“When they closed Redford High School, and moved the students to Henry Ford, they increased
rivalries between students. Anybody WHO LIVED IN THE COMMUNITY WOULD NOT PUT
THOSE TWO GROUPS TOGETHER! There was a spike in crime and assault in the area
because they made a stupid decision. They increased crime. They put two gangs in the same
school. The gangs were a minority of students in the school, but by putting them together , now
it became a problem which didn’t exist before. We have gone backwards
since the State
came out. The state of Michigan has been running Detroit Schools for 16 years and that is why
we have a backwards school system. Governor Snyder didn’t help. “ 115
Another complainant states:
Redford was just renovated and then it was closed. Girls are getting raped… It just makes an
eyesore for the neighborhood and is dangerous for kids. We didn’t ask for an emergency
manager it was forced on us, the schools being left as eyesores for crime was forced on us
creating a hostile living environment. The money that they spent on fancy luxury offices at
Fisher Bldg but not books, spent for construction companies to renovate buildings and then tear
them down the next year. They made stupid or uncaring decisions like putting two different
gangs in the same school from Redford and Henry Ford, no one with any sense would do that.
No one can talk to the kids. Instead of a healthy rivalry, like basketball or football, they
reopened schools as EAA schools so they can’t play against one another again…….How can
black kids get jobs if they are not prepared? This just causes crime. 139
The school is the hub of the neighborhood. The basketball and football games are gone. All
you have is an overgrown lot full of high grass and weeds. Children are forced to go to
schools out of their neighborhood and then getting into conflict because of neighborhood
rivalries. But instead of making productive and healthy rivalries through sports, Snyder
destroyed it. So now the kids are left with unhealthy activities which lead to arrest. They just
want to line their pocket which is no benefit for the children. 140
Noble Elementary on Detroit’s Westside has become the recipient school of students from Oakman, Parker and
other schools. Noble has been evacuated at least once (March 22, 2012) and there are unverified reports of heat
outages last winter. Parents, who can afford to do so, send their child to school with their own roll of toilet
paper each day and a bar of soap. The uncle of three little girls explains how children his great nieces are
stressed by the overcrowding:
“The kids in the incoming schools take offense to the overcrowding … so they are angry at the
new students.…The teacher that gave them attention now must give attention to someone else.
145