But Mayor Vaughan's attempt to draw attention away from the Greensboro City Council and point a finger at the Guilford County Schools in an apparent smoke screen failed to work as myself and others quickly pointed out how the problem rests squarely on the City of Greensboro:
- Whaland Shepherd likes this.
- Billy Jones Crime has always been kept quite in Greensboro's schools. In 1970 I was beaten almost to death by a gang from off campus on the campus of Dudley High School. Mr Bradley, the assistant principal, found me laying in a pool of my own blood and rushed me to Cone Hospital in his car.
A few days later my mother took me to the office of the Greensboro School Superintendent, Dr House, where I stood just outside his office and listened to him tell my mother the incident did not take place on school property. I overheard every word they said.
My mother called me into his office and demanded he tell me what he had just told her. He stood there looking at me wrapped up like a mummy, my entire face and head in bandages, chest wrapped for the broken ribs, arm in a sling... He looked down at the floor and said nothing.
A few days later we went to Lineberry Funeral Home. Al Lineberry Sr was head of the Greensboro School Board. He refused to see us that day. We waited. At closing time his secretary told us we would have to leave or she would be forced to call the police. My mother told her to please call the police that she would take me to the TV station after she paid our bail. Mr Lineberry was back in his office 5 minutes later.
In 1971 the Greensboro City Schools hired out of work coaches to work as security guards in every high school per my mother's request. Had she understood how bad it really was she would have demanded much more.
1970 wasn't the first or last incident I would suffer-- just the worst. This stuff is nothing new in Greensboro. Friends like Mike Baldwin Howard Shepherd Faye Smith Woollett and dozens more all in their 50s now can tell you horror stories that happened to them or people that were close to them.
And you wonder why we're angry? 
- Sue Lecin Polinsky From the link. I find this very troubling: "There were rapes reported at Mendenhall, Kiser, Allen, Smith, Aycock, Greensboro Middle College and Grimsley and over the past school year. Kiser and Allen Middle School reports show two rapes were reported at each during the past school year."
- Joseph Eckstrom It's more the crime in the community will carry into the schools. It's important to pray, but it's also important to take those Christian values and apply them to economic and community development outside of the school.
- Linda East Times have changed. My high school days at Bessemer in the 50's were innocent and fun. The worst scandal involved some boys getting caught drinking beer after school. Our society is not doing well and that is reflected in the schools. I think all we can do individually is be kind to each other.
- Matt Stafford If we want to stop crime and gang violence in schools the answer is to remove gang members from schools. The only reason why a Crip or a Skinhead gets within 100 feet of a school is to recruit. It's time to stop pretending otherwise.
- Deena Hayes-Greene Gangs are often a manifestation of larger structural issues. The original "violent street gangs" in this country were European immigrants who has not become white and experienced discrimination, oppression and exclusion. Instead of midnight basketball they assimilated into the dominant culture and gained rights of citizenship. With that came employment opportunities, better housing and environmental conditions and future opportunities. Food deserts are situated in housing deserts, economic deserts, education deserts, environmental deserts, transportation deserts, judicial deserts...we must address the root causes that creates environments where pathologies flourish.
Secondly white students have much higher risk of violence on school grounds and are the largest possessors and user of the most serious drugs. Students of color get "caught" more often and face more and harsher consequence. Go read Breaking Schools Rules and the latest Youth Risk Behavior data - Billy Jones Nancy Barakat Vaughan would have loved to dump this issue entirely on the Guilford County Schools. That's why she leaked the info to Ben Holder in the first place. But the fact is: The municipalities in which the schools are located are responsible for security within those schools. That makes this Mayor Vaughan's problem and opens up an entire can of worms Nancy will wish she had never opened.
Greensboro has long used PR to "solve" our problems but as Ben's report shows, PR isn't working. Our schools have been dangerous places for 40 plus years. Those of us who were at Aycock in the late 60s and Dudley or Smith in the early 70s know full well the nightmare going to school can be and in many instances it never got any better.
What is going on in our schools is a mirror of what is going on in our communities and until the Greensboro City Council addresses our communities our schools will only become more dangerous. 
Don Moore Crime
in the schools will carry into the community as the "children" grow up.
Wonder what the crime rate was when prayer was in the schools?
Billy Jones And
it's not just in our schools either. Greensboro tries to gloss over
every issue preferring instead to use Public Relations rather than deal
with the issues at hand. You can bet were Nancy Barakat Vaughan responsible for overseeing the Guilford County Schools she would have never posted this link to her facebook page, right Deena Hayes-Greene?
I ran a 2 week write-in campaign for Mayor of Greensboro against Yvonne Johnson and Milton Kern a few years ago when my neighborhood was overrun by the Bloods Gang buy Yvonne, Milton and the Greensboro City Council all denied Greensboro had a gang problem.
Our mayor would like to put this problem entirely on the schools but the fact is: our schools reflect what is going on throughout the rest of the city. Increased unemployment, a failing economy and corruption in government all contribute to children failing to learn right from wrong. Our children see our leaders lying and think its okay.
I ran a 2 week write-in campaign for Mayor of Greensboro against Yvonne Johnson and Milton Kern a few years ago when my neighborhood was overrun by the Bloods Gang buy Yvonne, Milton and the Greensboro City Council all denied Greensboro had a gang problem.
Our mayor would like to put this problem entirely on the schools but the fact is: our schools reflect what is going on throughout the rest of the city. Increased unemployment, a failing economy and corruption in government all contribute to children failing to learn right from wrong. Our children see our leaders lying and think its okay.
Bernadette Wilson Conley @Deena
is right on point. Another resource to check out is the 40
Developmental Assets from Search Institute. The more of these assets
kids have access to, the less prone they are to violence, and more
likely to develop into successful contributing adults. These assets can
come at the individual or family levels, but many can also come from
other adults, schools, and the community.
What's really surprising is that Ben Holder pointed out that Grimsley High School-- long known as Greensboro's best high school-- had the highest number of 911 calls. Now add to that the fact that while Guilford County Schools has schools all over every city in Guilford County, the the vast majority of calls on Ben's list were from schools inside the city limits of Greensboro and Madam Mayor Vaughan really has problems on her hands.
That should teach Nancy about leaking info to Ben Holder to create smoke screens as Ben follows up with Teen charged with 50 counts of secret peeping at local school.
Reelect Nancy Vaughan-- I dare you.
Reelect Nancy Vaughan-- I dare you.
