And to take it a step further…this dramatic underachievement and illiteracy rate leads to the prison pipeline as noted. But before these children make it to prison they have to do something to get there. That is why Tallahassee has the highest crime rate in the state. LCS, and Rocky Hanna in particular, do not think of these children as people, potential contributors to society, and makes policy and other decisions that reflect that. The result? We all suffer. When you or one of your family members becomes a victim of senseless crime, the question will always be “why did it happen?”. The answer to the victims who face this reality is clear regardless of whether its being swept under the rug and candy coated by a PR firm. LCS’ policies are a major contributor to Tallahassee’s crime problem, not a mitigator. What happened to Cobi is the perfect example.

When the Southside wanted more jobs, the industries said the education level was too low to support their businesses. The infant mortality rate is still high among black and brown neighborhoods. And the for profit prisons seems to be the end of the line for young Brown and Black men based on the prison data. So, All in all with the consistent miserable educational attainment and low competence levels over the course of at least two decades- but probably more like four decades- LCS is producing A Third World right in the middle of our city.

A drastic intervention should take place and EVERY school subject must take a back seat to the traditional teaching of reading techniques. Such techniques involve actually teaching READING everyday ALL DAY UNTIL competence is GAINED FROM K-12! No worksheets no games no computers just small teacher led groups learning syllabication, Synonyms, verbals, sentence construction and actually reading slowly enough to check for comprehension.

Now the other issue is it’s not statistically possible to have 70% of the Black and Brown students be retarded. And that’s what these scores indicate. However, because of the consistency of the percentage over the years, we may be looking at a public health crisis: lead poisoning.

Rickards and Godby are the majority black/brown schools where these scores appear. It may be time to test the water for lead poisoning. The water in the neighborhoods where these kids live should be tested first to rule out lead. Then the schools water should be tested. Any other potential sources must also be tested.

In a town with two universities, it’s a tragic set of political, historic and social racism that has allowed the illiteracy of the Black and Brown children to reach the levels of a third world country.

DeeDee REFUSES to hold Hanna accountable for his hiring Assistant Superintendents without posting the jobs, she REFUSES to hold Rocky accountable for his notebook the he admitted was false costing taxpayers $600,000, she REFUSES to hold Rocky accountable for dating teachers on his faculty when he was Principal, DeeDee REFUSES to hold Rocky accountable for his hit list and on and on. Will this candidate take on the corruption that is Rocky Hanna?

They won’t explain why they cancel classes every time the weather service INCORRECTLY predicts a bad storm either.
When I was a kid we went to skrewel – walked through blizzards, and rain squalls if we had to. Kids these days are so weak – just like the administrators.