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Does Scott High School Really Want to Survive … ?
By Lafe Tolliver, Esq.
Guest Column
Have you noticed the number of people in attendance at
the meetings regarding whether or not the current Scott High
School building should go the way of the wrecking ball or be
rehabbed?
From the newspaper reports I have been reading, the
attendance is modestly
embarrassing to say the least. At some of these publicly
announced meetings, there are fewer than 14 people in
attendance. And this is in regards to saving
this “hallowed” place of learning.
The point of contention is that the school is very old
and outdated and would
cost more money to rehab than is currently allocated. In
addition the pupil
population has taken a dramatic nosedive (due to various
reasons). The dwindling population places a limit on
available state funds.
My take on this? If the fabled Bulldog alumni
(purportedly, there are thousands of Scott High School grads
located both locally and around the country) cannot muster
enough bodies to give even an illusion of concern, tear the
joint down and start fresh and anew.
Not being from Toledo, nor being a Scott Bulldog, I
find it incredulous that so many people speak fervently and
teary eyed of Scott High School but when it
comes to systematic and sustained organizational and fund
raising skills to inform the thousands of Scott alumni of
what is happening with their alma mater
and how to organize public and political pressure, the
response to date has been
a mind numbing …”Duh” (with the exception of Ben Williams
and a few other die
hard partisans).
But yet when it comes to the Scott Band executing
precision foot stepping drills in a parade or the basketball
team doing a Lebron James type of round house dunk, the
hundreds of alumni in attendance can not scream and holler
loud enough about being a proud Bulldog! Give me a break and
let it rest, people.
A learning institution is ultimately defined and
honored by its scholars and
its attendant scholarship and not by the toot of a horn or
the adroit dribble of
the round ball.
I have written before on this scenario some time ago
and my predictions then
are becoming true. The fabled Scott Bulldog alumni are paper
thin on rigorous
organizational commitment and community support to save the
school and to
also improve the learning environment.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I say
that if the money is not there to rehab Scott … and we know
very well that the Scott alumni (white and black) are not
going to raise the millions of dollars needed to save the
school, then take
your memories of Scott with you, swallow your Bulldog pride
and move on and
get a new building. In the process, one hopes, a new
attitude about learning will
be born.
Scott is not knocking down any academic records as
compared to the other
public and parochial high schools. I will let you in on a
fiercely guarded secret:
A person can learn physics, English, Spanish or logic
sitting under a peach tree
in a back yard. All it takes is a willing and receptive
student and a competent
and dedicated teacher so, please, enough talk about how
saving Scott H.S.
is required for the transference of knowledge or that it is
the alter ego of the black
community.
Our forebears had to learn and excel under the most
primitive and restrictive educational conditions imaginable
and they came though. Was it fair? No. Was it right? No. But
it was what it was.
Being a Bulldog gets you no bonus points on the US
Postal Exam, the SAT,
the GRE or a civil service exam…and much less any discounts
when applying
for a home mortgage or a car loan.
No, my Bulldog friends, shout all you want about being
a Scott H.S. grad and
reminisce all day and tomorrow about the fun days on
Collingwood Blvd but
until you (not
a blanket categorization of all Scott grads or current
students)
can demonstrate academic excellence and exhibit acceptable
character and
behavior, no rehabbed or new building will make any
difference. |
