allowing some offenders to be monitored with electronic bracelets instead of going to jail. Soon, leaders will study whether to revamp the pre-trial release program.

However, the consultants report and county leaders said that even with those reforms, the county will still need to build a jail. Sheriff Chipp Bailey said “it's critical that we stay proactive.”

Commissioners agreed 6-2 to go ahead with the project. Dan Murrey said he wanted more time to study the project, including whether programs targeted to help people with mental illness could reduce the number of jail beds needed. Vilma Leake lamented spending money on a jail instead of other programs.



2 County Officials Lose Votes On Charlotte-Mecklenburg DSS Probe Audit Review

(Commissioners feared officials' involvement might undermine public confidence in DSS investigation.)


Reacting to complaints about possible conflicts of interest, Mecklenburg County commissioners voted Tuesday to remove County Manager Harry Jones and one of his top lieutenants as voting members of a committee that looks into alleged misspending.

The move means Jones and County General Manager John McGillicuddy can serve only as ex-officio members of the county board's Audit Review Committee.

Their roles have come under scrutiny since the committee began evaluating county management's response to recently revealed accounting failures at the Department of Social Services.

Some commissioners said the arrangement could undermine public confidence in an ongoing investigation because Jones and McGillicuddy would, in effect, judge their own performance.

On Tuesday, the county board agreed to add commissioners Dumont Clarke and Karen Bentley to the committee. Two members of county management will provide information to the panel.

“There was an obvious conflict of interest on some issues,” Commissioner Dan Murrey said.

In their final act as voting committee members, Jones and McGillicuddy voted last month to remove themselves from the panel.

County officials established the Audit Review Committee in 1999 to oversee financial audits and make recommendations to the commissioners. They took action following the indictment of former county elections director Bill Culp, who pleaded guilty to taking $134,000 in bribes and kickbacks.

The original committee included two commissioners, two county administrators and a community member.

The committee has helped lead a county investigation into why officials cannot account for tens of thousands of dollars that were supposed to help needy children. The issues include a $10,000 check that was made out to a county employee.

Complaints about the makeup of the committee surfaced in July after it issued a report that endorses reforms county managers implemented to correct problems found by auditors.

Counties such as Guilford, Wake, Durham and Forsyth have audit review committees and none allows staff to sit on the panel.



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Sources: Charlotte Observer, Charmeck.org, CMS, WCNC, Google Maps