Is Forrest high school turning kids away?

You hear these rumors coming out of this school or that school from time to time. Like I heard over the summer that families were giving fake addresses so their children could attend schools in Baker and Nassau counties rather than attend schools here in Jacksonville. I had also heard the same thing for year about families near the Orange Park line so their kids could attend schools in Clay County. However rumors like this are hard to prove though I did look at the enrollment in Duval and all the surrounding districts and compared it to recent census data and for the most part they were all running very close to capacity, where Duval county was running below its.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2010/08/duval-county-school-district-not.html

The thing is, even if above was true I couldn’t fault families for doing what they thought was best for their children.

Which brings me to a pretty persistent rumor that I have heard from several sources and that’s Forrest High School is turning away children it doesn’t feel would be “good candidates”, level one academic achievers and kids it thinks would be discipline problems. I have even heard there was a letter sent out to some students over the summer suggesting they should go elsewhere. Mind you I have never seen this letter. Then when coupled with the fact that enrollment at Forrest is down by several hundred students, while inversely enrollment at Ed White, Forrest’s closest neighbor is up by several hundred students it all seems pretty plausible.

If it’s true I can’t help but think it’s not a bad idea and wish my school had thought of it first. Quite frankly I think no child let behind should be we are leaving about ten percent of them behind until they straighten up and where others might not be behavior problems, as the system is set up now, they drain precious resources from those that could use them. Until we take the needs of some children seriously and provide for those kids who are never going to go to college, or who have other interests rather than a traditional education, it would be better for all to stop playing them lip service as if they were.

The thing is; do you want some random principal or me making that decision? The decision that this kid can and this kid can’t go to his or her neighborhood school or is it a decision we as a society should make together.

At the end what do I have but a few rumors, a letter that some people say they have seen but can’t produce and some anecdotal evidence? Not much right?

I agree and right now it is just a rumor, and maybe that's all it will ever be, though I did feel as if I had just enough to mention it.