Jackson Free Press

After a setback last Tuesday, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton went through with a campaign promise to attack the Jackson Public School drop-out rate and get school-age children off the street. On Friday, Melton organized an attempted police round-up of more than 300 truants and drop-outs, to be carted off to see a judge.

The JFP learned Tuesday, however, that only three students were actually detained on a truancy charge.

"The idea is to help, not to hurt (and) to get as much information from the students so that we can do what is necessary to help," Melton told Clarion-Ledger reporters.

Melton has proven to be a lover of the camera lens when the event is well planned, but some parents said they feared the high visibility of the sweep might leave the wrong impression.

"I agree with what the mayor's doing, but I just think this could have been done with less flash," said Janice Careri, whose step-daughter attends JPS. "My husband's children did great in (JPS), and I'm afraid this thing might give the impression that schools are a war zone needing military intervention. But I don't think it's in bad shape."

Mike Males, a sociology lecturer at University of California at Santa Cruz, and a national expert on the demonization of young people, said he didn't see why the sweep could not have happened under the regular process.

"(The mayor) had the names already, so he should have just been able to hand the names to a police officer. I can't fathom the need for a sweep like that. If there's a normal procedure and the normal officials aren't doing their job, then that's another issue. But for him to do a stunt like that in the middle of the night was just grandstanding," Males said.

JPS Deputy Superintendent Ron Sellers said the district already tops the attendance rate of many urban districts across the country.

"Program managers from the Stupski Foundation (which helps school districts meet national and state criteria) said our attendance is higher than any of the urban school districts they compare us to across the country. We are talking about a dozen or more places across the country, places like Baltimore, Chicago and Milwaukee. This is comparing apples to apples, as opposed to apples and oranges, such as when the JPS is compared to districts like Clinton," said Sellers, who described comparing Clinton to Jackson as comparing one high school to eight high schools, or two middle schools to 11 middle schools.

Jackson Public School Board Vice President John Larkin said the school system's dropout rate has been falling steadily over the last three years because of intervention efforts during the years when students move from junior high school to high school.

"We're seeing the results of efforts put in place back before Dr. Earl Watkins became superintendent," Larkin said. "A lot of education theory noted that the transition from middle school to high school is a critical area and many school districts, particularly urban districts, were losing kids during that transition between eighth to ninth grade and ninth to 10th grades."

In an effort to change things, JPS now offers more front-end intervention, with more adults paying attention to a 14-year-old student on the way to becoming 15. Many schools have also moved to separate the more delicate age groups from the rest of the student body.

"I think there's more faculty and administrative nurturing with ninth graders throughout the school, and the schools that started it first are the ones that had the best results," Larkin said.

Murrah is a perfect example, Larkin said. Murrah had a separate wing built and turned it into a ninth-grade wing. The numbers of drop-outs for chronically absent students at Murrah now are negligible, Larkin said.

The school system has made improvements on other fronts, as well. This year, the system saw an increase in the number of National Merit semi-finalists and National Achievement finalists and semi-finalists.

Larkin said the system had between 80 and 100 students enrolled in a summer program focusing on improving test taking skills, particularly the PSAT.

"A lot of kids don't recognize that it's not what you know. It's knowing how to take the test. Jackson Prep and Jackson Academy do a very good job of teaching test-taking strategies and the results show that they get a very high percentage comparatively of students making National Merit semi-finalists. It works for them. It works for us," Larkin said.

JPS also recently announced the opening of a full International Baccalaureate program, the only one in the state, from elementary school to high school. The program emphasizes global knowledge and how to compete on an international level. The course also places emphasis upon second language skills.

Previous Commentsshow

Now, even Ronnie Agnew is starting to question Mr. Melton's press sweeps. In his column yesterday, Agnew called the method "embarrassing." And it's good to see The Clarion-Ledger actually considering the big picture of whether such displays actually help the problem. This isn't something we see from this corporate rag very often. Hopefully, it's a sign of better reporting and analysis to come.

DonnaLadd

Dec 12 2005

I will agree that, traditionally, this should not be the undertaking of a mayor. I must also agree that this isn’t a long term solution. Yet I support the Mayor in making this his undertaking. As for Mr. Agnew’s opinion being that Earl Watkins is continuing to prove the right choice for superintendent, it would have been enlightening to have read about any of Mr. Watkins’s successes as superintendent.

K RHODES

Dec 13 2005

Yet I support the Mayor in making this his undertaking. Indeed, K, I too support the what -- getting kids in schools. But I cannot support the how -- criminalizing these kids in front of TV cameras and such in order for Mr. Melton to look like a pro-kid crusader. He is clearly preening for the cameras, rather than going about a way that is not likely to hurt these children. Remember the old adage: First, do no harm. It makes no sense the way he's doing it. Take the 7-year-old boy he "swept" up last week. The Ledge reported today that HHS head Don Taylor said he's "needy." And best yet, he's NEVER BEEN TRUANT. He happened to be absent that day. So what did Mr. Melton do—he makes a big hoopla in front of this little boy, who probably now thinks that he is a young criminal of some sort. He's *7*, for goodness sake! Who is giving this man advice? From the Ledge: On Thursday, the 7-year-old boy returned to his kindergarten class at Galloway Elementary School. "The student has been in school since the incident," Jackson Public Schools spokesman Jason Smith said Monday. "He's never been chronically absent or truant at all." The boy just happened to be absent from school the day of the sweep, Smith said. OK, how about the scenario of QUIETLY getting the names of chronic truants, then checking to make sure that they're actually "truant," and not just missing a day of school, and then approach them with social workers, but with no visible police officers or badges in site. If the parents are mistreating the kids or keeping them home, arrest them or whatever. But do it in a way that doesn't hurt young children. This is ridiculous. Then, once he's had actual SUCCESS, then hold a press conference and brag about it and get his props. I could deal with that -- but this dog-and-pony show is clearly designed to get Mr. Melton in front of the cameras, and perhaps keep the headlines off things like his lawsuit, his administration's morale problems, their refusal to turn over crime stats and other public info, and so on. Mr. Agnew was right: It IS embarrassing, as Mr. Melton's displays and walk-outs have been for months now, both during the campaign and since he took office. But when it comes to 7-year-old Jacksonians getting caught up in the act, it is much more than "embarrassing." It is potentially devastating for the young people who are being turned into criminals by these posses of officers and such. In many ways, these truant raids strike me as the worst thing I've seen him do. It bothers me more than his lying under oath even, because children are directly caught up in it. I can't imagine how anyone would think his method is a great idea -- unless they buy into the notion that all poor kids are "thugs."

DonnaLadd

Dec 13 2005

True, re Mr. Watkins. We included in the JFP print editions charts showing how much dramatically truancy has improved in recent years. Of course, Mr. Melton's modus operandi seems to be to give no one else credit for any improvement. He seems to want to tear down successes on his way to claiming it all for himself. I know that sounds ornery, but I'm pretty whacked about this 7-year-old kid who wasn't even truant. It's a new symbol for me.

DonnaLadd

Dec 13 2005

I really had hoped this wasn’t about Melton merely getting air time, but after now learning that the initial reporting regarding the seven year-old was false and overblown, it would appear that I should have gone with my initial instincts regarding Melton. I cannot argue that Melton should have gone about doing this differently. I don’t believe truancy registers high regarding JPS’s paramount issues anyways.

K RHODES

Dec 13 2005

I think truancy is important, but I think the bigger problem is drop-outs, which isn't necessarily the same thing (and are often dropped off the books as I understand it, so they likely wouldn't show up as truants). And a lot of drop-outs happen because kids are kicked out of school for discipline issues under zero-tolerance policies, but that's a different topic for another day. Re the 7-year-old: It's really about HOW this is being done and then played in the media. As much as I believe that media should have access to city activities, I do not believe that the mayor should be allowing, much less encouraging, the media to film and photograph these minors getting caught up in his various "sweeps." If the authorities accidentally found a 7-year-old in a bad living condition (which one media report said happened; who knows?), fine, help the kid and his family, but all this hoopla around it, and the cops sweeping in all over, is simply not going to help those children. As much as Mr. Melton might try, you can't solve all of society's problems with a backward cap and a TV camera. And you might cause a few along the way. Again: First, do no harm. Also, someone in the office tonight asked why WAPT had footage of Mr. Melton in his sweeps get-up patting down a "suspect." Mr. Melton is not a law-enforcement officer, just like he is not a journalist. We really oughta be worried about lawsuits that the public is going to have to pay for here. We've already seen that his insurance company is bailing on him in his other lawsuits for illegal law-enforcement behavior; I kind of doubt his homeowner's policy is going to cover lawsuits brought by children and their parents for over-zealous cops-and-robber antics.

DonnaLadd

Dec 14 2005

"As much as Mr. Melton might try, you can't solve all of society's problems with a backward cap and a TV camera." Exactly!

K RHODES

Dec 14 2005