NY High School (2% White) Student Letters: "Us As New York City Students Deserve Respect"

By James Fulford

02/24/2014

It’s the subject of a New York Post article here:

Teens defend ‘fail factory’ school in error-filled letters

By Susan Edelman

February 23, 2014 | 4:01am

Excerpts of letters sent to the New York Post following an article on Murry Bergtraum’s 'F' grade. Photo: New York Post

These kids should learn write from wrong.

Earlier this month, The Post exposed a scheme at Manhattan’s Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers in which failing students could get full credit without attending class, but instead watch video lessons and take tests online. One social-studies teacher had a roster of 475 students in all grades and subjects.

Red-faced administrators encouraged a student letter-writing campaign to attack The Post and defend its “blended learning” program. Eighteen kids e-mailed to argue that their alma mater got a bad rap.

Almost every letter was filled with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.[More]

Of course they were. The school has a Hispanic principal, and a black public relations expert. The letter writing campaign was his idea:

The school’s $52,332-a-year “community coordinator,” Kian Brown — also a private “branding” consultant — encouraged kids to write letters to The Post praising Principal Lottie Almonte and her program. Copies went to Chancellor Carmen Fariña.

Here’s Kian Brown on the Huffington Postand here he is on Twitter. How could he not know what kind of letters these kids would write?

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