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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Crime In Our Schools - One Teacher's Opinions Introduction |
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This is a transcript of an interview with a former FRHS instructor that took place on the afternoon of April 10th, 2009. The main topic of the conversation was "Crime In Our Schools" -based upon an article published in 1985 in which Far Rockaway High School was rated as the worst high school in Queens - with 333 reported crime incidents in the prior reporting cycle. Overall - Far Rockaway High School ranked #2 in the worst New York City High Schools -Samuel J. Tilden (Brooklyn) having racked up the most crime incidents in the city for the reporting period (with 419 incidents). Far Rockaway High School is now in the process of being phased out and very shortly, will be no more. After having reviewed many comments from former alumni over the past few years, it was decided to get some feedback from a staff member - a former (now retired) teacher who had been assigned to the school during "more pleasant times" but who had been working at the school during its major transition years - when the neighborhood and the student population changed over a period of about twenty years, beginning shortly after the mid century. The meeting took place on a sunny Friday afternoon in April at the teacher's home on Long Island, New York. A phone call was placed and an appointment arranged and then photocopies of the newspaper articles were mailed ahead of time to this former teacher so that he had some understanding of what the interest would be and the topic of the interview would be about. What transpired was basically a one-on-one discussion of the teacher's feelings on the closing of 110 year old Far Rockaway High School, the path that the school had traveled during the second half of the century, and a host of general observations about security issues pertaining to the school, staff and administration, and the neighborhood in general. For the purpose of the transcript of the conversation, the indication "ML" refers to the interviewer; "FT" relates to the teacher (Former Teacher). Of course all comments and observations are strictly the opinions of one individual - and do not cast any reflection on any other member of the teaching staffer on other school employees or on the school itself. |
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