Jackson Free Press

About 30 students walked out of class this morning at Bailey Magnet High School to protest a rezoning plan that will divide and send them to different schools next year.

Anthony Moore, a senior at the school, has attended Bailey all through high school. He said the students walked out of class at about 10 a.m. and have no intention of going back to school today.

Under the district's rezoning plan, Bailey will become an APAC middle school beginning with the next school year, and current students at the school will be divided between several other high schools in the city. District officials have said that consolidating the middle school APAC programs in one location will be more efficient.

Moore said that Bailey's small size helps keep high school students with behavioral problems in school, however, which helps the entire district.

"Students who come to our school who have behavior problems, they get one-on-one help," he said. "If they go to big schools like Murrah that have 1,100 students, they can't get that same interaction. ... Releasing students with behavior problems out into JPS, all they're going to do is send them to Capital City (Alternative School), which we know is not a good idea now because Capital City has so many problems going on with them."

Candace Dockery, a junior at Bailey, said she came to the school last year.

"They welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like family," she said.

Dockery stood between two of her friends at the school, wiping tears from her cheeks as she spoke about being separated from her friends next year.

"This is all I have; I don't want to go anywhere else and find new friends," she said.

Jamesia Pippins, a senior at the school, suggested the district should shut down lower-performing schools or hold off on building middle schools to save money, rather than sending Bailey students to different high schools.

Eric Stringfellow, a public-affairs consultant for the district, said he thinks it's great that students are expressing their First Amendment rights to express themselves, and it shows a passion for their school.

"Anybody who had any questions about how people in Jackson felt about their schools, that question has been answered," he said, referring to the number of people who have spoken out about the rezoning plan.

Although there's always a chance that the district could tweak its plans, Stringfellow said, "the decision has been made."

Read more about JPS' rezoning plan:
JPS to Close School Under Rezoning Plan
JPS Tries to Present Rationale for Rezoning

Previous Comments

ID

167681

Comment

It is great that the Bailey students have school pride and see some benefit from going to Bailey, but the realities of schooling in urban areas in 2012 dictate that the School itself has outlived its usefulness. I mentored two students there a couple of years ago and I often wondered why the school was even open with Murrah, a better school in a number of ways, was right next door? The "Magnet" for the Bailey Magnet School was a health-science partnership with UMC. There were probably more students at Murrah participating in the program at UMC than at Bailey. I applaud JPS for finally taking its head out of the sand on this issue and doing what should have been done 15 o 20 years ago. There will be more protests from students and parents, but this was and is the right thing to do.

Author

Renaldo Bryant

Date

2012-05-04T13:09:12-06:00