So excited to send my child to McMeans Jr. High...now, sexual assault there! (Houston: catholic schools, law)

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

This is so true.
The worst thing about public school is that it's impossible to fire a poor teacher (union) or expel a bad kid.
Private schools don't have to put up with either, they kick kids and teachers out all the time. There's always someone else waiting in line with a check in their hand to attend.

I don't know about that. I went to private school from pre-K to 8th grade and there were several families with totally delinquent children who were a danger to themselves and others. But because their parents gave so much money to the school, they kept getting slapped on the wrists but nothing more.

[sbhubbell]

I went to private school k-12 and I agree with EA...parents had to sign a contract that allowed the school to discipline any and all behaviour on or OFF campus as they saw fit. Kids were suspended or expelled for relatively small incidents...girls who got pregnant were not allowed to graduate with the rest of their class, although they would work with them to help them get their diploma. Smoking off campus even earned suspensions. My school made it crystal clear that it was not a place for rehabilitating delinquents.

And firing bad teachers is darn near impossible now at public schools because of the union.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

This is so true.
The worst thing about public school is that it's impossible to fire a poor teacher (union) or expel a bad kid.
Private schools don't have to put up with either, they kick kids and teachers out all the time. There's always someone else waiting in line with a check in their hand to attend. Not saying the kids or teachers are better, it's just the school has control over these issues and aren't answering to a district or a union.

It is not as hard to fire a poor teacher as you think. If they struggle their first year, they are generally put back on a probationary contract. If they struggle the second, they are not signed back to the school. As for expelling a bad kid, well yes that's a big issue. It is very hard to do. I had a very good friend who worked for a district in the area that has some tough schools. His classroom was half special ed, including an autistic child. He had no luck managing the class. Did the administration come to help him? Nope. They threw him under the bus and did not renew his contract. There were a lot of angry parents as this particular teacher is not only outstanding, he has the evaluations to prove it. Apparently, he did everything correct procedurally. The administration never followed through and bent their own rules. Kids that should have been placed in Alternative school lingered in his classroom almost the entire year. As a teacher myself I am sad to say there are a lot of outstanding former public school teachers who drop out of the profession due to situations like these. Unfortunately, private schools don't pay enough to attract these top tier teachers. If they did, you could compare private schools here to European private schools.

[daddyjohn]

I stilll remember the first day of 7th grade English class [1961]. When class started, some kid mouthed off to Mr. Cavenough. He calmly got up from behind his desk, walked over and cold-cocked the kid. Then he said "now that we have that foolishness out of the way, let's learn some English". We had a few wiseacres in school but even they knew better than to give the lady teachers a hard time. That got you a thumping in the locker room by Coach who had biceps like tree trunks. You didn't go home and complain either, coz you got thumped again for misbehaving in school. Times have surely changed.

[ayannaaaliyah]

And to think that McMeans is located on the South side of I-10 and not the North side

Bad things can and WILL happen ALL the time - South side has the same issues as the North side, sometimes worse.

[EM1956]

Originally Posted by chris_ut

Ya, Catholic school is great, like these ones here: For Ireland's Catholic Schools, a Catalog of Horrors - TIME where they commonly beat and sexually abused the school children.

These incidents happened in the 1950's. Current day Ireland indeed has "Catholic" schools, although all non-fee based schools, called State schools there - are still mostly Catholic. Hard to get away from it in a country that is 95% Catholic. Both of my children attended state schools , although the primary school was named St. Joseph's - and they had no issues at all. This was in the late 90's.

Anyway, Catholic schools in Ireland in the 1950's has nothing to do with Catholic schools in America in 2009.

[LizzySWW]

Originally Posted by EM1956

These incidents happened in the 1950's. Anyway, Catholic schools in Ireland in the 1950's has nothing to do with Catholic schools in America in 2009.

You may be interested to know that Houston has had a problem in one of our finest college prep Catholic schools. Occuring in more modern/recent times those poor boys were dealing with the unthinkable.

There are wonderful private schools in this city. But sex crimes, poorly behaved children whose parents have deep pockets, and marginal teahers who are paid half the salary of public school teachers are alive and well in private schools in Houston.

IMO, both public & private share the same BS.

[EM1956]

Originally Posted by LizzySWW

You may be interested to know that Houston has had a problem in one of our finest college prep Catholic schools. Occuring in more modern/recent times those poor boys were dealing with the unthinkable.

There are wonderful private schools in this city. But sex crimes, poorly behaved children whose parents have deep pockets, and marginal teahers who are paid half the salary of public school teachers are alive and well in private schools in Houston.

IMO, both public & private share the same BS.

My response was to a link posted detailing events that happened in another country 50 years ago. The link had little relevance to today.

And not all parents who choose private or parochial schools have deep pockets. Most are regular families who want a different environment for their children for various reasons. Mine was due to the size of public schools vs. parochial schools, and also the responsiveness of the teachers to parents in the parochial schools.

Also, you might be surprised to find that many parochial schools pay very close to what the local public schools are paying in salary. At least this is true for the Catholic school system. There is usually a waiting list for those jobs and I would not consider those teachers to be marginal in any way. Your generalization of those who choose to teach in the non-public system is not fair.

I do agree that problems exist in all schools, it's just that the private/parochial schools have much more lee-way in how to deal with issues.

[LizzySWW]

Even our "cheap" Catholic school in West Houston (John Paul II) is about $750 a month. Those parents are known to kick in an extra $500 or so to "donate for the Christmas play fund" or whatever fundraiser is going on. It's not high roller school, but donations occur there regularly. I'm sure there are lower tutions parochial schools in town, I believe that.....I just don't know of them first hand. And maybe Catholic schools pay teachers almost as much as public....heck they deserve it! But I can also tell you of some smaller, but pretty good private schools on Memorial Dr. that pay 1st year teachers $19,000. That's bad. But some teachers obviously don't mind that. Another thing that's worth noting about private schools is that their teachers don't have to be state certified...... I don't really understand why, but it's true.

[Mom2Feebs]

I let a boy touch my boob in 7th grade. SEXUAL ASSAULT!!!! *sigh*