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    This article was great! I attend Norman Thomas High School, and I'm white. When I first came which was September 2009, I had MAJOR problems with snotty nasty thug girls who wanted to get violent with me. Before I came to this school I was a straight A+ student, but when I came to NTHS it went down... to failure=( I didn't feel comfortable coming to school anymore, my mom went to school, with a rude welcome as she questioned and I recognized that one teacher tells me "she loves me and she's a great student" when my moms not around, that never is said to me! Not even a hello. Besides, I don't tneed those teachers! I was told by my counselor I wasn't allowed to transfer till' ten grade! Today I'm still attending Norman Thomas High School. I guess I'm used to the sight of drugs, students violating teachers in every way. Me always arguing with my counselor because my counselor talks to me as if I'm mentally retarded meanwhile,.... that person is! I can't wait till 10th I'll be OUT! Norman Thomas High School=NOTHING. Unless, your black.. because you'll really stand out... while on the extremely dangerous escalators. It's whatever. But I absolutely LOVE your article! And I hope it's closing... but I heard a rumor a few days ago that it's staying open.

    I went to Norman Thomas High School today for my SAT II exams, because there wasn't enough room to take them at my own high school (Stuyvesant High School). It does look like a big black box!

    I'm really sorry that you and your son had to go through all that; I'd actually applied to Norman Thomas in terms of public high schools, because I'd just moved to mid-Manhattan a few years ago (I'm a high school freshman right now) and I didn't know what schools were good and what were bad. I was pretty relieved when I was admitted into a specialized high school--mainly because almost immediately after I submitted my high school applications, I realized the public schools in Manhattan I'd applied to were all... well, pretty awful.

    But it's great that your son is in a better school now! I wish you both the best of luck (:

    Wow sorry but you sound like you have some serious race and steroytpe problems. Have you every blamed your son for running away from the police when he was "innocent" and also he would not have been sent to jail if he followed his probation rules, so that was his fault. I understand that a lot of black and hispanic students may be troubled and created trouble but my goodness you bash them left in right in your artical. Well good luck in your future
    *sighned an intelligent african-american, german, and irish young woman.

    With all those fascinatingly diverse genes you've inherited, perhaps you've inherited some capacity for logic and reason. Use them.

    I'm report the facts here, and if it doesn't fit your own race stereotypes, sorry to disappoint. Do you your kids go to NYC public schools? Mine do.

    I don't seek to portray my son as some sort of angel. What I do report on is the way in which whites are essentially scared away by black and Hispanic crime allowed to flourish in the schools, and if they do show up, become victims. There needs to be a lot, lot, lot more scrutiny on this situation, but it is swathed in rolls of political correctness and fear of political leaders by unions and school officials themselves, and they constitute an active force keeping this truth from surfacing.

    Logic dictates that if someone is beaten up because they've asked about some return of money they thought had been only "loaned" at the time, then the real problem, after their own naivete, is the thug who beat them up -- not running away from the police who arrive and mace everybody -- which itself is an outgrowth of a sense of weakness, as this policewoman was a petite Hispanic who didn't feel she could control the situation she didn't know the facts about without macing everyone involved indiscriminately.

    Second, there are police *already* deployed inside this *already* dangerous school. They are clumped together in the foyer chatting. None of them ever, ever EVER guard the door *outside* which is where dope-smoking and scuffles are occurring with impunity. In addition to this phalanx of cops deployed at the taxpayers' expense in the schools, there are the X-ray monitor security guards. But these are a bunch of overweight middle-aged black women, and they are not going to step away from their jobs at the desks to stop a fight outside.

    So something is very, very wrong with this picture, and it's not about running away from an outside cop from the precinct who arrives and maces you. The precinct shouldn't be involved, and the first line of defense should be all those uniformed people already deployed in this situation. And there's a question to be had whether police intervention is really the right method for intervention in *a schoolyard fight*. They happen all the time. There aren't enough police in the world to accomplish this. There are school personnel such as "Vice Principal for Security" and others who could be yard monitors. As I've noted, in other schools my kids have been in, both public and private, the principle of the school himself stands at the door every morning to convey a sense of both authority and greeting and community to everyone coming in the building. Failing that, a VP or even a volunteer parent can be monitoring the school entrances and calling for help on a cell phone if needed.

    As for following probation rules, sure, everyone should follow them, but again, there's an absurdity here of being arrested in the first place. Probation programs are filled with the same thuggish unsupervised largely minority students that the schools didn't deal with. See my blog on "charitable programs" that also need a lot more scrutiny.

    I don't bash black and Hispanic students as a group at all in this piece. What I do is criticize some of them, and that's enough for the politically-correct police to come running and shrieking "racism". We've had enough of that in this city, and it's not working. Reporting the truth of what is happening is the start of what will work. The very first people harmed by the persistence of crime and persistence of inaction by those in authority in the school system are blacks and Hispanics themselves, as they are the first bullied and harassed by their own fellows.

    I guess I can reliaze the right point of views in your prespectives. I was never here to write or negativly comment on your article. I can see how many minorities are most likely the problem. I am also aware of how people are so worried about being called a "racist" that they hide the facts. This was a very well writen and informative blog. I fell bad that you had to have this.....unfortunate experience but I still stand by my opinion of your son handeling things a bit better.
    You were very correct when you stated that I maybe had inherited a capacity for logic and reason, I have and I did use them, just to form a seperate oppinion from you.
    If you disagree with your son being in a mitority based school then maybe you should place him in a majority white school if that makes you feel "safer". If you disagree so much with norman thomas high school being open maybe you should take it up with the goverment, take action ,write a patition.... good luck in the future.
    ×signed a intelligent african-american,german , irish 14 year old young woman

    I'm a young hispanic woman who graduated from Norman Thomas High School in 2007. I live in New Jersey now, and let me say what a huge difference in the quality of life. I recall my days going to Norman Thomas,I saw its incompetence when I first walked through the door. I was very observant of how people found their groups to call their friends in school. Also there's only one way in and one way out. Thankfully growing up in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, I had gone through very integrated schools. Norman Thomas has a penintentiary type of atmosphere due to the fact there are metal detectors, and police everywhere. That deters anyone from wanting to get an education. I saw a huge difference in my peers attitudes, compared to my very integrated middle school I previously attended. Everyone was always stuck into their racial groups, as if we were in jail! I hated going to school there. I did have the opportunity to join some good programs ,film, and photography. Unfortunately I was unhappy there and caught myself cutting school most of the time. I hated the unfriendly atmosphere, and could see why my peers, the majority of them minorities coming from the projects. They were all like ticking time bombs in that school. The police,security guards, and cameras are encouraging violence, and discrimination.I managed to look past the fact the school was screw'd up. I graduated on time and did my best to stay out of trouble. Public schools in New York City are overcrowded as is. Shutting down any schools would be even more of a set back on the next generation of youth. These children are being presented an America that turns her back on them. All I can say is public schools in New York City needs a huge reform. Starting with it "safety regulations" that encourage an unsafe psychological state of mind. The Board of Education, and the state of New York, will continue to fuel the psychological issues of urban children by shutting down more schools.

    I live next door to this school. The behavior of the students and school safety officers is disgusting. They are rude, violent, criminal menaces that threaten the quality of life for all people in this community. None of them live here and they could care less for the people who do. The only place Norman Thomas High School prepares you for is Riker's Island. Shut that place down! The graduation rate I'd deplorable. Shut it down!

    I'm am a student that is attend Norman Thomas High School and yes at times the school can be bad and I did find my self cutting a lot last year. But every since we got a new principal every thing has change and the school isn't as bad as people make it to seem. I also don't like the comment that you kept saying that mainly black and Spanish people got there and I don't see what race you come from has to do with the school be bad and if you know the school was BAD WHY WOULD YOU SEND YOUR SON TO THE GOD DAMN SCHOOL IM THE FIRST PLACE!!!!

    It sadden me to hear that Norman Thomas might be closed down. I am a 1993 graduate from NTHS and that time was one of the best schools in the city.

    I remembered a student body that took pride in their school, that cared for it. We had wonderful teachers. Teachers that challenged us, that encouraged us, that worked with us to make us a better students and better people. The best 4 years of my life were in those halls.

    I remembered we had 5 guards for the entire school, the school and students took pride in being the best of the city. There was respect between the students and staff. I still remembered my favorite teacher, Mr. Collado.

    Several years after graduating I visited the school and I started to cried. It was heartbreaking to see medal detectors in the school, to see that the NYPD is monitoring the halls ways. To see those hallways with graffiti. To see students with total lack of respect for the school and the staff.

    It is not the school that it is bad, is the students in it. I see kids leaving schools and in the trains acting like animals with zero respect for themselves and others. It is not the schools job to teach your kids manners and to be respectful. IT IS THE JOB OF THE PARENTS. The schools is only as good as their students.

    It looks like finally this school will be closed down:


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