Food fight! Parents have egg on their face in this one
I thought out-0f-control food fights were the stuff of TV movies, but apparently they happen – and too often at Berkmar High School in Lilburn. The persistence of food fights led frustrated administrators to close the school cafeteria this week.
Principal Ken Johnson sent a letter to parents stating, “We have had a number of food-throwing incidents in the cafeteria in the last few weeks, and as a result, students will be served lunch in their 5th-period classrooms until this Friday. All students will have the option to receive a balanced meal, just as they do when we serve lunch in the cafeteria, only with a reduced number of choices.”
Johnson noted that staff members monitor lunch periods and have identified and disciplined a few students for throwing food.
This is a parent problem, not a school problem. If you have raised a kid self-centered and arrogant enough to ignore teachers and cafeteria staff and throw food to the point the cafeteria has to be closed, I think you and your children need family therapy soon. Someone call Dr. Phil.
No school should have to shut down its cafeteria because a few lunkheads think it’s funny to throw food. (As the granddaughter of an Italian immigrant grocer who never gave up on a single green bean – it went into a family stew if it was too bruised to sell — I also hate to see food wasted.)
Come on parents. Let’s do our job and discipline our kids. This is embarrassing.
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141 comments Add your comment
jim d
February 26th, 2010
10:42 am
Oh they do!!
point is that these students should not be in general population or inclusion if you please
jim d
February 26th, 2010
10:43 am
Enter your comments here
Philosopher
February 26th, 2010
10:44 am
OK…in ANY school, 5% cause 95% of the problems…so when you remove that 5% what are you going to do with the 5% that take their place?
jim d
February 26th, 2010
10:47 am
send them packing
It's society now
February 26th, 2010
10:58 am
I threw food in HS…I hope you’ve been sterilized.
Teachers today aren’t sitting in teacher’s lounges eating their lunch. They are typically having to rapidly ingest their lunch while watching the kids during their ten minute “lunch break”. You obviously haven’t been in a school since the 1980s.
Philosopher
February 26th, 2010
10:59 am
Hmmm-interesting logic.
Philosopher
February 26th, 2010
11:05 am
@It’s society now: that comment to “I threw food”was unnecessary…and out of line-take a chill pill, change your profession and throw some food, for heaven’s sake!
Ole Guy
February 26th, 2010
11:41 am
OK Philo, Jimmy…let’s start hitting a few nails on the head, as it were. In our zeal to remain as politically correct as humanly possible, we have doubled the problem. If that 5% is all Black, the problem should be handled no differently than if the miscreants were White, Asian, Hispanic, or Martian. The problem(s) lie in (what else is new?) fear…the fear that someone’s going to pull the race card and “Oh my goodness, what’ll we do now? Someone’s gonna take away my sensitivity ribbons”. Have we become that weak, that unsure of our standards, both personal and societal? In assuming this “politically safe” ground of yielding to the race card, all we have done is exacerbate the problems of racial inequality which ran rampant in my hs years. In many ways, this “walk on eggshells” approach to social issues has had no small part in the creation and sustainment of the “entitlement” mindset.
Talk about teaching critical thinking skills to kids…perhaps our civic/govt leadership should attend those very classes.
Philosopher
February 26th, 2010
12:40 pm
I don’t care WHAT color they are-they’re still kids and I’m really tired of the racism that is blantant in these posts. We all did stupid things when we were in high school and foodfights were the least egregious of those things. Why take this as an opportunity to point out one’s prejudices? It’s just plain siilly to take a post to point out the obvious-kids shouldn’t have foodfights and when they do, they should be disciplined…nothing more should have been made of it…period!
Philosopher
February 26th, 2010
12:53 pm
Not walking on any eggshells, here- I don’t care what color these kids are- they are kids- period. Food fights…handle it as what it is-kids misbehaving…adults and do NOT take it as an opportunity to express your racist prejudices or hatred for the parents of your students. End of story.
Philosopher
February 26th, 2010
1:04 pm
correc5tion-adults handle it as what it is….
jim d
February 26th, 2010
1:12 pm
I made no mention of race—race is NOT the issue here. to be quite blunt–sped is the problem!
Christie S.
February 26th, 2010
1:21 pm
Jim D., what an asinine statement and how completely derogatory. Special Education is not the issue. If you are referring to EBD students being the sole cause of these type of problems, you are wildly off base. This stupid foodfight was NOT restricted to only “sped[s];” from the reporting, there were several students who engaged in the mayhem.
North GA H.S. Math Teacher
February 26th, 2010
1:25 pm
I’m not thinking racial or sped. I’m thinking terds and some of them need to be flushed. I’m hoping that if we are tough but fair with the current say 5%, then maybe in a few years it will only be 2% or 3%. In other words the troublemakers will learn that school=work and we are serious about work.
Marie
February 26th, 2010
3:07 pm
This is just a comment to V and Old School
Having lunches in the cafeteria was taken away not because the food fights were so severe, but because we have 4 lunch periods. And for about for about 3 days someone would throw something. It wasn’t an all out food fight more like, a cupcake on the desk and spilled milk.
Truthfully the cafeteria looked just as dirty as it normally does from students accidently letting napkins fall and crumbs fall or spilling food.
We actually have thought about gathering the students that are gulity and just random students, but decided to first make ourselves better known and make the changes first. We’re already planning to have a sort of crossing, but want it to come along after we get our messages across and are assured that a good portion of the student body understands the changes we want and what’s expected of Berkmar students.
Marie
February 26th, 2010
3:17 pm
To dnt worry
Just because your incorrect as of 2008 Berkmar is 38% Black 38% Hispanic 10% White, and 10% Asian.
And as I’ve walked around school the leveling seems to have evened out even more to probably 35% Hispanic and Black to 15% White and Asian.
I understand that race can play a role, but that role dims in suburban areas in comparison to urban areas.
jim d
February 26th, 2010
3:52 pm
Christie S,
Check your facts sweetie. the vast majority of discipline problems start here. hate me if you wish–but it does not alter the facts.
Angie
February 26th, 2010
5:41 pm
I am a parent of a Berkmar student and I also teach in an elementary school in the Berkmar cluster. I have been very happy with the education that my daughter has received at this school. She takes mostly AP classes and loves her teachers and classes. When my son was about to begin his high school career, we asked our children if they would rather attend another school and both said no. My daughter, like Sarah, has said that she would hate to go to a cookie cutter all white school. She prefers attending a school that is as diverse as what she will be working with when she gets out in to the real world.
Berkmar is the second most diverse school in the state. Nearby Meadowcreek is the most diverse. They are also Title 1 which means that they have a large amount of free and reduced lunches. This doesn’t make Berkmar any worse of a school or any less safe. I know my daughter feels very safe at school. Administrators and teachers are very visible around the school, especially at lunch and breakfast. With approximately 800 students in the commons at any of the 4 lunches, it is extremely hard to control everyone, especially when the student has no respect for anyone in authority.
Thank you, Sarah and Marie for defending your school so eloquently. Berkmar has won many awards which have totally been ignored by the press. Sarah, you forgot to mention that Berkmar won the state Academic Decathlon for six straight years and was 1st runner up last year. They have one of the toughest and most extensive AP programs in the state and had the only freshman AP Scholar in the state last year. So, for all of you who continue to denigrate the school because of this article, please do your research first. I am proud of this school and totally give the teachers and the administration my full support.
Speaking as an involved parent, I do think more parents should become involved in the school. I have personally seen countless students whose parents can never find the time to come see their child do anything at school. This includes sporting events, band, and/or any fine arts performances. I don’t understand this. Maybe the poor, misguided students who were part of the food fight just wanted attention any way they could get it. This doesn’t make it right but it may be a reason.
For those of you who think you could do a better job than the teachers and administration at Berkmar, maybe you should spend a week or two in a public school. You would get to see exactly the restrictions that are placed on the people who work in a school by the bureaucrats at the capitol.
North GA H.S. Math Teacher
February 26th, 2010
5:45 pm
This is simply a problem with student behavior. This could happen at any high school and Berkmar is probably a great high school. Student behavior has declined over the years for the reasons listed by many above. I don’t think it has anything to do with race, intellectual ability, or socio-economic situation. This is easily corrected if parents would take control of their kids.
Gwinnett HS Educator
February 26th, 2010
6:40 pm
I work in a Gwinnett County HS that has seen a shift in demographics over the past 8-9 years. Economics and race are making a huge impact on our school. In just 8 years our school has dropped from #2 ranking in Gwinnett for SAT scores to second from last. Students at my school feel so entitled and I understand why. They get free lunch, free breakfast, free SATs, free ACTs, free college application fees. They are offered college admissions and scholarships based on the fact that they are black and/or poor. Students wear their poverty like a badge. It is uncool to pay for anything. Students who have failed prerequisite courses are encouraged to take AP classes because they are poor and/or black. This is unfair to the students who really belong in AP. It is unfair to the poor students and black students who actually earned their way into AP classes. Is it fair to have lower expecatations of students just because they are poor and/or black? Why are these students allowed to show blatant disregard for rules and order? Because they are poor and black and we can’t expect them to show respect? Take a walk down our hallways and see students talking on phones, listening to ipods, screaming, cussing, pushing, fighting,…and this is during class time. But hey, they are black and poor. We can’t expect more from them than we can expect from wild animals. THIS is disrespectful-lowering expectations because of race and poverty. Students are not safe in our school. There are violent fights and gang activity on a daily basis. Our school was not like this 8 years ago when we were a middle class white school. I don’t blame the poor kids or the black kids for the decline in academics or behavior. I blame the low expectations we have of them. I think it is reflective of our country as a whole and it is disgraceful.
knows the truth
February 26th, 2010
7:28 pm
To “I threw food in high school”. You don’t have any idea what you are talking about. I work at the school in question and the teachers and administrator are posted in the lunchroom. Posted during the free breakfast (where by the way, there was a fight since the last incident), posted in the halls, posted at the bus lanes, patrolling the grounds. But when over 2000 students are divided into 4 lunch periods that is a mass of kids each lunch.
Are you going to wade into that mass of jumping, throwing, hitting and general wave of humanity to stop the instigators of a food fight or a fist fight? Especially when you can’t touch the students or you face getting arrested, sued, hit or fired if you do so? When you tell a student to stop an action that is against the rules and they tell you “You can’t make me?” I’d like to see anyone who criticizes the teachers or administration last a day in their shoes.
There are many great students in this school but there are a lot that need to be elsewhere. But you can’t get them put out because they get chance after chance to do better. When you have an entitlement mentality that is fostered in today’s school and societal system you are going to have people who think it is someone else’s problem.
For the person who said middle class parents don’t notice the money they pay for their child’s lunch, I don’t know what your salary is but I notice that money going out and I don’t want it waste because someone knocked the food out of my child’s hand as they were running to get away from a food fight.
knows the truth
February 26th, 2010
7:54 pm
And some other points,
1) YES, Berkmar has won quite a few academic awards that haven’t gotten much press.
2) It isn’t a racial thing, it is a attitude issue.
3) Kids won’t rat another out so how do you punish only the troublemakers?
4) A fair is a place you got to eat cotton candy and go on rides, it is not real life, get over it.
5) It seems like all these kids on free/reduced lunch have iPods and the latest shoes, clothes, you name it. Guess we know why they get free food.
AP student
February 28th, 2010
12:28 am
I am a Junior currently enrolled in Berkmar, and I have been there since my Freshmen year (2007), and my time of Berkmar, this was the first year I saw something of this magnitude. Berkmar has been misrepresented out of proportion, and yes it is mostly the immature students, not the teachers or faculty. I have be fortunate to avoid all these problems, and I have been blessed to have some of the best AP teachers that have believed in me and supported, which I know many other students in Berkmar would agree with. Some of my fellow classmates, a term i use loosely, because I do not engage in that behavior, and I personally think, in my bias opinion that if you witness a student be badly injured as the student was last friday (Feb. 19), and you do not step in and help to stabilize the situation, you are just as guilty as the person who inflicted the injuries to him. He is a human being, and he does respond to pain and has emotions like everyone of us. I am deeply sadden that my school is full of immature, irresponsible, and despicable individuals, who see school as nothing more than a meeting place instead as a safe institution for learning. Hopefully things change for the better, I myself have tried to provoke change, but it is hard to do it alone, but I have received support from friends but there are still some who do not grow up or learn.
Chris M.
February 28th, 2010
11:18 am
To the poster that said “I wonder what the demographics of the school are.” Why do you wonder this in relation to this incident? What is the relevance? Let me guess, you are assuming it’s an all minority school because this would “NEVER” happen in a mostly white school (or your precious private school for that matter), right?
Sarah Stalsworth
March 16th, 2010
7:46 pm
@catlady.
For your reply to my comment, the only “not normal” thing about the behavior is that it isn’t done by perfect white angels. We are high schoolers, who do some dumb things. Nothing is considered normal for us, food fights have been going on for a while. Physical fights have to, it may not be right, but it’s normal. Sorry it’s too thuggish for you.
Michael
April 1st, 2010
8:45 pm
“Food Fight Closes School Cafeteria” would NEVER be on the front page of washingtonpost.com unless there were body bags.
Courtney
April 1st, 2010
9:06 pm
Expel all the kids. GCPS now has a policy of just hug the thug. The schools are out of control. We need a new school board that actually cares about discipline.
Courtney
April 1st, 2010
9:07 pm
Chris M. – Well you are right. This DID NOT happen when GCPS were all white. And it woudl never happen at a private school. What is your point?
Michael
April 1st, 2010
9:24 pm
Some of my best food fights as a child were in the Catholic school (white, private school) cafeteria in the 1970’s. Oh wait, that can’t be right, food fights are a 21st century phenomenon?
Ted Striker
April 1st, 2010
10:23 pm
It’s a shame that a small percentage of kids created such a disruption. However it’s also a shame that some folks who show up to comment on blogs at the AJC are just as disruptive and disrespectful as ill-mannered kids. Except as adults, they ought to know when they’re being mean-spirited and divisive.
The offending kids may or may not be mirroring the parents, but they’re actually doing better than some of you in these forums.
SoConfident
April 1st, 2010
10:35 pm
Courtney, your confidence is awe-inspiring. There were NO food fights EVER in an all white school? There are no food fights EVER in private schools? I’d say show me the data, but there most likely isn’t any (although if you have a database of every disciplinary problem in every school ever that includes the student demographics, that’s something I would love to get access to….I’m a geeky stats person). And you know, if we expelled ALL the kids – then we would save billions by not needing a school system. You should run for the school board.
Reality
April 2nd, 2010
12:04 am
Come on everyone, stop with the racist remarks. I teach in a 99% white wealthy suburban high school. There are parent problems there as well, they are just of a different type. Examples….
Little Johnny likes to do his drugs in the gym locker room. His allowance is so large he can afford the “good” drugs. And, its not just Johnny, it is a group of a dozen or so. You can smell that pot down the hall.
Sally cheats on every assignment. She copies from friends, uses cheat sheets, uses her cell phone to look up answers, etc. Teachers turn a blind eye because the administration does nothing when it is reported. The administration does nothing because Sally’s mother and father are lawyers that have threatened to sue repeatedly.
Tommy likes to act out. He is very physical and hits/wrestles with males and even with some females. He even threatens teachers with violence. The teachers try to phone his parents….. mom’s phone is always on voice mail and is full. Dad is always away on business and never can be reached. Yeah, Dad responds to emails, but his reply is to deal with the mother.
White schools (public and private) have parental problems. They are just different.
Jahmar
April 2nd, 2010
12:19 am
Sigh. I pray that our society gets over this whole race issue. EVERYBODY GIVE IT UP ALREADY! JUST GIVE IT UP! It’s all that anybody seems to discuss in the media today. Everything is about race, race, race, race, race. Give it up! It’s annoying and I am sick and tired of this race obsessed society we live in. Dang. For people who hate blacks so much why do you incessantly talk about us? I bet you prejudiced and racist whites do not even see a black person on a daily basis. Let alone have any in your personal lives. No matter how much you think that it is true black people are not a monolith. With all of the whining people on ajc blogs do about welfare and taxes you would think that they would practice as they preach and look at the world as individuals instead of groups. A group with MILLIONS of diverse people all around the United States and the world.
For the two children that attend this high school… you guys make me feel so much better about the future of our society. I know it is wrong to say, but thank God that old people and their backward attitudes eventual die off.
Rant over.
Concerned Parent
April 20th, 2010
10:01 am
As a parent of a child at Berkmar I know that the kids that were involved in the food fight were caucasian and they recieved no punishment because of KEN JOHNSON! He lied as he often does.
just me
May 21st, 2010
7:22 pm
i,m goin to give yall people the real fact about berkmar. yall say its 5% that cause 95% of the problems. NO!!!! its 80% of the students that are bad is hell. i’m a student there i will know. the other 20% is the kids that get the good stuff and brightin berkmar up a lil bit. now out of that 80% of crazy ass kids about 30% of those kids are AP kids. and the way i would know is because sum of them are my friends. ya they are smart but they like to start alot of drama trust me they do. its like every day there its sumthin new going on. and 85% of the fights that happens at the school. The staff does not even no bout them. am not a problem starter at school but i do have my moments there. thats the real deal. no BS.
dnt worry
May 21st, 2010
7:31 pm
marie for your info thats 2008. were in 2010 now up grade baby. they school has lost sum of its hispanic race. and has gain students from west side chi town, new york and detriot. i would no i go there. also i now we gain lots of new students because the 12th grade class increased from 450 to 603. and out of the 300 to 400 new students that moved there. 380 were black. so sorry but u dnt know every this time baby. upgrade please.
dnt worry
May 21st, 2010
7:39 pm
and for concerned parent. they were not caucasian. they were black.
mines
August 10th, 2010
5:50 pm
but berkmar is 7% white
mean
August 15th, 2010
3:26 pm
for southron man. berkmar is 46% black 38% hispanic 9% asian 7% white
mean
August 15th, 2010
3:26 pm
with 3341 student
mean
August 15th, 2010
4:18 pm
and for knows the truth. thers 3341 students. not 2000