I am a grandmother of two young ladies at Howard High School. I have been over to this school every other week starting in September of this year.

It started with fighting - someone bullying my granddaughter and other students. On Friday I had to go because a teacher was going to fight my granddaughter in the classroom.

This school is nothing but a war zone. It was fight after fight Friday. There is so much going on there that this school should be closed down.

The teachers do not care and the students are not learning. The principal, Paul Smith, is never there or available to talk to parents. Parents are going over there angry because their children can't go to school and learn in peace.

Gangs are a big problem there and they are sweeping it under the rug. I have been there when a news channel called about an incident and they lied and said it did not happen when it did.

An incident with my granddaughter and a teacher on Friday will not be taken care of. My daughter and myself went over there today to see if we can observe the class and we were not allowed to do so. I do not know who to contact because the people at the board of education do not care either.

Constance Hampton

* * *

Make the right choice for your granddaughters, remove them from this school commonly known as one of the most dangerous and under-performing schools in Hamilton County.

Failing schools have common factors that all equate to educational toxicity, a cycle of failure, low academic expectations, lack of structure, low parental involvement, and one major factor, poverty. As a result, rehabilitation of the school will at a minimum require breaking the failure cycle by a complete and total restructure, so tearing down the school is a great idea to break up the zone.

In the meantime, your family has a choice, and no child regardless of their family's financial situation and circumstances should be mandated to attend a failing school. It is undisputed that Howard High meets the criteria. So, beginning today, simply say to yourself that regardless of my family's income, regardless of our circumstance, my grandchildren have a right to a free and appropriate public education in a safe environment.

Then, exercise your grandchildrens' right to school choice that the federal government mandates the Hamilton County Department of Education to provide to the students of Howard High, and insist on a school placement at a high school that is not on the state of Tennessee failing school list.

As long as good students at Howard High just accept that this is the best they can do, then for sure this situation will continue. Poverty, autism, or special needs does not equal substandard public educational opportunity.

Again, simply exercise your grandchildrens' right to access a free and appropriate education. Call the Federal Programs Office of the state of Tennessee Department of Education and learn about the school choice requirement placed on Howard High School.

April Eidson
aae1049@comcast.net

* * *

Year after year this school has been drug through the mud. Howard High and its students have the opportunity that is available to any school. The problem is the community. Teachers, administrators and school boards can only do so much, without help from the actual people whose children attend Howard High.

I hear everyone gripe about the gangs in the school, but no one saying much about standing up to them and getting them out of the school. You, as a parent, grandparent, community member can do this. You can not change that school's atmosphere without changing the people. You want a safe learning environment, create it.

There are numerous things that can be done. Don’t let your children/grandchildren get bullied. When enough of those kids who want to learn hold their ground, those bullies/gangs will back down. There still is power in numbers.

You don’t want those kids with gang affiliations and issues there? File a report on them in Juvenile Court. You can do that. They don’t have to belong to you for this to happen. You can petition the court for those kids' parents to do something about the behavior of their kids.

Don’t leave all this in the hands of people who can’t do much about a community where they don’t live. Don’t keep putting the blame on everyone else. Look outside your window.

Michelle Sanders
Chattanooga

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Disciplined Howard Squad Bolts to 72-42 Win over East Ridge is a headline in the Chattanoogan.com on the same day that Ms. Hampton’s letter calls for closing the school for various reasons. I have the privilege of serving as a volunteer mentor and teacher at Howard, and I submit that Howard is a school characterized much more by a disciplined, successful, obviously well-coached team than it is the “war zone” than Ms. Hampton describes.

Dr. Paul Smith is simply one of the brightest, most devoted secondary school administrators that I have encountered in 35 years of teaching. I can assure Ms. Hampton that Dr. Smith’s actions are always in the best interest of Howard, the students, and the faculty and staff.

I have seen over and over in the hallways at Howard enthusiastic, hopeful, children who share an easy dialogue with their teachers. They know they are in a safe place, they know that the adults care about them, and there is excellence achieved every day in Howard classrooms.

One of the most loving things we can do as teachers and parents is to hold children accountable for the matters at hand. It is likely that Ms. Hampton needs to step back and let her grand-daughter’s teachers do their job.

Andy Smith

* * *

I fail to see the closing of Howard and scattering the children to
points unknown is a solution or could possibly accomplish anything.
Haven't such actions been a major and contributing factor to these
problems we're now witnessing? When they started to tear down public
housing and scatter the residence (some remain homeless to this day,
though not in the sense that we recognize homelessness), forcing many
of those residence out along with families, young children--school age
included, apparently no one thought to pencil in the havoc it would
wreak on communities, school environment and society as a whole. They
just wanted to make way for "progress" (gentrification anyone?)
without a thought or care as to how it would affect a people, a class
or even affect them, their communities and society in general. Now,
we're witnessing and feeling the impact of all that "progress."

The truth is, any of you out there can be placed under the same or
even lesser circumstances and, in no time flat, you'll be equally
affected or even worse. We may even see a few family murder/suicides
taking place and other tragedies. But when it comes to "progress"
there will always be the poor AKA collateral damage that suffers the
most.

Brenda Manghane~Washington

* * *

Please don't shut down Howard. Why? Because I don't want that drama at my child's school. See that's what will happen. All that drama that some Howard students and parents bring will fill up other schools in Hamilton County. The state needs to take over Howard and install a security team. Fire the staff that's there and make sure they can't teach or be an administrator in Tennessee, since they don't care and like to sweep things under the rug.

Make the parents accountable for their children. Make parent(s) or legal gaurdian(s) pay fines for students' disruptive behavior. When students miss a certain number of days from school, the students and parents should pickup trash on the weekends as well as be fined. If the students' household receives any welfare or family assistance, the state should threaten to reduce or terminate assistance until the students' behavior, grades, and parents' involvement improves.

We need to stop giving free stuff and assistance to the community that Howard serves until the people of that community start being accountable for their kids, crime and gang issues. It's a cycle that continues to spiral out of control every year.

Lastly, the Chattanooga Police, local court system, and city of Chattanooga also need to be held accountable. For years our local officials have turned their backs on this community. The community that serves Howard High School needs our help but they have start cleaning up their homes first. It starts in the home.

Gerald Parham Sr.

* * *

In response to Michelle Sanders about Howard High, actually you can blame the school, obviously you haven't stepped foot in that school to see what's going on. When you have people literally walking in the school fighting kids and staff not all but some cursing out kids and parents, kids standing out in the hallway and in front of the building that blame goes to the principal, staff and resource officer at that school. There is no reason for this to be occuring, these kids are in the hands of administors once on school property.

And filing a report with juvenile that only gets so far, juvenile can only hold a juvenile for so long then they have to let them go. Then on top of that the case get dismissed, take from me I volunteered over there to know. Gangs are a huge problem and it is prevelant everywhere and it just so happen to be in Howard High school.

It's gonna take more than just a community, its going take the system as a whole to actually go in there evaulate, come up with a plan and actually take a proactive approach to that plan because if you don't it's only going to get worse.

Christie Y. Toney

* * *

It's interesting to me that everyone either wants to blame the teachers, the students, or the parents for the problems at Howard.

There is no singular blame here and you have to think realistically about what you are dealing with. In this day and age, any teacher that disciplines a student, no matter how truly warranted that discipline may be, that teacher and the school run the risk of a lawsuit. We are an overly litigious society anymore, you know it will happen, you hear about it every day.

Fining parents will never work, as you have some parents that just don't care (did you see the list of names not too long ago of people that owed the city parking fines...people don't care).

Finally, firing the entire staff at Howard, well that is nonsense, as you have enough problems getting quality
teachers to any of your schools in this area (or so I have heard), let
alone finding replacements for an entire staff for a school this volatile.

So, parents,I think you need to be ready, willing, and able to back a
teacher in disciplining your child if the situation presents itself...and if you think your little darling is an angel at school..you might be surprised what Junior turns into once he hits school..you were a kid once, think about it.

Teachers, you need to take your power back and stop letting the inmates run the asylum, do what all of us are paying you for, teach, and start taking pride in your profession.

Students, knock it off already. No one is impressed with your "badness." Once you get to the real world, you are going to wish you had an education, because there are those of us that aren't going to put up with you like your teachers and parents do. Those of us in the real world will fire you, call the police, refuse you a job, deny you credit, and generally not care that you behaved like an idiot throughout your school years..of course, that will be readily apparent if you keep traveling the road you are traveling.

Everyone is at fault, and it will take everyone to fix this..that includes those outside the area that this school serves. Stop washing your hands and pretending that this doesn't exist..and stop using phrases like..."Please don't shut down Howard. Why? Because I don't want that drama at my child's school." It could just as easily be your child's school.

So step up, be a grown up, and be a part of the solution, not part of the problem. Once more thing, I am 40, and when I was in school, if I was disciplined by a teacher (and I was)...my parents didn't turn around and exclaim..."my poor kid, we will get an attorney, and we will sue, this is an outrage!" My parents looked at me and said, "you probably deserved it."

Anna Creer