Essay Resource Articles

Below are two articles that show a school inConnecticut grapling with the topic of the 2010 Essay Contest. Students submitting essays should remember that although this article focuses on several different issues, essays for the contest should focus primarily on First Amendment issues.

Incidents At Suffield High School Spark Concerns

By SHAWN R. BEALS
Source: Hartford Courant
October 27, 2009

SUFFIELD --- Three October incidents, including one resulting in an expulsion, have raised concerns at Suffield High School about the relationship between Suffield residents and out-of-district students attending the school.

In separate instances, a student apparently afraid of another student or of a few others was found in possession of a knife; an argument broke out in the parking lot after a Spirit Night event; and students have been disciplined for displaying the Confederate flag.

The extent of racial tension in the incidents remains unclear, but Superintendent of Schools Jack Reynolds said the problem lies in a combination of racial, cultural and territorial differences.

Details of the knife possession incident are private because expulsion and disciplinary hearings are conducted in executive session, but Reynolds said the high school student was expelled because possession of a weapon during school "is a mandatory expellable offense."

"There is no reason to tie that incident to race or to Hartford students," Reynolds said. He said the dispute was an isolated incident.

Suffield High School enrolls 14 Hartford students through Open Choice, and another 16 students from the city attend the regional agriscience center there. Eighty-three students from eight other towns attend the agriscience center. Among those, 34 are from Enfield and 28 are from Windsor Locks.

Open Choice places Hartford students in suburban districts via a lottery system with the goal of reducing racial, ethnic and economic isolation, said Dwight Blint, a spokesman for the Capitol Region Education Council.

In a message to parents and students posted on the school's website, Suffield High School Principal Donna Hayward said the Confederate flag is not allowed at the school because it is considered a symbol of hate.

She wrote that students recently have been disciplined for displaying the flag, and that students who do so in the future "will face harsh disciplinary action."

Reynolds said the district would try to rectify the apparent tension at the school by putting a greater focus on diversity and life-skills training. He said he has reached out to CREC and the state Department of Education for input and said the district would try to involve the community or student leaders in the process of improving relations.

"If we have great test scores, but we don't teach kids how to deal with the 21st-century world, we're a failure as a school system," Reynolds said. "That's part of our mission."

In a letter posted on the district website, Reynolds said the recent incidents are "a strong indication that we have a significant problem that needs to be thoroughly addressed."

First Selectman Scott Lingenfelter said he has suggested that the district use any town services that would help, such as the Youth Services Department.

"I have made regular attempts to get as much information as possible to stay on top of what's going on [at the high school]," Lingenfelter said. "From what I can tell so far, race doesn't seem to be the impetus behind it."

Suffield Superintendent Addresses Racial Tensions At High School

By SHAWN R. BEALS
Source: Hartford Courant
November 5, 2009

SUFFIELD - - School officials said things seem to be calming down after a rocky first two months at Suffield High School, where apparent racial tensions resulted in several students' being suspended for displaying Confederate flags.

Superintendent Jack Reynolds told the board of education meeting Wednesday that the flags were banned after some students displayed them on their vehicles. After the students were told to remove the flags, some defied the order, and that led to the suspensions, Reynolds said.

Despite the explanation that tensions at the school are easing between Suffield students and Hartford students from the Open Choice program, parents criticized the district and the school board for a lack of communication with parents and a lack of preparation.

"A lot of people just don't know" how the incidents were resolved and what the district is planning to do, said resident Monte Ferrari.

Reynolds said Wednesday that he and other administrators already have met with state officials, including representatives of the state Department of Education and the Capitol Region Education Council, to plan for a better transition next year and in the future.

"We totally dropped the ball for these kids," said resident Jen Urbanski. "I don't want to fail again."

The board also indicated that it would start some kind of community conversation about the Open Choice program so parents and residents can let the board and the district know their concerns.

"All of us made some bloopers," Reynolds said. "The kids that showed up from Hartford and the kids from Suffield weren't prepared for it. I don't think they were prepared for what the environment was like."

He said there were more new students from Hartford this year than in years past, and that preparation was lacking. In all, 14 Open Choice students from Hartford are enrolled at the high school, and five of them are new this year, Reynolds said.

George Coleman, deputy commissioner of the state education department, said at the meeting that the Open Choice program is intended to reduce racial isolation in the state. He said the program is a work in progress, and that some of the responsibility in helping it succeed lies with the host community's making an effort to show outside students that they are welcome.

Thomas Mooney, the board's lawyer, said case law supports the district's decision to ban the Confederate flag because it is disruptive to the school environment.

"Courts have said that the Confederate flag has been a symbol of intolerance and racism," Mooney said at Wednesday's meeting. He said the uniform ban of the flag is not a violation of free speech, as some have suggested.