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My son will be attending Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School next year. I chose this school for him because he has ADHD and a minor learning disability and I thought that the project-based learning and academic coaching programs and the modified calendar would be a good fit for him. He is also great with computers and will most likely attend a computer-centric technical school (as opposed to college) after high school, so I figured a more technologically-based high school would also be a good fit.
When I mentioned this school to my neighbor, she said that she would not send her son there because it is not a 'safe' school. She said that the kids there are rough and there are a lot more fights and suspensions compared to our base school (Cary HS).
Now she has me concerned that I've made a bad choice in choosing this school for my son. I am looking for some feedback from any who has first- (or even second-) hand experience with this school and could tell me how worried, if at all, I really need to be.
I'd also like to hear some feedback about the project-based learning and academic coaching and what I can expect from them.
Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.
My husband is a graduate of Southeast Raleigh and he has told me plenty of stories about the gang violence and other issues the high school has. On the plus side, rarely will these types of problems pop up inside the classroom if your son is going to be in mostly technology classes. But I would not be surprised if he ran into issues in the hallways, lunchroom, etc. Not to say problems will happen, just to say I wouldn't be surprised.
I have a good friend who teaches there and she LOVES IT. She lives in Cary and took both of her kids there with her. They have a TON of technology resources available!
Most of the negative stuff I hear about it comes from people who "wouldn't send their kids there" not from people who actually have kids there.
I'm sure it has more than it's share of issues, but that's probably not the whole story. Did you go visit?
My husband is a graduate of Southeast Raleigh and he has told me plenty of stories about the gang violence and other issues the high school has. On the plus side, rarely will these types of problems pop up inside the classroom if your son is going to be in mostly technology classes. But I would not be surprised if he ran into issues in the hallways, lunchroom, etc. Not to say problems will happen, just to say I wouldn't be surprised.
Every public high school will have stories of gang violence and other issues. Wake County has practiced no tolerance of gang activity in all of the schools. I would not consider Southeast Raleigh Magnet school an unsafe school. Parents who are overly concerned about their children safety at school should probably consider private school. Private schools get to pick and choose their students and put students out when they don't meet their expectations. Public schools don't have that choice.
To say there's no tolerance doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I worked in a school outside of NC that had zero tolerance to bullying and my first year there had a kid commit suicide because of some awful bullying that was happening to him both on and off-campus.
My son is currently a Junior at SRMHS and overall his experience there has been very positive. Yes, there have been a few fights over the years and my son has lost a few personal items in class due to petty theft, but I'd say SRMHS is no worse than any other Wake County public school in that regard.
In fact, Enloe HS has probably seen more serious crime incidents than SRMHS.
People often assume and associate Southeast Raleigh to be a bad neighborhood but it really isn't at least in the area surrounding the school. I've been to SRMHS at all hours of the day and night including early wee hours of the morning picking up my son after his return from out of state school events and have never felt uncomfortable or threatened being there.
However, you should be warned. Like most public schools in Wake County, SRMHS has suffered over the past two years due to budget cuts which has impacted some classes and reduced staff which could potentially eliminate some elective class offerings going forward as the economic driven budget crisis continues.
My advice is to give SRMHS a try for a year to see how well it fits your son's needs and then he can always transfer back to his base school if things don't work out for him there. But I would base your decision on academics and not someone else's perception of the school for which they have no first hand experience.
My husband is a graduate of Southeast Raleigh and he has told me plenty of stories about the gang violence and other issues the high school has. On the plus side, rarely will these types of problems pop up inside the classroom if your son is going to be in mostly technology classes. But I would not be surprised if he ran into issues in the hallways, lunchroom, etc. Not to say problems will happen, just to say I wouldn't be surprised.
I'm not sure how long ago your husband graduated from SRMHS, but the school isn't like that any more. Not saying it's perfect by any means, but my son has never been harassed or threatened there in the past three years as compared to any other average high school.
I've heard that the kids can be a bit unruly at SE. This was from the point of view of teachers, so their opinion is different from that of a student. I know a teacher that is looking for a different school and one that just left. I sure that it can get a bit more rowdy than Cary High. I can imagine that most schools are touched somehow my gang and drug violence. It's everywhere. I graduate from CHS years ago (1993) and there were some fellow students that were involved with gangs and drugs. Good luck. The WCPSS is a headache.
My sons grad from Millbrook HS (WCPSS) between 2007-2010. All these same issues went on there as well. Gang fights, regular fights, stolen stuff, bullying, drugs prevalent. Its in all schools. My sons personally were never touched, only one had an expensive calc stolen, my sons weren't involved in any incidents themselves. They just didnt associate with the losers. Overall, they did well in HS, all 3 were honor roll, NHS, and 2 have since grad from NCSU with engineering degrees, securing great jobs before graduation. Last son will grad NCSU in 2yr with a masters in engineering.
So, my point is...good kids will still be good kids whatever HS they attend. Smart kids will learn, because 99% of the teachers want to teach and do so well. Family support and upbringing is the most valuable lesson in HS. Bad kids are everywhere, you just have to prepare your kids how to negotiate around them safely. Its tough, I would hate to be a HSer in this day.
With all schools now being "schools of choice", I wonder how much will change.
I graduated from Enloe, back when it was just so so. Now that it is a magnet, I have had lots of friends who kids went there. They told me that as long as your students were not in the base population, they were ok. But...again, I wonder how things will change with all the choices that everyone now has?
Vicki
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