NPR Illinois has the disturbing story of the Noble Network Charter Schools allegedly draconian practices. According to the report students and teachers felt that the methods employed by the network of charter schools were “dehumanizing.” Teachers lamented having to punish and “discipline” students for dress code infractions like not having the proper belt. Students said they were treated “like animals.” Noble Network president Constance Jones Brewer says things are being exaggerated and other statements are false. But according to these teachers the only “auditing” of the educational staff is in regards to how they discipline students—not how they teach students. And then there’s this:
One described an issue raised by others at some Noble campuses, regarding girls not having time to use the bathroom when they get their menstrual periods.
“We have (bathroom) escorts, and they rarely come so we end up walking out (of class) and that gets us in trouble,” she texted. “But who wants to walk around knowing there’s blood on them? It can still stain the seats. They just need to be more understanding.”
At certain campuses, teachers said administrators offer an accommodation: They allow girls to tie a Noble sweater around their waist, to hide the blood stains. The administrator then sends an email to staff announcing the name of the girl who has permission to wear her sweater tied around her waist, so that she doesn’t receive demerits for violating dress code.
Noble officials have suggested these stories are leaks by staff, trying to push their unionizing efforts, while NPR points out that the staff they spoke with have left the school system and would not benefit at all from these stories. These include stories about insane dress codes and hair requirements that lead to really bad outcomes for everyone involved.
Ann Baltzer taught chemistry at Hansberry. When one of her female students showed up with braids that included strands of maroon — the school color — the girl was told she couldn’t attend class. So she asked Baltzer to use a black marker to obliterate the maroon in each braid. The teacher looks back on that as not only unnecessary, but racist.
“To have a system that results in a white woman having to color on a black woman’s hair, and if I don’t, she’s excluded from education, there’s something wrong with that,” Baltzer says.
Charter schools results are as good and as bad as public school results. The difference is that people get to make money with less oversight at Charter schools; and Charter schools take out funding from public school systems—forcing a vicious cycle of closures and lacking resources for public education. This in turn is pointed to as public education’s failures. Having any system where young women must bleed through their clothing because they are not allowed to use a bathroom is a failure. it’s a failure of barbaric proportions.