The Principles of the Principal

It was a Tuesday morning and I was in a meeting for student council at Warren Easton Senior High. My fellow council members and I sat in the library waiting. The president was covering the normal order of business but that’s not what I was waiting for. I was waiting for the principal. Today was the day I had been waiting for.

Why that day? Because the principal, Alexina Medley, had agreed to attend the meeting and answer any questions brought to her by the student council. Some students began with simple questions about dances and student activities. She seems fine with answering those. Next, I stood up. The council’s advisor looked at me, knowing what was coming.

“Is it possible to raise the retention average for students to attend the school?”

“No.”

“Why not? With a charter, aren’t we a self-governing school? Why can’t we have stricter requirements?”

The council seemed to be humming approval with someone even adding in the fact that the school was “letting anybody in.”

Mrs. Medley then went on to question me about what I thought was wrong. I pointed out that the poor conduct amongst students that had low grades was becoming the first impression of people who visited the school.

From there, she seemed angry.
Next, she snapped, “Well what are you doing to fix it? You have good grades. Why can’t you tutor?”

“I do tutor students. But I’m still a student and I’m only one person and only one other teacher at this school offers tutoring. We need to do something. The school retention average is a 1.75. That’s a D average and barely passing. What about a 2.0? That’s a C.”

“No.”

“Why? Can’t we expect average from our students?”

She then went on with a jargon-filled speech about state requirements. The fact that it took her so long to simply tell me why was suspicious to me. At this point the answer she gave just seemed like an excuse and I wanted more. I tried to keep questioning but the meeting time was running over.

As simple as this may seem, I felt like I challenged her way of thinking that day. And it’s probably one of the most “outrageous” or crazy, things I have ever done.