*Students Behavior Real, imagined or forseen?***** My comments :-)

Charter school draws complaints
Faculty, kids in Lake Highlands say neighbors' claims of disorder unfair

02/29/2000

By Dane Schiller / The Dallas Morning News

Neighborhoods have gone to war over bars and topless clubs in their parts of
town, but some merchants in Dallas' Lake Highlands area want to shut down a
school.

Heritage Academy, a charter high school housed in a shopping center, is
drawing the concern of business owners, a City Council member and the police
over allegations that students are harassing shoppers and making a nuisance
of themselves.

School officials say that the complaints are unfounded and that police are
using "Gestapo tactics" to intimidate kids trying to get an education.

"We want to be part of this community, but it is David and Goliath," said
Donna Darnell, executive administrator of the year-old school that receives
public financing and tries to help students at risk of dropping out.

She emphasized that Heritage does not accept students with behavior
problems. The parents' group at the school is scheduled to meet Tuesday
night to discuss its future.

"We are such a little-bitty school," she said. "Why do we have such big guns
after us?"

Ms. Darnell said Dallas police regularly station marked cruisers and a large
police van in the shopping center's parking lot.

Assistant Police Chief Jerry McDonald said officers aren't trying to bother
students but are responding to residents' complaints of robberies and
gunfire in the area.

"We are not trying to make kids fearful," he said. "We intend to be a
neutral party. We are not trying to intimidate anyone."

Chief McDonald said the robberies and gunfire have not been traced to
Heritage students. Merchants also complained that students were smoking
marijuana, but police said they have not substantiated those allegations.

City Council member Alan Walne, who met with school officials Monday, has
said he thinks the school's size makes it incompatible with neighboring
businesses. Heritage has about 450 students.

Community leaders and business owners say the situation has gotten
intolerable in the corner shopping center at Kingsley and Audelia roads,
which is shared by the school, a day-care center, a bank and retail stores.

"The neighborhood is not used to that kind of crowd," said Jerre Moser,
assistant manager of a hardware store next to the school. Students
"congregate and stand out here and intimidate customers."

On Monday, a few students lingered in the parking lot before classes began.
When the school day ended, the parking lot emptied of students within 10
minutes.

Pat O'Shea, president of the White Rock Valley Neighborhood Association,
which includes Lake Highlands, said the school doesn't fit in at the
shopping center.

"They get in these groups and scare women who are afraid to get out and
shop," he said. "It is getting kind of hairy. . . . We are asking them to
relocate or control their kids."

Cheynesa Scott, assistant director of the day-care center, said students
stopped congregating near her playground when she complained to Heritage
officials.

School officials said they have taken steps to try to improve relations with
their neighbors, including releasing the students in smaller groups at the
end of classes.

The school also has hired an off-duty police officer as a security guard and
assigned faculty members to make sure students leave the parking lot
promptly.

Students said the parking lot is less chaotic than at traditional public
schools and credited Heritage with helping them stay on track academically.

"I honestly think it is ridiculous," said Cristal Lazaro, 16. "People see
the way kids dress and complain. If they would go up and talk to them, there
would be nothing wrong. They are not trying to aggravate anybody."

Ricky White, 17, said he was having trouble in traditional public schools,
but at Heritage he expects to be named student of the month for the second
time. He called the police presence unfair and intimidating.

"It makes us feel like we are the bad ones," he said. "I feel like we are
the good ones."

Mr. Walne said he asked police to assess the crime situation near the school
and take whatever action was deemed necessary.

"Ultimately, I don't think any school with 500 kids should be in a retail
location," he said. "There seems to be an awareness: 'Hey, we are getting
people's dander up, and we need to do what we need to do to be responsible.'
"

Mary Doman, who owns a postal business and is in charge of a neighborhood
crime-watch group, said unruly students loiter in the parking lot and scare
away customers. She said her own customers are bothered daily by Heritage
students.

"I have lived here 31 years, and I have never seen anything impact the
neighborhood to this degree," she said.

Mrs. Darnell said her students are being unfairly blamed.

"The way they describe these kids, you would think my building would be full
of holes and graffiti," she said. "We have done everything I think we could
to get along."



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