Student Talks About Baltimore City School Conditions
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- Deshawna Bryant is a senior at City College High School in Baltimore City.
Maryland has failed to address the abysmal conditions in Baltimore City schools, leading to classrooms without heat and students wearing winter coats while trying to learn. The reality is that Baltimore City schools have been chronically underfunded by the State for decades in both facilities and educational programs. This has created a situation of such serious racial disparities that Baltimore City students’ right to an education is in crisis.
In a letter to Governor Hogan on behalf of concerned parents and families, the ACLU-MD and the NAACP LDF expressed grave concern that that the State was not addressing either the massive gap between current and constitutionally-adequate educational funding or the immediate infrastructure needs of Baltimore City’s aging school buildings, which disproportionately harms students of color.
More information: www.aclu-md.org/bradford
(Video by Baltimore-based Six Point Pictures)
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TRANSCRIPT
My favorite subjects at school right now are English, History and Anthropology. I want to study Child Psychology when I go off to college. City College is a really good school. It’s basically a college prep. I know that when I get to college that the assignments I’m doing right now are basically what I’ll be doing when I get there.
I was born with Sickle Cell S-C disease. That’s basically where some of my blood cells weren’t created properly. They’re formed in a sickle shape, like a half crescent moon. Basically, what happens is, with sickle cell you get these things called pain crises. And one thing that causes a pain crisis is cold weather. If there’s a significant drop in temperature and I’m in that temperature for a long period of time, it will send me into a pain crisis. And that’s why it was bad when Baltimore City couldn’t afford heating in all of the schools, because it was freezing in, it was freezing in City, it was freezing all of the classrooms. And at that time we had one-hour classes, so I was just sitting in one class for one hour throughout the day for 6 periods.
Last year when it was the heating problems, it caused the worst crisis that I’ve ever had with my leg. It got so bad that usually a crisis only lasts 3-5 days, this one lasted 6-7 days. Another thing about sickle cell is that I’m in a constant state of dehydration. So, um, I always have to have a water bottle on me or else I’ll pass out from dehydration. So, it gets really hot in the summertime, but that’s easier to deal with because I can just drink a bottle of water and cool myself down. But in the wintertime there’s only so much you can do with the layers that you have on for that day. Because at City we have lead in the water pipes, we have to use water coolers and there’s three water coolers on each floor. We only have 5 minutes to get to each class, and it’ll be like, “I’ve got to get water before the beginning of class.” And it’s just like, alright, you’re on the first floor. There are no water coolers on the first floor. You’ve got to go all the way up to the third floor, or you’ve got to go all the way down to the basement just to fill your water bottle.
I don’t believe that the conditions of the school is the fault of any faculty or staff. In fact, they try their hardest to make the environment as comfortable as they can. They have rules where we can’t eat in classrooms so no mice come around. They have heaters or they buy their own air conditioners because they know how uncomfortable the classrooms could be. It kinda makes me angry because I know that not everyone in the State is dealing with the same thing. So, I feel like if they could put every school on a level playing field, it could help boost our academics because if we’re getting pulled out of school every day in the winter because it’s too cold, and if we’re getting release every day in the summer because it’s too hot, it takes away from people’s learning, that they actually need. And then they’re adding more days to the end of the school year because they had to take us out of the schools.
I would like our leaders to know that students in Baltimore also have a dream, and just because some of us aren’t rich enough to have those dreams come true, doesn’t mean that they should be taken away from us. I want to study to be a child psychologist when I go to college,
and I know some of my friends are trying to be doctors or lawyers or judges. But the fact that we go to a Baltimore City school, and the fact that we don’t have heating or air conditioning or all this funding, take away from those dreams. And it makes it harder for people to want to, um, go to college, because they know how hard it is for them. So, I just want the elected leaders to know that just because we don’t go to a private school or just because we don’t live out in the county, we do still have dreams that we want to accomplish.
Don't continue to vote for the same boards over and over. Be an active parent, follow the report cards, parent teacher contacts. Make sure your children are respectful, use manners. And study study study. Parents have forgotten the importance of their involvement, our children need this!
KUDOS TO YOU YOUNG LADY... AND ALL YOUR STUDENT MATES!!! VERY SORRY FOR THE CONDITION OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT! I am believing God to raise up "HIS" people to resolve all issues... and for your complete health recovery... in the name of our most powerful Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth!!!
Leave religion out of this
@@milzmusician Oh, sweetie … you are mistaking me for someone who cares that you hate OUR Almighty God, Creator and Father!
I CHOOSE TO BOW DOWN AND SERVE, OBEY AND WORSHIP HIM!!!
VERY SOON … WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT … YOU WILL TOO!!! God bless you, young man … and help you with your talent …
I agree with Jesus … when HE PRAYED FOR YOU in the Garden of Gethsemane
John 17:
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them (YOU) also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
She is a strong and intelligent black girl, who is able to still make it with her setbacks 👍🏿
BALTIMORE SPENDS MORE PER STUDENT THAN MOST SCHOOLS IN THE NATION. RECENTLY THEY CANVASED 5 Baltimores schools and couldn’t find a SINGLE STUDENT PROFICIENT IN READING OR MATH. WATCH Candice Owens you tube video about Baltimore. She’s running for Congress and lives in Baltimore
I really hope Ms. Bryant achieves her dream, as well as her younger peers.
I think that is a great thing to do because our city need like water in class and out of class.
Dreaming is easy. That said I do sympathise. The money is being misspent and the whole administrative structure needs replacing.
Doesn't this girl have an IEP (Individual Education Programme) for this girl to attend to her needs?
Elijah Cummings legacy is still shining
Parents need to vote for better government officials. They are literally voting this into existence.
Just a minute... Baltimore couldn't afford to heat its schools!? That'd be illegal here in the UK. It's never happened here.
They can't go to a heating and cooling company and ask for donations and help with the schools' problems with it being too cold for the children? Ask and you shall receive!
“Ask and you shall receive” lol do you even work in this school system?
a school is only as rich as its community. some schools in america have so much money for things like vacation that they need but then some can’t even get water. we need to fix the way we budget for schools so that everyone gets an equal amount
True the school needs to do private fundraisers with the parents and the parents need to be more proactive with the administration. The lead pipes are different, that’s a very expensive change but the heat and the cold can be fixed if everyone comes together.
Hope lil mama doing good rn it sucks the schools don’t care or do care but get no support from the board members bc it’s dominantly black and Spanish smfh
Watch CANDICE OWENS YOU TUBE ON BALTIMORE. THEN COMMENT.
LIKE IVE WATCHED HER VIDEO AND MY COMMENT IS. See kids, this is why we can’t have anything nice
Black culture hates Candice Owens. Do you really think blacks want to hear the truth?