In Summary, this is a school for unwed pregnant kids. The school augments their public school funding by urban farming in Detroit ( Link ). Yes, the Detroit that serves so often as Michael Moore's palette of what is wrong with our country.
Looking at how this school describes itself as well as the numbers associated with it show a real success story. From the Detroit Public School website ( Link )
When a teenaged/pre-teen girl discovers she's pregnant, her life changes far more than she could ever have expected...
The school offers early education classes for infants and toddlers along with business partners who can help needy students meet their child's basic needs such as food, clothing and medical care...
Everything at the school encourages young mothers to stay on the right 'life' track. This structure has led to a graduation rate of over 90% at Ferguson with most of the girls going on to college...
The numbers here are outstanding. An attendance rate of 97% ( Link ) tells me the only reason a kid is out of class is to deliver their child.
This facility can easily be looked at as Vo-Tech for Mom. Seriously, if you want to set an example of how to break the cycle of poverty - this is it.
The kids going there, yes ninth graders are kids having kids, are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. They become the example to not only the child they are about to raise; but to others in the community that education is the great equalizer.
Everyone is allowed to make mistakes. How you recover from the screw-ups defines how you grow.
If you are Pro-Choice - these girls, I am sorry; women, have made the Life-Choice to gut it out with their kid under tough circumstances and need to be supported.
If you are Pro-Life - these women have made the Life-Choice to put their future where YOUR mouth is. You also need to support these women.
Why does this school need to be supported?
The Detroit Public School System is outsourcing education. (I guess strangling a school system first makes it easier to say it isn't working.) They have decided to close 45 of their facilities and Catherine Ferguson is one of them.
I guess the thing that caught my eye on this was not the educational factors here (I am sure a ton of bloggers can do a better job on that than I can), but how the protests were handled here.
These women need this facility open and they are willing to peacefully fight for it. I am sure they are teaching those quaint Amendment things as part of the curriculum, especially the one about being able to peaceably assemble to air your grievances.
The school district forcibly removed these women from the facility, claiming they owned it. Hmmm, what does "Public" mean when it says "Public" School? It means the common ground owned by everyone - including those kids (women). What these women are being taught in the real world here is that our systems are fraudulent; especially, as they are being manhandled away.
What about those manhandling men?
I thought they took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution? Are they really Americans anymore? Or will they use the Nuremburg defense of, "I was told to do this by my boss, and I have to follow every order"? I do not see how Detroit School's Chief of Police Roderick Grimes can consider himself an American for following orders that destroyed these people's First Amendment Rights.
I am putting this police "Chief" in sharp contrast to what happens when people like the (not-so-) Reverend Phelps or Jones come to town with their travelling freak shows and their rights would NEVER be abridged.
It is almost like - "These are little black pregnant girls - We can trample on their rights." And I hope this "Chief" gets angry with this assessment, because he is part of the problem. He needs to look in the mirror and ask, "Is this really the country I want"?
The revolution in Egypt took place because those with the guns and the power on the ground knew when NOT to use them. This "Chief" could use a sabbatical in Cairo to learn about police restraint. He needs to learn how to stand up for the U.S. Constitution. This is something bigger than the paycheck he receives from the Detroit Public School System - it is a solemn oath that he is violating.
The Maddow link above can show you what it looks like when "The State" takes over?
Ferguson student and occupier, 17-year-old Ashley Matthews is why the lessons of Freedom need to be taught properly. The audio is lousy as she describes her arrest:
Athletics isn't the way out of poverty - brains are. Ashley is showing there seems to be a pretty good crop to be grown in Detroit.
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