If the kid made good grades in high school he deserves credit unless it was due to academic fraud. Dismissing his efforts is the kind of attitude that leads to kids in bad neighborhoods not trying. We should support the kids that want to change their situation not belittle them.
Well said...... Douglas HS had a big scandal where their principal was caught passing students who never even attended classes. OKC Schools is putting pressure on the inner city schools to raise standardized test scores. OKC ranks very low in the nation on those tests.
None of us here know if Clark was given any help, but I seriously doubt the stuff about him not being able to read/write. I have met the kid, and he is pretty articulate and can handle the English language pretty well. Douglas has worked hard to clean up the academic fraud. What it boils down to is OKC Schools put a lot of pressure on school administrators to get test scores up, but offered little increase to schools already strapped with low rated teachers, lack of resources, and the usual challenges that come with attending inner city schools.
My daughter is a Sophomore at John Marshall HS, a school similar to Douglas in that it is over 90% minority based, recently had a multi-million upgrade to their building etc.... I would love to send my daughter across the street from our house to Casady, but as a single dad working as a social worker, I can't afford that. My child takes AP classes, and she participates in the Band, volleyball, Honors program, and the Science Club.
She is determined to attend OU and play in the Pride. I have gone to her school twice this year because once her phone was snatched by an upper classman who passed it off to another kid at the metal detectors. I made the cop on duty rewind the security cameras, and we found the perp. He had her phone in his pocket, already had deleted her stuff and personalized the phone.
Another time a girl told my daughter she acts like a white girl, and sprayed her in the face with perfume, then pulled her hair. My kid is not a fighter, and she isn't very street oriented. I went to the school and made the admin handle the situation, before I handled it. I talked to the girl, and I met her grandmother, a 70 something yr old lady, raising 5 grandkids alone. A simple Youtube search would show you countless videos of fights, gang fights, and kids getting jumped at John Marshall during classes. My kid manages to stay clear of all that crap, while logging a 3.8 GPA in honors classes.
She hangs with a small group of girls with similar stories. Most of them are from single mother homes, while I'm a single dad.
There are tons of kids at Douglas, John Marshall, Grant, NW Classen, NE, etc who strive to excel academically. They have been failed by the school system, and corruption which always ='s lack of resources. Hard to get top teachers to come to OKC schools, when 1) they get paid beans compared to Texas and similar states, 2) They get little support when dealing with an abundance of ghetto ignorant thugs...... My daughter is already in contact with at least 10 colleges, has attended several events at all of the local colleges, and regularly receives stuff from OU and OSU. Not one school has told her that her 3.8 from JM= a 2.9 at any other school.
What she doesn't get in resources or help, she exceeds in effort!!! I will put her heart, determination, and desire to excel up against any Edmond, Yukon, or Norman top tier student. I recognize she doesn't have the elite teachers, and she doesn't attend a top ranked school, but she does what is asked and then some, working with what she has.
A footnote, JM is so strapped for money, each grade only has one set of books, which are shared by all teachers. What they means is no kid can bring textbooks home because there isn't enough copies for everyone. Each yr I spend hundreds of dollars, purchasing the books she needs for each class, online, out of my own pocket.......
Those are the challenges of attending inner city schools. We are financially stable, not rich, but not dirt poor. We live in a decent neighborhood, in a decent house in the Village. I work my tail off, and have 2 college degrees, but unfortunately Child Welfare workers don't make much money. I do the job because it's a calling, not a money thing.
I hope Stevie Clark makes it, and I hope he does take education more serious than hoops. If he has been allowed to skate by without knowing how to read/write, then a lot of teachers, his parents/guardians, coaches, and community leaders have failed him. In a sense we all have failed him, because we see these problems, and as long as they don't affect our kids, we turn a blind eye.
Sorry for the rant. I tried to stay out of this, but it is a personal sore spot for me.
