B'klyn Principal's Ugly Insults Drove Me To Tears

More quality education at Lafayette. And this is today. Can you imagine what it was like 40 years ago? Here's the story in the N.Y. Post:

December 7, 2006 -- The embattled principal of Lafayette HS is under the microscope again - this time for apparently belittling a 20-year-old special-education student for wanting to graduate with a non-Regents diploma and attend a community college.

A city Department of Education spokesman said officials in Brooklyn are investigating claims by the student, Chris Ciccone, and his mother. They say the principal, Jolanta Rohloff, harped on a sobbing Ciccone in her office in front of two other school staffers.

In the meeting, Ciccone expressed his desire to graduate next spring with a local diploma, a sheepskin not endorsed by the state Board of Regents and being phased out.

"She said to me, 'What kind of college do you think you're going to get into with a local diploma?' What kind of city job do you think you're going to get with a local diploma?' " Ciccone said.

He replied that he wanted to attend Kingsborough Community College.

"She said, 'What kind of degree do you think you're going to get there?' " Ciccone claimed. "I was crying, just sitting there for five or 10 minutes crying in front of her, and she just kept insulting me."

Ciccone met with Rohloff, an assistant principal and a guidance counselor, on Tuesday to question why he was held to a school policy in which students' Regents course grades are reduced if they do not score at least 65 on the corresponding Regents exam.

Two of his passing course grades were reduced to failing - and could prevent him from graduating - because he scored 61 and 56 on the tests.

He argued that he should be held to a different standard because changes to state graduation regulations requiring students to pass Regents exams with a minimum score of 65 - the basis for the school policy - do not apply to students his age.

Ciccone entered ninth grade in 2001, and state regulations say that such students are eligible to graduate with a local diploma by scoring 55 or above on five Regents exams.

He is also exempt from those changes because students with disabilities may pass so-called Regents Competency Tests to earn local diplomas.

Rohloff did not return a phone call for comment. An Education Department spokesman said Rohloff insists she was trying to motivate Ciccone to earn a more prestigious Regents diploma, not demean him.

"I'm 20 years old. How long does she want me to stay in high school? I'm trying to get out," said Ciccone, who said he wants to join the Navy.

The probe is the latest setback for Rohloff, who in her two years leading Lafayette has antagonized students, teachers and alumni with her iron will to turn around the oft-troubled school.

She's been reprimanded for arbitrarily imposing her Regents grade-retention policy and comparing the school to a Nazi camp.

david.andreatta@nypost.com

Class Dismissed at Lafayette

It's just too bad they didn't dismiss the whole class years ago. Here's the story from the NY Daily News.

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Class dismissed
BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS and BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

Five failing high schools were slated for closure yesterday, including a Brooklyn campus boasting a principal who was a grad of Mayor Bloomberg's elite Leadership Academy.

Education officials said dismal graduation rates, consistently low test scores and lackluster demand prompted the schools' shuttering.

The soon-to-be defunct institutions are Lafayette High in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn; South Shore High in Canarsie, Brooklyn; Samuel J. Tilden High in East Flatbush, Brooklyn; Urban Peace Academy in East Harlem, and the School for the Physical City in Gramercy Park.

Education brass met with teachers and principals at all of the schools yesterday to break the news.

"These are schools that we've reviewed for a long time and have a track record of low performance and difficult circumstances," said Melody Meyer, spokeswoman for the Department of Education.

Sources said Jolanta Rohloff, Lafayette's controversial principal and a graduate of Bloomberg's Leadership Academy for principals, was the primary catalyst for the surprise decision.

But Education Department spokesman David Cantor defended Rohloff: "We think that she has performed very well in difficult circumstances."

Since arriving at the Bensonhurst school in 2005, Rohloff has had a series of missteps, including docking students' grades for failing to score higher than 65 on Regents exams and paying teachers overtime to tidy up their classrooms.

She also prompted a student walkout by having a mural they created painted over and caused outrage this year by withholding textbooks from students for up to six weeks.

"It is no secret that there have been problems at Lafayette, so its closing is not surprising," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

"As to Lafayette, we are working with the DOE to create a redesigned school - and potentially two new schools - that parents will want to send their children to and where educators will want to teach," she said.

The schools will be phased out over the next three years, with the three large Brooklyn high schools likely replaced by smaller schools.

More detailed plans will be released next month, Meyer said.

The schools will not accept ninth-graders in the fall. The approximately 6,100 students already enrolled at the campuses will be allowed to graduate from them, the last classes in 2010.

Graduation rates at all of the schools have routinely been well below the citywide average of 58%.

Crime has also been an issue at several schools, especially Tilden, which in August was named among the 17 most violent public schools in the state.

Good Riddance to Lafayette

Well, it took almost 40 years for the NYC Board of Education to decide to get rid of the blight of Lafayette. I attended this school over 40 years ago and while it wasn't obvious to me at the time that this was a waste of space and time, I certainly did realize it in retrospect. Especially after I had the good fortune to put myself through the 12th grade in another school. Even though I was on my own, supporting myself at the age of 18, it was a real revelation to attend a school where they had counsellors who counselled and teachers who taught and actually gave a damn. Up to that point, I thought an atmosphere like that was what people made fun of by comparing it to "Leave It To Beaver."

Today they call Lafayette "low performing", a nice euphemism for apathy: Teachers and students who don't want to be there. Back in another era, the students really had no choice, but I suppose the teachers had a good thing, so why would they upset the two month long vacation and job security by actually trying to give a damn about why they should be there in the first place?

To underscore the drastic situation at Lafayette, it looks like they're going to level the building and blot out the name. They plan on replacing the prison-like structure with 5 smaller schools. It's probably a step in the right direction, but just having 5 mini Lafayetts on the site won't solve the problem. It has to start from the top down. Teachers and principals who actually want to teach and make a difference in students' lives, not just be there and occupy space while waiting for the nice pension checks to come in.

I plan on being at the demolition with my camera watching Lafayette turn into trash, nothing but trash. Maybe I'll save a few bricks to put on Ebay to sell to the 6 people who have fond memories of the dump.

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Lafayette celeb grads sad but students glad BY TANYANIKA SAMUELS and CARRIE MELAGO DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 Famous alums of Brooklyn's Lafayette High School reacted with sadness yesterday to news of the school's imminent demise - but current students said it's about time. "It's a real shame," said Steven Schirripa, a 1975 grad who plays Bobby Bacala on "The Sopranos." "It was a really good school. I don't know what went wrong." Education officials announced Monday that Lafayette - the alma mater of such luminaries as broadcast legend Larry King and baseball great Sandy Koufax - will be phased out along with four other failing schools. While actor and 1956 graduate Paul Sorvino remembered Lafayette yesterday as a place with a "wonderful spirit," today's students complained of chaos in the hallways and classrooms. "I feel like I'm in prison sometimes. Kids set papers on the bulletin boards on fire and in the trash in the bathrooms," said sophomore Malaysia Goddard, 15. "It's crazy here sometimes." HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant, 75, a 1948 Lafayette graduate, reminisced about the thrill of playing home football games at Ebbets Field and listening to crooner Vic Damone, another grad, sing at the senior prom. "It had a pretty good run," Merchant said. "Things evolve and change, and I hope the change suits the needs of the current system." Schirripa reminisced about his junior varsity basketball coach teaching his driver's education class, while Sorvino fondly remembered his leading roles in "The Monkey's Paw" and "Stage Door." "Lafayette exists in my mind now as a metaphor, a paradigm of creative experience and personal fulfillment," Sorvino said, "and now these kids don't have that." Today's students described a poisonous environment at the school, whose controversial principal, Jolanta Rohloff, has been under scrutiny for paying teachers overtime to clean classrooms and improperly lowering the grades of students who score below 65 on Regents exams. Regine Medard, a 16-year-old junior, complained of graffiti on desks, and ratty books, including a global history text that doesn't cover all of the time periods needed to pass the Regents. "They need to phase it out. It would be better for the students," she said. "I think more of them would go to classes and there'll be less problems, less conflicts." But other students were dubious of the reorganization, which could put three smaller schools on Lafayette's site. "It's stupid 'cause Lafayette's been here forever," said senior Michael Osyesanya, 18.

How Not To Run a School

It's interesting to see that Lafayette High School in Brooklyn is still a cesspool of troublemakers and misfits. You'd think that after 3 decades they'd find a way to improve the environment. It's not surprising that parents who make meager wages, work three jobs in order to move to the suburbs and keep their kids out of schools like this.

Anupam Chander: Asian Youths Suffer Harassment in Schools:

Associated Press piece, without byline, published in NY Times:

Eighteen-year-old Chen Tsu was waiting on a Brooklyn subway platform after school when four high school classmates approached him and demanded cash. He showed them his empty pockets, but they attacked him anyway, taking turns pummeling his face.

He was scared and injured -- bruised and swollen for several days -- but hardly surprised.

At his school, Lafayette High in Brooklyn, Chinese immigrant students like him are harassed and bullied so routinely that school officials in June agreed to a Department of Justice consent decree to curb alleged ''severe and pervasive harassment directed at Asian-American students by their classmates.'' Since then, the Justice Department credits Lafayette officials with addressing the problem -- but the case is far from isolated.

Nationwide, Asian students say they're often beaten, threatened and called ethnic slurs by other young people, and school safety data suggest that the problem may be worsening. Youth advocates say these Asian teens, stereotyped as high-achieving students who rarely fight back, have for years borne the brunt of ethnic tension as Asian communities expand and neighborhoods become more racially diverse.