APP Students at Thurgood Marshall??

[Mom WS Stroller Strides]

My soon to be 1st grader has tested in to APP. Right now my preference is to send him to Lafayette for Spectrum, but he is NOT guaranteed a slot. Because my son has some “social” challenges I am worried about all of the things that I am hearing about recess at Thurgood Marshall. West Seattle parents who have APP students going to Thurgood Marshall, could you “sound off” and give me an honest opinion about the school, program and in particular recess/ playground?? Thanks so much..

An anxious mom with decisions to make before April 15.

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[karen]

My child had some “challenges”, too. He went to Lafayette Spectrum for one year and it was awful. I know some parents who are having a great time there, but there seem to be problems with kids that have “challenges”. I have met many parents that have taken their children out of the Spectrum program there because of the issues. We had a very hard time with both the principle and the special ed teacher not being willing to accommodate.

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[Rod Clark]

For what it’s worth, I worked at T. Marshall for two years starting in 2003 and was out on that playground every day at lunch responding to whatever you’ve heard about. Often too in the mornings early before school, since many parents dropped off their kids before the official time that they were supposed to do that, so that they could get to work. And often after school.

Yes, there were behavior problems, but it wasn’t one of the really troubled schools. A whole lot of “dissing” aside, there were few minor injuries and no child was ever seriously hurt. The faculty at that time were mostly pretty caring and effective people, assembled by Ben Wright who had just departed as principal. The principal and head teacher spent a lot of their time working on the kids who created the most disruptions. Part of it was that T. Marshall in those days was a mid-year recipient school for problem kids from across town who couldn’t be handled elsewhere. Hell would freeze over before a few of those boys were ever going to behave well toward other kids. But that might all be different now.

In all, T. Marshall was a better, happier and more effective school at handling behavior problems than many others in that area (Madrona comes to mind as a notable contrast back then). There was no sense that anything was out of control, and kids generally played together well enough. When they didn’t, and every day somewhere somehow a few of them didn’t, people were right there on it. The kids’ behavioral hogwash frankly was more than at the average school. But children of any race or circumstance were not typically afraid, and not too many real problems rose above the usual range of stubborn childish behavior.

There were four separate schools there at the time, before APP. 1) Four classrooms in the autism school for severely autistic kids (e.g. big sealed earmuffs to block out distractions). Kathy Newell and her teachers were widely recognized for their work with those students. 2) Four classrooms in the elementary bilingual center, for kids who didn’t speak enough English for ESL. Puspita Biswas and her people worked at that with very constrained support from the district. 3) One classroom in the the Head Start preschool run by the YMCA at the other end of the building. 4) Twelve, if I remember correctly, classrooms in the regular (and regular special ed) school.

Socially challenged kids, of a pretty wide range of social ineptness, abounded but there was a lot of tolerance and help around too.

I can’t speak for anyone else there, but my three Big Rules on the playground were always: Be safe. Be good to each other. And everybody can play. In that order. And I think that was close enough to the spirit of the school as a whole.

It’s hard to guess now, because looking at the school’s site, I see only four homeroom teachers still teaching in the regular school who were there then – Minor, Robinson, Howard-Powell (who headed ALO) and Curtis-Davis. Mr. Shin is still there in PE, and he was above average at helping kids with interpersonal problems. If the current school administration is anything like it was then, you as a parent would expect more responsiveness to your concerns, and actual work from the administration with those problem kids and their parents, than in some other schools. You might want to try it and see.

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