Young: School did what's right, smart; still gets tagged

WACO, Texas — West Avenue Elementary is a jewel-studded crown for its neighborhood.

The word "jewel" evokes things pricey and beautiful. While the school, built in 2001, still has the scent of new and indeed has a beautiful exterior, the jewels are all inside.

Principal Andreia Foster was named principal of the year last year by the Waco Independent School District. The school, "academically unacceptable" in 2006, last year went to "acceptable." Now it's "recognized" by the state.

Impressive. So, what did a WISD employee hear recently from a man who thought he knew all about West Avenue Elementary?

"I'll never enroll my child there. Do you know how many school shootings they've had?"

Yes, I do. The answer is zero.

He was saying that the number was in multiples. No. The number is zero.

I understand why in his mind the words "gun incident" and West Avenue are paired. Part of the reason is that if he reads at all, he doesn't read very well or thoroughly. Or he heard a TV report and wasn't listening very closely. Or he was passing on hearsay.

The actual reason West Avenue Elementary and "gun incident" recently were paired is this: The school did exactly what it was supposed to do when events erupted nearby.

On Sept. 4 the school was put on lockdown when police responded to a shooting at 1600 West Avenue, a block a way.

Two armed men had kicked down the door of a home in a dispute over a stolen television. Gunfire was exchanged.

When police responded, one of the men fled and tried to enter the front door of the school.

Principal Foster, having been notified of the incident, was at the door. It was locked. Deterred, the man ran to the playground, which had been evacuated. He tried a back door. It was locked. All the doors were locked. The man had nowhere to go, except to jail.

So, had a certain know-nothing blowhard known anything, like about the school he was calling too dangerous for his child, he might have said: "Did you hear how professionally they reacted to that incident down the street? And did you hear it's 'recognized'? I want my kid there."

Ah, well.

The incident that caused West Avenue Elementary to lock down for a few minutes was and is analogous for what public schools endure.

Up to their doors come all of society's challenges, from violence, to mental instability and disability, to poverty, to calamity, like Hurricane Ike evacuees this week.

Of course, a convenience store has some of the same challenges. But when it comes to the people it serves, a convenience store can discriminate. It can tell customers to hit the road.

A matter rarely challenged is the assumption that private schools are better than the public schools. But why? Admit it. The key reason for this impression is that private schools can and do discriminate. A defining feature of a private school is self-selection and self-association.

Some suburban public schools have those defining features by virtue of property values and other criteria.

So, when inner-city schools do good things it ought to get noticed. They certainly shouldn't be tarred for what they can't control.

I react quite viscerally to a false "school shooting" claim because of a matter closer to home. A few years ago when angst over the Columbine shootings was raising fever blisters, one of Waco's TV stations reported that a gunman had been spotted on the grounds of our boys' elementary school.

He hadn't. That was hearsay. The man with the gun hadn't even come within 50 yards of the school. He'd been arrested in a driveway down the block.

A school "gun incident," said the TV talking head. No, it wasn't.

That school was the safest place for my children to be. Sadly, nationwide hysteria and breathless claims depict schools as killing zones, a claim you hear today. This just ups the challenge for those who already have a tough job. They are our jewels.

John Young writes for the Waco Tribune-Herald.