NYC-Feature Story

Get Me Out!
I was duped into choosing a failing high school

By Sheila Wanda Merino

When I moved from Florida to New York, I was terrified of the city. I was used to Florida, where everything is green and pretty, my school was safe, and my classes were challenging. New York felt like the total opposite: noisy, smelly, and dangerous. Just registering for school seemed intimidating.

My mom and I got a book from the New York City Department of Education that described in detail every school in the five boroughs. Out of all the schools near my house, I chose Franklin K. Lane High School. It sounded like one of the best schools out there.

The book said Lane High offered “challenging, meaningful, and exciting courses” that would help me become a “total person.” It boasted a special law program and had several partnerships with colleges in the area. I was excited, thinking that when I graduated from high school I would have a chance to work for a law firm, as the book implied. Unfortunately, the book needed a reality check, and so did I.

My first day at Lane High School was confusing and scary. Just getting into the school was a struggle. The security guards were rude, and the line to get through the two metal detectors was long. People would cut in line, slowing things down. Of course, I was too scared to speak up—the school was racially divided and tensions seemed high.

Striving for Mediocrity

When I finally got through the line, I ran up to my science class, thinking that I would get in trouble for being late. Wrong. The teacher wasn’t even there. The bell had rung, and there were only a few kids in the classroom. Two were chatting, and the others were sleeping.

I went to the back of the room and sat next to another new kid who was as confused as I was. We looked at each other, wondering what was going on. We decided to wait. Maybe the teacher was running late, we told each other. Wrong again. The teacher didn’t arrive until a few minutes before class ended. The bell rang, and we hadn’t done anything.

After a couple of days, I noticed some of the classes I had picked weren’t on my schedule. I went to the main office to get help, but when I told them I wanted AP and honors classes, they laughed.

“Why would you want that? You’re a sophomore, right?” one lady asked.

“Yes,” I answered, confused.

“OK, then, wait until you’re a senior, and if you haven’t changed your mind by then, we’ll give you some higher classes, OK?”

I stood there in disbelief, waiting for someone to say they were joking. A teacher, smiling, grabbed me by the arm and took me back to class. All day long, I wondered: How could they want me to be mediocre? I thought teachers and school administrators would be happy that a student was requesting AP and honors classes. Apparently, not in Lane High School.

More Disappointments

Meanwhile, it didn’t seem like we were ever going to be given the promised “law program.” The teachers said the program would start next semester, but I heard other students say they’d been told that before.

Worse, my science teacher’s tardiness turned out to be a regular occurrence in many of my classes. Sometimes, teachers wouldn’t show up at all. When they did, they didn’t ask us to do anything.

The only class where I actually learned anything was history. I took a pen to that class, but didn’t bother bringing any materials for my other classes.

Battle Zone

One day we were, as usual, doing nothing in class when I witnessed my first fight. I had my head down on the desk when I noticed the environment was too calm. My instincts told me that there was danger coming my way. I suddenly looked up, and two black girls were jumping in the air to attack a Latina girl who was sleeping. I leapt out of my chair and fled to the safety of the corner.

The two attackers threw the girl against the lockers at the back of the classroom and hit her repeatedly like they were practicing on a punching bag. Then they ran off, their fists bloody, leaving red art on the lockers. The Latina girl stood alone, grabbing her bleeding forehead, shocked by what had just happened.

The whole fight lasted about two minutes, but in my mind it never ended. Throughout the day my body ached and shivered uncontrollably.

Didn’t Care Anymore

That turned out to be just an introduction to the violence at my new school. There were fights everywhere—classrooms, hallways, and the cafeteria. There was nowhere to hide. I was scared. I knew my day for a beat down could come at any time. After a few weeks, though, the fear turned to anger.

The tension of the school was affecting me. I hated feeling powerless all the time and I didn’t want other kids to think I was weak or an easy target.

One morning, I decided to do something about it. When a girl cut in front of me in the line to the metal detector, I simply did the same thing back. I stepped right in front of her. I didn’t care anymore if I got punched in the face. The girl got annoyed and started screaming at me, “Yo, I’m talking to you girl, what you think you doing?”

I never turned around, and she never touched me. But as I went through the metal detector, I was angry all the same: I didn’t like this school or anyone in it. Everyone was rude all the time. It was a constant, energy-consuming job just to be there.

Making Friends

My attitude changed when I started making friends with some of the Latino kids in my math class. I asked them what I’d been wondering for weeks: “How come you’re here? Why are all the people here mean and angry?”

I was surprised to learn that they hated the school and wanted to get out of there as much as I did.

“But you guys seem to enjoy it here,” I said.

They laughed.

“No, but what else are we going to do? We just have fun, or at least try to. We are here because our parents live in this area. We can’t pay for our own apartment, so where else can we go?”

It turned out that many of the other kids wanted to transfer to another school, but those students who had actually tried to get out were rebuffed: no other school would accept them.

A week after I befriended these kids, my parents gave me the great news that we were moving back to Florida. To my surprise, I realized I would miss my new friends. I felt bad that they were stuck in that awful school and I got to leave.

Lucky to Leave

When I told one of them I was moving, she replied, “You’re so lucky that you’re leaving, you know that?” Her words left a mark on me. I realized that the school was bad partly because the students were angry that they wound up in such an awful environment.

I don’t know when Lane became such a bad school, but it seemed like a cycle: The kids and the teachers were bad because the environment was bad; the environment was bad because the kids and teachers were bad.

Everyone knew that the inexperienced teachers were sent to Lane, and that they usually transferred to other schools as soon as possible. The students all wanted to be in a better place, too, but they reacted with fights, cursing and doing whatever they wanted.

A Broken System

Recently, I learned that Lane High School was sued for illegally pushing kids out of school. Administrators were accused of encouraging students to give up on a high school diploma and instead transfer out to GED programs. In fact, the school is so bad that the city has decided to shut it down because of its poor academic performance.

When I read about these developments, the first thing I thought was, “Thank you, now nobody else can experience what I went through.” Even so, it seems like the problems will remain. They can close Lane High School and many other bad schools, but that’s not a permanent solution when you have poorly motivated students and sub-par teachers.

It’s like a pipe is broken, and the city is trying to dry the floor with paper towels while water keeps spilling out. If they were smart, they’d fix the pipe first and then dry the floor. They have to fix the school system first.

Eventually my family returned to New York, but this time I knew to avoid Franklin K. Lane. I now attend a better school in Queens, where my teachers are actually happy that I’m in AP and honors classes. I get help from my teachers when I need it, and I get in trouble when I’m late, too.

I still carry with me a few lessons from Lane. I learned how to watch my back, and how to speak up. I also learned to empathize with kids who are different from me and understand that there are reasons for even the worst behavior.

Before You Enroll...

How can you avoid getting duped when choosing a school? NYC got advice from Pamela Wheaton, project director at Insideschools.org, an independent website that reviews New York City public schools.

Wheaton’s tips:

• Visit Insideschools.org for unbiased information on New York City public schools. Insideschools.org tries to visit every school in the city on a regular basis. (When a new school opens, they usually visit during its second year of operation.)

“We try to speak to students, to teachers, to the principal,” said Wheaton. “We sit in on classes and try to catch students in the hallway or after school.” Students can also post comments on the Insideschools site, but Wheaton notes that unfortunately, the lowest-performing schools usually receive the fewest comments.

“What we tell people is: Use the big high school directory [published by the Department of Education], take a look at it, but then visit Insideschools.org,” said Wheaton. “We’re independent, and our job is not to do public relations for the schools.”

• Look at the stats. “We include a capsule report of attendance, enrollment, the free lunch rate, admissions requirements,” said Wheaton. The site’s report on Franklin K. Lane shows some key numbers. “Only 13% of kids are coming in reading at grade level; the graduation rate is 30.8%. Those would be warning flags for a good student, or really any student,” she said.

• Know what to look for. What’s the most important number to check when evaluating a school? “If I were a parent, I’d look at the attendance rate,” said Wheaton. “That’s a telling point about how well the school is performing, and at Franklin K. Lane last year it was only 60%.” (Only 60% of students showed up at school on an average day.)

Another number to check is the graduation rate. If a school’s graduation rate is lower than that of comparable schools, it’s a bad sign. But because some students—recent immigrants, for example—may need more time to complete their course load, Insideschools looks at both a high school’s 7-year graduation rate and its 4-year rate.

• See for yourself. If you’re considering a specific school, there’s no substitute for seeing it firsthand. “I would advise, if at all possible, that you visit the school,” said Wheaton. “Call the principal’s office; call the parent coordinator; ask for a tour.”

• Do your homework. “When you go to the city’s enrollment office, have a good idea where you want to attend,” Wheaton advised. She also recommended New York City’s Best Public High Schools by Clara Hemphill, a book available online or in bookstores.

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