Last Thursday, Classical magnet School at 85 Woodland Street was put into a "CODE RED" security lock down. A Code Red is usually for the most serious security issues at schools. If nothing else, this Code Red will hopefully identify and correct some serious policy issues within the Hartford Schools.
According to sources, the Principal at Classical Magnet was not in the school building at the time of the lock down. The vice principal was attempting to keep the "senior prank" from happening that day. As a result, she came up with the brilliant idea of calling a "Code Red" lock down to keep the students in their classrooms and under strict control.
Apparently that plan backfired with serious repercussions. The School Administration never notified anyone they were instituting a Code Red. After it backfired there were numerous excuses made. Students were told it was a lock down because someone had climbed onto the roof. Eventually an e-mail was sent to parents that it was a planned "drill" and no one was notified because they wanted it to be as realistic as possible. Good cover story.
The problem was that students inside the school began calling and texting their parents by cell phones that something was wrong in the school and they were in lock down. Concerned parents began calling the school to find out what was going on. For some reason, no one in the school office were answering the phones.
Concerned parents then began calling the Hartford Police telling them that something was wrong and they couldn't contact the school. Hartford 911 Dispatchers tried calling the school and no one answered. A simple phone call from the school to the Dispatch Center advising them of the drill initially seems like it would have been a wise move first. Actually it seems like that should be a basic policy before any drill, fire security or otherwise.
In this day and age, the worst was in every one's mind and numerous Hartford Police Officers were immediately dispatched to the school for the unknown reason for the Code Red.. One HPD source told me that at least 8 patrol cars were dispatched to the school and at least 8 to 10 officers.
Anytime you have armed Police Officers being dispatched to a possible active shooter situation and responding at high speeds with lights and sirens going, the potential is there for disaster. All of which could have been avoided with a little common sense planning.
Add to that the fact of armed police officers were then searching the school with weapons drawn thinking they are looking for an armed suspect. This has to be traumatic to students seeing this activity as well as the the danger to someone who might come around a corner quickly and be mistaken for an intruder.
The matter is currently being handled Administratively by both HPD and the Hartford Schools
Maybe the senior prank would have been the better and less dangerous outcome
The e-mail explanation sent to parents is below
SCN_0019 on Scribd
Luckily , HPD trains their officers to respond properly to active shooter situations and the situation was resolved without any accidents or mishaps but it could have potentially been much worse.The fact that there have been several explanation from the school administration, and none of them being the truth so far, is disheartening. The administration even went so far Monday as blaming the students since it was their fault because they advised their parents of the situation and the parents over-reacted.
Maybe the senior prank would have been the better, less dangerous outcome.
28 comments:
These are the people that Hartford residents are entrusting to educate their children?
Who is the VP of that school, and what are their qualifications?
All that lying & blaming sets a great example, doesn't it?
another well thought out plan,like restorative justice.
Same thing happened at hphs a while ago "planned" it is outrageous these lies continue to be the normal. Just like hundreds yes hundreds of students award for perfect attendance at hphs today... Really hundreds with perfect attendance don't believe it
Word is that family involvement is up this year at the Pub. The data shows it just like the data shows that there are less students in the halls this year. Flat out lies. We had parent teacher conferences yesterday. I don't think there was a single parent in the building. We don't even have a legitimate school governance council. Just when I see what's going on in the building and think that you just can't make this shit up, the people in charge just keep showing me that, yes, you can just make this shit up.
My daughter has been there since 6th grade. The quality of the education, lack of administration as well as a general nonchalance about everything has me literally counting down the days until she leaves.
now there's a genius ....its plain and clear these administrators across the system put students and staff at risk on a daily basis. You can't make this stuff up
The "hundreds" are for individual classes. A student makes it to your class every day but then skips Ms. Jones class. Then attends Mr. Bill's class every day along with Ms. Smith's while skipping Ms. Frank's class. There you have it. Three perfect attendance awards for three classes. No consequences for the skipped classes. Your tax dolodol at work. Insanity rules the day.
They are all insane. Worst move ever is to lock people in a place and isolate them..let alone kids. FIRST RULE OF SURVIVAL IS TO KEEP ON MOVING. These people are morons.
It’s not just Hartford, it’s a magnet school so Hartford county
Any comment from Leslie yet, or has she crawled back into her bunker?
The failure of leadership and slipshod actions taken by administration around the district points to one place. The Chief of Schools. She is calling all of the shots with the administration. She demands unquestioned obedience to her flawed and failing management style. If anyone dares to not be in lockstep agreement with her demands, they are hounded and harassed into compliance. This ensures that the failure goes throughout the system. The upper levels of the administration make policy that keeps the schools in disarray so they can hire more consultants, coaches, and intervention personnel to fix the problems they create and then blame the teachers. Other people have posted that the central office needs to be audited. THIS HAS TO HAPPEN IF THE DISTRICT IS TO BE SUCCESSFUL. You have to admire the hundreds of perfect attendance awards in a district where there were recently hired administrative (non-teaching) staff to deal with the crisis of attendance. The data cooking department downtown generates misinformation on a daily basis to benefit their public appearance while they use the same data tsunami to detract from teachers who are following the orders of those in charge. Hartford, we need to use this outlet to let our families know how their school system is letting their children down. Changes in the main office, letting the teachers TEACH, and giving the building level administration the authority to manage their schools will make education in Hartford a source of pride rather than a source of apology. The personnel in the schools can improve the teaching and learning in our system by holding the administration publicly accountable through this site. Great change happens with BOLD actions and only the truth will help us accomplish this.
have you found out anything about what happened at west middle?
or is this another coverup by the hps?
Sadly, another coverup. They are not releasing any information that may prove to be negative to the Superintendent, including costs of travel, costs for catering and meals, and any information on suspensions and discipline. What is she hiding? Is it really that bad in the Hartford Schools? Apparently yes
Regarding attendance: the default in powerschool is present, so if a teacher fails to record attendance (and this happens often at the middle and high school levels), powerschool will record the student as present even if they are absent. Happens ALL the time. Teachers should be required to keep a physical attendance book in addition to powerschool -- more accountability for failing to take attendance
What kind of crazy system is that? No entry is a positive thing ? Does their payroll system work the same way? No entry means full pay for the week
The latest cover up about West Middle Principal is that is she out on medical leave due to a back injury. And that Classical Principal who comes to work in sweat pants and T-shirts and also brings her baby in everyday because the daycare at Hartford High only runs until 2:00pm. how are they getting away with this!
No entry is present and no presence is a 50%. A kid who never shows up to school automatically gets a 50 as a grade for the first three quarters. Anything to raise the graduation rate.
or maybe HPD doesn't train how to deal with armed juveniles.
Everyday the district runs a powerschool report that identifies who has not taken attendance and its sent to the principals. Some of the principals use it as a form of public shaming by sending out the report with teachers' names in red who have not been taking attendance there is no lack of oversight just poor management. if teachers forget to punch in using their fingerprint, they are spoken to by administration - - docking pay is one of the punishments for failure to do the paperwork. the day care at HPHS is supposed to be for the young mothers to aid them in coming to school. Isn't it funded by state and federal grants? Much as teachers will take advantage of the anonymity of your site, be ready for "pro-administration" people to try to counter what is posted here. The district prefers the ever present as it helps the numbers for their administrative class. However; no student can earn lower than a 55 in a class in which they do no work or even attend. The hallways in the high schools are filled with students late to class who often arrive 20-50 minutes late. After teachers have take the attendance. Rather than hold the students accountable for their poor attendance, administration admonished the teaching staff for the only thing that matters "manipulatable data collection". Since the DCF fervor of filing 136 neglect reports has put the HPS at the top of the reporters list, because administration has been commanded to do so, else they are reported by central office to DCF, teachers take attendance not just for accurate record keeping, but for self-preservation.
Someone asked is it that bad? It is worse than many could imagine. Teachers love to teach but have to do so in a polluted environment of fear created by central office and forced upon a fearful group of complicit principals who work under 3 year contracts. We try to teach while watching for the attack from management. The lies will be thick to try to cover up this whole mess just like everything else that is showing up here.
If you're going to work for the principal who was supposed to be leading hphs this next year ... you should be scared...two years two different schools next year a new one. Follow this one and see the inprovement... not
they are well trained, they deal with enough of them daily
How about central,office calling to override a consequence without knowing anything at All? Never show up to school or class and get the 50 for breathing! No wonder our students want something with no work put into it. PBIS is not all about rewards there is a restitution to the community harmed but that part never seems to happened let’s just have a conversation and go back to class to Bragg about how you can do whatever and say whatever because all that will happen is I have to listen to someone.....how many at central,office have helped, guided or educated a student to cross the stage? I’m guessing not many..... but hey those on the front lines with students every day don’t know what works just those in a cubicle.....
God I hope you are not a teacher.... the word is spelled improvement !
Photo op Leslie hired a gem for the new Weaver the saga continues, this one takes the cake. A full blast narcissist with a huge need to overcompensate for her lack of intelligence,so she tells students that "she is very smart" Where are they getting these administrators?
It appears Leslie and friends are unable to build a student and teacher schedule for next year and are going to hire a consultant, ALB, to do it for them. Why do we pay these people and how much more money do they waste on contacts for stuff they should be capable of doing.
Yes. They are really that bad. I'm a senior at classical magnet and it was a horrible day. the students went from scared to fed up when we realized that it was all fake. the fact that our principles refuse to deal out punishment all year and then try to make students follow the rules the last two months of school is absurd. if they wanted the rules enforced they should have thought about that in September not May.
So the fix continues hphs graduation tonight. Students will be " certified" as completing graduation requirements, most will have but kit is sad the the students who worked and showed up for school will be receiving the same graduation certificate as those who the district forces administration to pressure teachers to pass as they graduate not knowing basic skills. Leslie needs to go
hartford just posted again for teachers at Weaver. Word is out that the new principal is a horror show - - says the teachers don't care about the kids. This nightmare of a principal is in cahoots with the chief of schools. If this is not corrected, we will watch the new multimillion dollar new Weaver go up in flames. They want to hire useless drones that will blindly and unquestioningly follow bad leadership into a hole. More loving our black and brown babies to poverty and illiteracy. When will the board of education wake up and see they are being bamboozled by the BS in central office. do a shallow dive into the past numerous failures of the new principal. Best of luck to the educationally neglected students of Hartford.
Teachers demonstrate their care for the students by preparing them to succeed and be accountable for a lifetime. Not by permitting poor behavior to become life-long poor decision making.
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