Students tell of TAC trouble

BY ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Sunday, March 30, 2008
4/01/08 at 1:59 PM

Those who once attended the troubled alternative school say they got an education no one should have.

Many students who were referred to the Tulsa Academic Center for a hard lesson in discipline said they got a different kind of schooling in 2007-08.

Since the Tulsa World first detailed claims of crowding and frequent violence at the alternative school, Tulsa Superintendent Michael Zolkoski has vowed to make improvements.

Zolkoski offered a host of recommended changes last week to the school board, including a moratorium on most new student referrals through the end of the school year and phasing out the Term Academic Program, which was for students with less serious infractions.

He also committed additional personnel to meet the special education, security and clerical needs of the school's remaining Performance Training Program.

Zolkoski founded the Tulsa Academic Center in August, saying he wanted to streamline Tulsa's alternative education offerings and improve their student return rate of 40 percent.

Here are the stories of a few students who have been referred to the school:

Brittani Hill and Corinne Scraper, Edison juniors

Best friends Hill and Scraper were referred to the school's Performance Training Program (PTP) in mid-December. Administrators smelled marijuana on the girls after they arrived at school together one morning, so security guards searched Hill's car and found the substance.

The girls said they have been the targets of constant threats from other TAC students for racial reasons.

"There, the black people are against the white people and against the Mexican people sometimes, too," said Hill, who is black.

She said kids have told her they don't like her because she's "not the stereotype of what a black person should be."

"I have a good vocabulary and I speak properly," she said. "They also assumed because I'm from Edison that I'm some rich kid, but I live right down the street from PTP. I transferred to Edison my freshman year."

Scraper, who is white, said students also resent the fact that the two girls are best friends.

"Everybody there was like 'No, that is wrong,' to Brittani. 'Your best friend shouldn't be white.' It is ridiculous," she said.

The girls had expected to be released from PTP on March 11, but Zolkoski did not show up as school administrators had promised.

The next day, a teacher accused the girls of cursing in class, and Hill said she was attacked after school by a girl who was put up to it by her gang member friends.

The two were suspended from PTP when they arrived for school the next day. They are now completing their junior year credits through a program called home-based instruction.

"If Dr. Zolkoski had come that Tuesday, we would have been out of there," Scraper said. "I had almost 10,000 points."

The girls said they don't know whether they will be allowed to return to Edison in the fall or required to repeat their referrals.

Kenny Hawkins and Tyler Marshall, Edison Preparatory School seniors

The two were the first students to bring information about overcrowding and frequent violence at the school to the Tulsa World. Details of their accounts were later confirmed by teachers and administrators at the school, setting off a series of news reports.

Hawkins was first referred to PTP in the fall for being under the influence of alcohol at a high school football game. He earned his way out with the required 9,000 points, but was sent back in February after school security guards found a marijuana seed in his car.

That second stint was cut short when a counselor called his father to tell him gang members at the school had threatened his child with a "beatdown."

Hawkins is a tall, hulking guy, but he's also quiet and reserved. He said he's seen groups of three and four students walk out of a class to go beat up a student in a different classroom in front of the teachers.

"It was a big possibility that it was going to happen to me," Hawkins said. "If you don't want to get kicked out, all you can do is just stand there and take it. No guy wants to do that."

Since his dad refused to allow him to return to the school, Hawkins was allowed to finish his remaining credits at Tulsa Learning Academy.

The new credit recovery program designed for dropouts, located in Promenade Mall, will issue him a diploma with his home school's name emblazoned on it, but it won't qualify him to participate in commencement ceremonies.

"I've gone to school with a lot of these kids since kindergarten. It sucks because it's senior year and I'm not going to get to walk with them -- just because of this school," he said.

"Give me the 45-day suspension; I totally understand that. I deserved it," Hawkins said, "but to put me in a place with a bunch of violent people who all they care about is hanging out and fighting?"

Tyler Marshall said he had never before witnessed the kind of racial tension he encountered at the Tulsa Academic Center.

"I saw this girl I know from Edison one day, and I walked up and hugged her. She happened to be black and next thing I know, this guy (who had threatened him) is saying, 'Why you hugging that white boy?' It was pretty shocking."

He continued, "We told the administration that we were going to get jumped and they said we would have to go to the library in the afternoon. But someone could still get us there because you can just walk in and out of there.

"It's not something you should have to think about at school."

Marshall, who was referred to PTP for suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol at Edison's winter dance, was allowed to transfer to the school's Term Academic Program (TAP), for less serious offenses.

He was sent back to Edison on Thursday and is expected to graduate with his class.

"I think all of this coming out in the paper has been great. I hope it leads to some changes for everyone involved," Marshall said.

Rakiesha Figures and Silvester Figures, Memorial High School sophomore and Gilcrease Middle School eighth-grader

Silvester Figures was referred to the Tulsa Academic Center for two fights at Gilcrease, while his sister Rakiesha was referred for marijuana possession.

Their mother, Rhonda Figures, does not question their need for punishment. But she does question whether they're learning anything at the school.

"At orientation they tell you your child is going to be behind when they go back to their regular school. It's a program set up for failure," Rhonda Figures said.

The biggest problem Figures has with the school is one of her children's new classmates, in particular.

Figures said she was the victim of a home invasion robbery in September. She was shocked when her kids told her the 16-year-old boy who is awaiting trial in the case also attends TAC.

"I was held at gunpoint and now that little boy is in school with my kids. He talks about the robbery to the other kids at the school," she said.

Reagan Rogers, Edison senior

Reagan Rogers said she was considered a model student until the night of Edison's Jingle Bell Ball in December.

She rode to the dance with her date and Tyler Marshall and his date.

When school administrators accused the two boys of being under the influence of alcohol, Reagan said she was an innocent bystander caught in their dragnet.

"This has completely changed my whole life this year. And what I was accused of and what the truth is are two different things," Rogers said. "Maybe I should have made a better judgment than to ride with who I rode with to the dance, but they targeted one kid and dragged the rest of us down with him."

Rogers was referred to PTP for suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol. But her mother, Vicki Taylor, refused to send her there because of the school's safety issues.

Rogers enrolled in courses at Tulsa Community College. Administrators eventually allowed her to complete her only outstanding high school credit, English IV, at Tulsa Learning Academy.

Like Kenny Hawkins, she does not qualify to participate in Edison's commencement.

The experience has left Reagan -- who was ranked 12th in her class and a member of athletic teams, clubs and the homecoming court -- feeling publicly humiliated and distrustful of school administrators she looked up to.

"They were very rude and they even repeatedly threatened to take me to jail that night," she said. "I feel my senior year was stolen from me with little or no say because the school system doesn't have to prove anything and there's no appeal process."

Her mother, meanwhile, said she was disgusted when Edison officials told her they would check "No" next to a question of whether her daughter had abstained from alcohol or substance abuse during high school on her Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program, or OHLAP, scholarship application.

"They can wave a pencil in front of your kid's face, say she's drunk and her whole life is ruined," Taylor said.

Andrea Eger 581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Brittani Hill (left) and Corinne Scraper were juniors at Edison Preparatory School when they were referred to Tulsa Academic Center. They say they became targets of constant threats from other TAC students for racial reasons.

Kenny Hawkins left Tulsa Academic Center after a counselor called his father to tell him gang members had threatened Kenny with a “beatdown.” Hawkins is finishing school at Tulsa Learning Academy but cannot attend commencement with his former Edison Preparatory School classmates.

Since the Tulsa World first detailed claims of overcrowding and frequent violence at the Tulsa Academic Center, Tulsa Superintendent Michael Zolkoski has vowed to make improvements.

RECEIVED THREATS
Tyler Marshall: Encountered racial tension and threats of violence at Tulsa Academic Center. He has been sent back to Edison Preparatory School and is expected to graduate with his class.