Charlotte's Poor & Seniors Suffer Most From Heat Wave: Fan & Air Conditioner Donations Needed

For the Poor, Heat is harder to escape

It’s like someone built a fire under the house.

That’s how Carolyn Farmer, 47, of Charlotte, describes what it has been like sleeping without air conditioning in recent weeks, as temperatures bounced between 90 and 100.

“It’s so hot, the mattress sticks to you,” Farmer said.

“I have a fan, but it just blows the hot air. You don’t sleep. You just stay up all night drinking water so you don’t dehydrate.”

On Friday – when the temperature hit 97 – Farmer was first in line as Crisis Assistance Ministry’s Free Furniture Bank began giving out nearly 1,000 air conditioners donated by Charlotte-based Electrolux.

It was one example of how charities and businesses are reaching out to help vulnerable people stay cool in this dangerously hot stretch of summer.

The heat wave is expected to continue with temperatures at or near 100 degrees Saturday and Sunday. The heat index likely will approach 105 degrees daily along and southeast of Interstate 85, forecasters say.

Electrolux officials said their gift comes in direct response to the heat.

Mayaanne Mays, 42, was among those who came for a free air conditioner. She has epilepsy and said she has been without air conditioning for more than a year. As the heat has worsened, so have her seizures, she said.

Mays didn’t have transportation and intended to carry the 45-pound appliance home on her lap via a city bus.

An Electrolux employee offered to give her a ride instead, and she accepted.

“This is going to change my life,” Mays said. “It’s 95 degrees in my house in the middle of the night. I have spent a lot of time at neighbors’ houses, just to stay cool.”

Antoinette Davis, who is also disabled, said she has been without air conditioning all year and has taken to occasionally sticking her head in the refrigerator, just to breathe the cool air.

The 48-year-old said the heat has made her dizzy at times and even blurred her vision.

“I would go to a park and sit under a tree, because it was actually cooler than my house,” she said.

The heat has also prompted the Red Cross to open a cooling station for the second weekend in a row at uptown’s Hal Marshal Annex, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers has issued a plea for donated fans after exhausting its supply of 700 in a record four weeks.

Crisis Assistance Ministry is also seeing an increase in people needing help paying utility bills, including those who lived through the spring without electricity, but now find the heat unbearable.

Tovi Lynn Martin of Crisis Assistance likens it to “camping out in your house.” The agency sees an average of 200 people a day.

“With no power and no water, there comes a point when people are jeopardizing their health,” Martin said.

Red Cross officials said it’s the same concern that prompted the opening of a cooling center at 618 N. College St. this weekend. The center attracted 80 to 150 people last weekend, including the elderly, disabled and homeless.

“When temperatures get in the triple digits, it’s necessary for people to get out of the heat and some simply have no place else to go,” said Kate Meier of the Red Cross.

The Crisis Assistance Free Furniture Bank provides donated furniture to low-income families via referrals. Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance, noted appliances are in short supply, making the Electrolux gift much needed.

Caryn Klebba of Electrolux said the giveaway, valued at $140,000, marks a first for the company, which has about 700 employees in Charlotte.

Klebba said the company contacted Crisis Assistance because the agency has the capability of screening recipients quickly.

Carolyn Farmer said she didn’t believe it at first when she heard of the offer.

“I’m going to cook my first meal in a long time tonight, thanks to God and Electrolux,” she said. “It’s been too hot to cook, and I’ve been eating cold cuts too long.”


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

Sandusky Showed No Remorse During Trial! A Very Evil Man! Another Pennsylvania Scumbag! (Videos)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sandusky Convicted Of 45 Counts, Plans To Appeal

Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse Friday night and faces spending the rest of his life in state prison.

His attorney said he would Appeal the Verdict.

Sandusky's attorney, Joseph Amendola, asked Judge John Cleland to allow Sandusky to be released on house arrest, but Cleland summarily rejected the request, saying: "Bail is revoked. Mr. Sandusky is remanded to the custody of the sheriff."

Sandusky was immediately led out of the courthouse in handcuffs as a large crowd of onlookers cheered. Sentencing was set for late September.

Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State University football team, had denied all 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships.

Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland has no discretion in sentencing.

NBC News reported that he faces a minimum of 60 years in prison.

Cleland, who is a senior judge in McKean County, was brought to Centre County to oversee the trial after local judges recused themselves.

Amendola, who was interrupted by hecklers outside the courthouse several times, said he had expected the outcome and respected the verdict of the jurors, who didn’t speak to reporters afterward.

Amendola said he believed Sandusky had legitimate grounds for appeal, saying his client had "an uphill battle" because of the extensive pretrial publicity.

"We said we were attempting to climb Mount Everest from the bottom of the mountain. Obviously, we didn't make it," he said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, whose office prosecuted Sandusky, said, "A serious child predator ... has been held accountable for his crimes."

Kelly thanked the victims, who she said "came forward to bravely testify in this trial and to finally put a stop to the crimes that were committed."

"We hope that our search for justice will help them and perhaps others looking on nearby and afar," she said.

Grace Gordon, 49, of Bellefonte, also welcomed the verdict but lamented the damage the trial had done to Bellefonte and Centre County.

"It's hard. It really is, to see a small town torn apart like this," said Gordon, who was outside the courthouse with her 23-year-old son and his girlfriend.

Gordon said her father, wrho worked with Sandusky at Penn State, "would have just been devastated to know about this."

"You'd never, ever have dreamed that he'd be that kind of person," Gordon said. "What he did to those kids is just horrendous."

The university that Sandusky served for decades said in a statement late Friday that "we have tremendous respect for the men who came forward to tell their stories publicly.

No verdict can undo the pain and suffering caused by Mr. Sandusky, but we do hope this judgment helps the victims and their families along their path to healing."

The university said it would seek to "fairly ... compensate" the victims and invited them to participate in a program to "facilitate the resolution of claims against the University arising out of Mr. Sandusky's conduct."

It said it intended to get in contact with lawyers for the victims "in the near future."

A trial that riveted the nation

The trial, which opened June 11, culminated months of intense attention that led to the firing of head coach Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major college football coach in history, many of them with Sandusky at his side.

Paterno died exactly five months ago, a few weeks after the Penn State Board of Trustees dismissed him for not having done enough to stop Sandusky's abuse.

Jurors heard often-graphic testimony from eight of the 10 victims whose accounts were included in two grand jury reports.

They told how Sandusky would first win their trust by giving them gifts and taking them on trips with the football team before progressing to hugging, kissing, increasingly sexual touching and, in some cases, oral and anal sex.

In a rare occurrence in an abuse trial, prosecutors also presented the testimony of a corroborating eyewitness — Sandusky's former Penn State coaching colleague Michael McQueary, who said that he saw a young boy, identified in the first grand jury report as "Victim 2," in a Penn State shower with Sandusky.

McQueary said the boy had his hands against the wall and that Sandusky was standing up against him from behind. He said he heard a "skin-on-skin smacking sound" and that he had "no doubt" that Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy.

Because they were sequestered, without access to computers, phones or any other way to hear news coverage, the jury of seven women and five men wouldn't have heard newer, potentially damaging information from two other accusers that emerged after they began deliberations.

Sandusky's adopted son Matt said he had been prepared to testify that he, too, was a victim of abuse by his father, according to a statement issued Thursday by attorneys who said they are representing the younger Sandusky.

(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Matt Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)

Amendola said Friday night that Jerry Sandusky abandoned plans to testify in his own defense because of the prospect of damaging rebuttal testimony by his son.

Nor would they have heard the account of Travis Weaver, 30, of Ohio, who attended Second Mile camps as a youth. Weaver told NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday night that Sandusky performed oral sex on him in the upstairs bedroom of the Sanduskys' home.

Weaver testified to one of the two grand juries but wasn't mentioned in the grand jury reports or called as a witness during the trial.

The end of the trial doesn't mean the case is over.

Two former top Penn State officials, former Athletic Director Timothy Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, face perjury charges in connection with their grand jury testimony in December, in which prosecutors alleged that concealed what they knew about Sandusky's conduct.

Law enforcement sources have told NBC News that former Penn State President Graham Spanier, who was fired in November, was under investigation for possible similar charges.


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Sources: ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, Google Maps

Planned Parenthood & Margaret Sanger's Mission: Eugenics, BLACK Genocide & Eliminate Poor People

Michael Steele: Planned Parenthood used abortions to ‘limit’ the black population


Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is accusing Planned Parenthood of providing abortions as part of a plot to “eliminate and limit” the African-American population.

“Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, who sought to control the population of the undesirables and black and brown Americans were in her crosshairs,” conservative radio host Laura Ingraham told Steele on Monday. “And somehow we got into a situation — I think a lot of this is the fault of Republicans — where African-Americans are voting in lockstep with a party that supports…”

“Their elimination,” Steele agreed.

“Look at the carnage in New York City alone with black children being aborted,” Ingraham continued.

“You are absolutely right about that,” Steele replied. “And it’s one of those twists of history that I have yet to understand how when you look at something like the NAACP signing up with an organization like Planned Parenthood that has a part of its history and its charter and its existence, you know, the use of abortion to eliminate and limit the number of African-American and other minorities in this country, I — to me, it’s just beyond the pale.”

Anti-abortion activists often misquote the Planned Parenthood founder as saying, “[W]e want to exterminate the Negro population.”

But in full context, the quote has the opposite meaning. In a 1939 letter to pro-birth control advocate Clarence J. Gamble, Sanger argued that black leaders should be involved in the effort to deliver birth control to the black community.

“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs,” she wrote.

A 2011 Guttmacher Institute analysis found that only 9 percent of abortion clinics were located in predominately black neighborhoods.


Sources: Alex Jones Show, THE LAURA INGRAHAM SHOW, Mediaite, Raw Story, Wikipedia, Youtube

Chris Christie Ordered To Increase Education Funding For Poor Students

Today The New Jersey Supreme Court Ordered Former Potential 2012 Presidential Candidate Gov. Chris Christie To Increase Educational Funding For Schools In Lower Income Communities.

In Other Words He Can NO Longer Steal Money From Poor Students To Educate Wealthier White Students Living In The Suburbs.

Can You Say Discrimination Disguised As "Budget Cuts"??

All I Can Say On This One Is Thank You Lord Jesus!







Court Orders New Jersey to Increase Aid to Schools

The New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the Christie administration on Tuesday to increase state education aid by $500 million in the coming school year, saying it had failed to meet its constitutional obligation to provide adequate educational resources for poor and minority children.

In a 3-to-2 ruling, the court directed that the additional aid be distributed among 31 school districts in historically poor cities like Camden, Newark and Paterson — the so-called Abbott districts at the heart of a school financing case, Abbott v. Burke, that has roiled state officials and courts for three decades.

While the amount of additional aid the Supreme Court ordered was less than the $1.7 billion requested by some advocates, the decision was still seen as a blow to Gov. Chris Christie, whose efforts to rein in school spending and teachers’ salaries have won broad voter support across the state and helped establish him as a leader in national conservative circles.

Mr. Christie, a Republican who had previously suggested that he might defy a court order to spend more on schools, said Tuesday, “I intend to comply with the Supreme Court’s order.” But at a news conference at the State House, he said he would leave it to the Legislature, controlled by Democrats, to determine how to come up with the money.

“The constitutional ball is now in the Legislature’s court,” the governor said.

Several lawmakers noted that state revenue was running above projections by about the same amount as the court mandate. But it is not clear whether Mr. Christie will agree to spend that additional sum on schools, increasing the overall state budget, rather than finding cuts elsewhere. Lawmakers are facing an estimated $10 billion deficit for the coming fiscal year as they try to hammer out a budget.

Barbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association, said in a statement that the ruling “begins the process of restoring our schools to fiscal health.” But she also expressed disappointment that state aid would not be restored beyond the 31 Abbott districts, and called on Mr. Christie and lawmakers to honor “the spirit of the ruling” and fully finance a school aid formula for all students in all districts.

“We also urge them to fund the education of students in all districts moving forward so that the state does not waste any more time or money defending the indefensible,” Ms. Keshishian said. “Our children’s education is too important to be left to the whims of politics.”

The ruling capped months of testimony and debate by state officials, educators and advocates for poor children over whether state education cuts had disproportionately harmed poor and minority children who depend most heavily on public resources.

Last year, Mr. Christie, in his first year in office, cut direct aid to individual districts by up to 5 percent of their budgets to help close an $11 billion state deficit. The governor and his aides have argued that the reduction was unavoidable after a $1 billion infusion of federal stimulus money for schools ran out.

But this year, as state revenues have rebounded, Mr. Christie increased school aid by $250 million for 2011-12, effectively restoring one percentage point of the 5 percent reduction to districts. Many districts, not expecting any increase, had already planned their budgets and were able to use the money as a cushion against further layoffs and program cuts and even to restore some previous cuts.

The Abbott lawsuit was filed in 1981 by advocates seeking to ensure that New Jersey’s poorest children receive a constitutionally guaranteed “thorough and efficient education” in a state whose public schools are deeply stratified along socioeconomic and racial lines. Despite years of intervention, the worst-performing schools continue to be in struggling urban centers with large concentrations of black and Hispanic students, like Camden and Newark, while the top-performing schools are in wealthy suburbs like Millburn and Ridgewood.

In 2008, Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the Legislature put in place a new school financing formula, in response to criticism that too much aid had been concentrated in the Abbott districts, while many of the state’s neediest children lived outside those districts. The new formula steered increased aid to 205 of the state’s 591 districts, many of them in the suburbs, rather than just 31 urban districts.

In a previous ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the new formula, in part on the specific condition that it be fully financed by the state for the 31 Abbott districts. On Tuesday, the court found that the state’s decision to provide less aid to districts than the formula required “amounts to nothing less than a reneging on the representations it made.”

Democrats said the governor had only himself to blame for the court ruling, because he had violated the 2008 compromise.

“The governor’s reckless decision to ignore the law is the reason that the court has returned us to the very system he has railed against,” said State Senator Barbara Buono, who is seen as a potential candidate for governor.

Stephen M. Sweeney, the Senate president, said that Mr. Christie “was well aware that his draconian cuts to education were illegal,” and noted that during his 2009 campaign, the governor vowed not to cut school aid.

The Supreme Court ruling was complicated as well as narrow. One justice, in a separate opinion, wrote that he would have required the state to provide additional financing to all 205 districts that serve poor children.

But in a dissenting opinion, two justices challenged the order for additional state aid, saying that such an action required a minimum of four approving votes from the seven-member court, and should not be granted on the basis of a 3-to-2 decision.

Five justices were left to decide the case after two justices recused themselves: Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, who worked in the Corzine administration when the new school aid formula was developed, and Associate Justice Virginia Long.


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Charlotte's Low Income, Segregated Schools Have No Supplies

Pens, Pencils & Paper Runs Thin At Charlotte's Poor Schools

Third-grade teacher Karen DeLeon knew it was going to be a tough year when, on the first day of class, only one of her 18 students at Barringer Academic Center showed up with even a pencil and paper.

"It's the economy," says DeLeon, who is in her second year as a teacher. "I was surprised, but I understand. When a parent has to choose between notebook paper and food, what are you going to choose?"

What she's experiencing is a worsening problem for teachers this year.

The number of students from low-income families is at a record high in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, and many are showing up for class without supplies for the most basic of assignments.

Classroom Central is a nonprofit that gives teachers free supplies for their students in six area school districts. It has seen a 25 percent increase this year in the number of schools reaching the poverty level that qualifies them for help, from 119 to 149.

Nearly 100 more teachers are now visiting the agency's free store each week, emptying shelves months earlier than expected, said Sarah Porter, a spokeswoman for Classroom Central.

The result: Classroom Central has cut by up to two-thirds the amount of supplies teachers can get per visit. "We're trying to make our supplies last longer," says Porter, "which means teachers have to spend more out of their own pockets to stock their classrooms."

Much of the supplies the agency gives to teachers are donated. However, this year, the annual summer campaign saw a 28 percent dip in donations, which the agency blames on the recession.

Classroom Central was forced to buy goods to refill its shelves in December, and even those are starting to run thin.

As a result, the agency is launching an unprecedented second campaign this month, in hopes donors will restock shelves before testing begins in April.

Should the campaign fail, Classroom Central says it will be forced to buy yet another round of basics, something it's never had to do twice in one year.

"Testing in the schools starts in April and May, and we do not want to have to worry about not even having enough pencils on hand for students," says Porter.

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Charlotte Schools Block Black Kids From Attending AP Classes


Students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg's high-poverty schools face an "opportunity gap" in access to college-level classes, says a report from a citizen advisory panel being presented today.

Students at several low-poverty suburban schools can choose from more than 20 Advanced Placement subjects this school year, while students at four high-poverty schools have fewer than 10, the report says.

The Equity Committee, appointed by the school board, spent the past year looking at Advanced Placement along with services for students who don't speak English well. The recommendations, designed to boost equal opportunity, are likely to clash with budget-cutting plans.

For instance, the panel recommends that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools do more to increase AP offerings at the high-poverty schools, where most students are Black or Hispanic. The panel also calls for more minority enrollment in AP courses at all schools. But a consultant advising CMS on the likelihood of budget cuts for 2010-11 has suggested cutting some AP classes with low enrollment to focus on boosting basic skills.

"We're just in challenging times right now," said board Vice Chair Tom Tate. "I think that the board is going to have some pretty interesting debate on this."

AP Challenge

AP offerings range from 25 subjects at South Mecklenburg High to seven at Waddell, the report says. Even at schools such as Mallard Creek High and Northwest School of the Arts, which have large numbers of middle-class black students, AP classes are disproportionately white.

Taking AP classes can help students get into competitive universities, and students who earn high scores on the exams can get college credit. "The lack of a diverse range of core and elective AP courses at all schools raises serious equity concerns," the report says.

CMS offers other college-level options, including classes hosted by Central Piedmont Community College and advanced classes in International Baccalaureate magnets. The report did not look at those.

High-poverty high schools tend to have lower enrollments and more students struggling to meet graduation requirements, both of which can make it challenging to fill AP classes. For instance, Waddell offered 10 options on its "enrollment card" last winter but ended up only teaching seven, the report says.

But those schools also have successful college-bound students. The equity panel recommends offering a set number of AP courses at each school, even if enrollment is low, and urges schools to "actively recruit and place students in those courses."

The report says white students make up 37 percent of CMS's high-school students but account for 62 percent those taking of AP exams. Minority students may be hindered by home support, peer culture or low expectations in lower grades, the report says. Recommendations range from recruiting AP teachers "of various ethnic backgrounds" to "cluster(ing) students of racial groups in AP courses in order to provide peer support."

Language Barrier

On students with limited English skills, the report notes that some schools have so many that students may not be immersed in spoken English, while others have so few that it's tough to provide adequate staff support for kids and families.

CMS has eliminated jobs for bilingual parent advocates, even as the number of students whose families speak Spanish and other languages has grown. The committee recommends restoring those jobs at schools with large numbers of families who need translation, noting that parent involvement is essential to student success.

The report describes a visit to Merry Oaks Elementary, where 19 languages are spoken, most children come from low-income homes, and some students "not only don't speak English but may not have any experience with indoor bathrooms or electricity." Committee members saw a woman arrive to enroll a young child, who did most of the translating between his mother and the school secretary. Two hours later, the child and his mother "were still trying to navigate the enrollment process," it says.

The report urges CMS to make sure schools make better use of available translation services and make it easier for families without cars to get to the Family Application Center south of uptown, where international students must register. City buses used to run along that road, the report says, but no longer do.

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Obama Admin. Officials Step Up Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws In Education


Seeking to step up enforcement of Civil Rights Laws, the federal Department of Education says it will be sending letters in coming weeks to thousands of school districts and colleges, outlining their responsibilities on issues of fairness and equal opportunity.

As part of that effort, the department intends to open investigations known as compliance reviews in about 32 school districts nationwide, seeking to verify that students of both sexes and all races are getting equal access to college preparatory curriculums and to advanced placement courses. The department plans to open similar civil rights investigations at half a dozen colleges.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is to announce the initiatives in a speech on Monday in Selma, Ala., where on March 7, 1965, hundreds of civil rights marchers were beaten by Alabama state troopers.

Mr. Duncan plans to say that in the past decade the department’s Office for Civil Rights “has not been as vigilant as it should have been in combating gender and racial discrimination and protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities,” according to a text of the speech distributed to reporters on Sunday.

It continues, “We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement.”

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At the end of high school, white students are about six times as likely to be ready to pursue college-level biology courses as Black Students, and more than four times as likely to be ready for college algebra, department officials said. White high school graduates are more than twice as likely to have taken advanced placement calculus classes as black or Latino graduates.

The department enforces civil rights laws in schools and universities by responding to specific complaints from parents, students and others, but also by scrutinizing its own vast bodies of data on the nation’s school and university systems, looking for signs of possible discrimination. A school seen to be expelling Latino students in numbers far out of proportion to their share of the student population, for instance, might become a candidate for compliance review, officials said.

As it seeks to combat discrimination in schools and universities more aggressively, the administration will be acting in an area in which some Supreme Court rulings in recent years have brought more ambiguity. Federal policy for decades had aimed at compelling school districts to end racial inequality, for instance.

But in examining longstanding de-segregation efforts in the Seattle and Jefferson County, Ky., schools in 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that school authorities could not seek to achieve or maintain integration through measures that take explicit account of a student’s race, a decision that seemed to reverse the thrust of four decades of federal policy.

Some civil rights advocates said they had hoped the administration would move more quickly last year to ramp up the activity of the Office for Civil Rights, the department’s second-largest, with 600 employees.

“This whole area has been a dead zone for years, and people were worried that new actions were too slow in coming,” said William L. Taylor, chairman of the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, a Washington group that monitors federal policy and practices. “There had been strong hopes that they would move more quickly. This sounds like positive movement, which we’ve all been asking for.”

Russlyn H. Ali, assistant secretary of education for civil rights, said in an interview that the department would begin 38 compliance reviews before the current fiscal year ended on Oct. 1. That number compares with 29 such reviews carried out last year, 42 in 2008, 23 in 2007 and nine in 2006, she said.

“But the big difference is not in the number of the reviews we intend to carry out, but in their complexity and depth,” Ms. Ali said. “Most of the reviews in the recent past have looked at procedures.”

In cases analyzing potential sex discrimination, for instance, federal investigators would often check to see if schools and universities had grievance procedures in place, and if so, take no enforcement action, she said.

“Now we’ll not simply see whether there is a program in place, but also examine whether that program is working effectively,” she said.

The department plans to begin a major investigation on Wednesday in one of the nation’s largest urban school districts, Ms. Ali said. She declined to identify it because, she said, department officials were still notifying Congress and others of the plans.

The compliance reviews typically involve visits to the school district or university by federal officials based in one or more of the department’s 12 regional offices.

The department intends to send letters offering guidance to virtually all of the nation’s 15,000 school districts and several thousand institutions of post-secondary education, officials said.

The letters will focus on 17 areas of civil rights concern, including possible racial discrimination in student assignments and admissions, in the meting out of discipline, and in access to resources, including qualified teachers. Other areas include possible sex and gender bias in athletics programs, as well as sexual harassment and violence. Other letters will remind districts and colleges of their responsibilities under federal law with regard to disabled students.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, MSNBC, Google Maps

Nearly 60% of Students at Myra Bradwell Public School In Chicago are Failing....Parents to blame?

CBS 2 Chicago----

44 Of 77 Students At Myra Bradwell Elementary Did Not Pass Eighth Grade

A startling number of children are falling through the cracks at one Chicago Public School. More than half of the kids didn't even pass the eighth grade. As CBS 2's Jim Williams reports there is fierce debate about who's to blame.

It is a debate that has gone on for years in poor communities: do you blame the schools for the students' poor performance or do you blame their parents?

The mother of a one student who failed eighth grade says she got no warning her son was struggling. The school says she was notified, and other parents insist she did not do enough.

Tatianna Dennis' son, Tarrell, took his eighth grade photo complete with cap and gown, but the day before his grammar school's graduation, Tarrell learned he would not be marching down the aisle.

"I asked him why but he was so heartbroken, he couldn't really talk," said Tatianna Dennis.

Dennis says she had no idea her son was about to fail English; no written notices from Bradwell Elementary, she says, and no warning from his teacher.

Tarrell had failed English two times before, but Dennis thought he was doing better.

"They told me that he was fine. He was starting to come around and his grades were picking up," Dennis said. "They never gave me any indication that he was going downhill."

It was a disastrous year for the eighth grade at the south side Bradwell Elementary school in a tough neighborhood with high poverty. More than half the class, 44 of 77 students, did not graduate.

Loetisis Billingsley's nephew is one of those failing students.

"It's horrible because these kids were under the impression they were graduating, and they let them know at the last minute that they wasn't," Billingsley said.

The Board of Education insists the Bradwell school did everything possible to keep the students' grades up, offering extra credit and school on Saturday. And the Board says written notices did go out.

Some parents came to the defense of the school.

"You have to be in your kid's life, you have to know what's going on in their world," said parent Vanessa Ewing. "I'm up at the school. The teachers know me. I stay on them. I stay on my kids."

"It was something that child must not have been doing right in order for him to stay behind," said parent Sharon Shavers.

Tatianna Dennis' son is now in summer school. She works nights as a security guard, leaving her little time with Tarrell to supervise his homework.

"Especially now, when I need the help the most, with situations like this," Dennis said. "And there's nobody but me. But I get through it."

On an encouraging note, Dennis says her son is so upset he failed eighth grade, he is now determined to be a better student, pass his classes this summer and go on to high school.

In that south side neighborhood, another mother said she has all the cell phone numbers of her kids' teachers and she calls them all the time, and her kids are doing well in school.



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Sources: Yahoo Buzz, CBS News, Google Maps