Thursday, March 31, 2011

An allegation: Alderman Lyle's Clout at Harlan High School

As an alumni of Harlan Community Academy High School this concerned me. If this allegation turns out to be true I would be very concerned about this reversing the upward trend the school is generally making. I received this e-mail and so did the CPS Inspector General and about 13 other recipients who are either reporters, journalists, or bloggers. So the person who wrote this e-mail is serious about this:
Dear Inspector General,
I am a friend of a teacher at Harlan High School.  The teacher told me that Alderman Lyle has a nephew who attends Harlan and is a sophomore.  Since the student has been at Harlan, school officials have treated him with "perks" at the school not afforded to other students.  Primarily, the student has been allowed to miss classes to work and do errands in the Attendance office, with or without the teacher's permission or knowledge.  If the student is marked absent, a school official will go into the attendance system and change his attendance from "absent" to "present" with or without the teacher's knowledge.  When the student has missed class to work in the Attendance office, he has been allowed to turn in assignments.  One semester, the student missed as much as 90% of one particular class because he was working in the Attendance office, but was remarked from "absent" to "present" for nearly all of those days.  Alderman Lyle is aware and has accepted that her nephew has been given "clout" treatment at Harlan such as being able to skip class and turn in work late without penalty, while school officials have allowed him to work in the Attendance office.  The Harlan principal, Reggie Evans, has allowed this.
To be sure the Alderman has during the course of this campaign has touted her efforts to help Harlan's teachers and parents turn around Harlan High School. Especially when you look at this recent mailer. It's a big one so I couldn't get everything. But I got enough about Harlan :P

Click for a larger resolution
$2 million for a magnet engineering program. Heralding how Harlan's Academic Center for 7th & 8th graders is one of the most prestigious academic programs in this state.

Let's be concerned that this progress could be undone if there is anything to this allegation.

3 comments:

  1. This seems like a clear example of last minute election smearing. Let me remind you of this sentence:
    " One semester, the student missed as much as 90% of one particular class ..."
    Last time i checked, the semester (if it was the previous one) ended in January. So this person sat on this allegation until one week before an election which will finally decide who's alderman??? Hmm...way to suspicious to me, and i noted that to the other 6th Ward writers. For them to sit on this at least 3 months ---shouldn't they have reported it right away?

    Ken Sawyer called me to say that the person making this allegation refused to give him their name but only a phone number.

    i'll go by their Ken's word that this isn't a Sawyer tactic...but i think this is an example of the negativity i talked about earlier.

    i would also be interested what the professioanl journalists think about it.

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    Replies
    1. For those who don't know I am the nephew of Freddrenna M. Lyle. I decided to look at this article for the 50th time and it amazes me how far people are willing to go to win an election. To bring someones child in to politics is really low-down and I would love to meet the person who said those things about me. But in response I worked damn hard, graduated on the National Honor Society and currently attend Tougaloo College on an UNCF $40,000 scholarship, but of course that's not what this "friend of a teacher" would report.

      Delete
  2. For those who don't know I am the nephew of Freddrenna M. Lyle. I decided to look at this article for the 50th time and it amazes me how far people are willing to go to win an election. To bring someones child in to politics is really low-down and I would love to meet the person who said those things about me. But in response I worked damn hard, graduated on the National Honor Society and currently attend Tougaloo College on an UNCF $40,000 scholarship, but of course that's not what this "friend of a teacher" would report.

    ReplyDelete

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