Comments on: Classroom robbery at Oakland Tech

By: Ashley

Ashley — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:51:16 +0000

Oakland is not the safest place but if you just leave or runaway whenever there is a problem what are you teaching your children?

By: Judy

Judy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:36:17 +0000

Susan:

Join me in San Ramon. It was the best decision that my family made – based on schools and crime in Oakland. My neighborhood and my daughter’s school is also more diverse than my neighborhood and public school in Oakland.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:40:30 +0000

Although I posted above that uniforms and teachers in classrooms can help alleviate this type of problem, this is also the type of thing that can happen at any school, any time. I’m sure we all remember Columbine, a “nice” school in an affluent suburb. Calling a school a charter or having a “no nonsense” principal does not create an invisible barrier around a school.
At this stage, pointing fingers is a useless exercise. As Mr. Vernon (and many former students and current colleagues) point out Oakland Tech is a school with a hard working staff, student body, and parent organizations. It is time to see how we can help this group. And until we are part of the solution, we are part of the problem.
(And no posting on a blog does not count as a “solution.)

By: MG

MG — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:59:01 +0000

I am an Oakland resident, and a prosecutor in San Francisco, and I am
outraged. The audacity of the rampant violent crime in the City of
Oakland, where I was born and raised, reflects an overall absence of
leadership, and more importantly, vacuousness with regard to coalescing
with and assisting community based organizations and micro-community
leaders, in forming and implementing specific and effective strategies
to reduce violent crime throughout the entire City, with special
emphasis on the most violent areas.

By: Chris Vernon

Chris Vernon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:15:28 +0000

Oakland Tech is a remarkable urban high school with dedicated administrators, staff, teachers, and a very active Parent Teacher Student Association which draws students from every corner of the city, including many students from private schools. Every year, kids from Tech’s flagship programs go on to the best colleges and universities in the land. To get a small taste of what really goes on at Tech, come visit. Or feel free to look at the wealth of information about the school on the website: http://oaklandtech.com/staff/

It’s important to remember that yesterday’s incident, as disturbing as it was, is something that can and sadly does happen in many urban and suburban settings – this sort of thing is not unique to Oakland. The security officers and administration should be commended for their handling of the situation. In cooperation with OPD, they helped ensure that the perpetrators were captured. Fortunately nobody was injured.

Careful thought is now going into planning ways to further improve security at Tech.

Chris Vernon – proud parent of an ’07 Tech graduate currently an honor student at UC Santa Cruz and a ninth grader at Tech.

By: Chauncey

Chauncey — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:57:49 +0000

The Get out if youo dont like it excuse is usually a line used by thos that have no argument against an opposing view.

By the way “Real Oakland Native” us fake Oakland natives have suffered from this get out of Oakland mentality. When was the last time chain stores or banks opened up in deep Eat Oakland>

We do need poeple like Susan- and we have too many ignorant folk like you.

By: Nextset

Nextset — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:55:52 +0000

Susan: Oakland Tech is a ghetto school. You have to understand what that means. It’s nothing new, it’s been a ghetto school for many 16 year generations now. The lives of the students and the staff are not considered the same value as the lives of Piedmont students and staff. You can always just backfill them, if you lose a few it’s no big deal.

As far as your nephew, he probably learned his lessons about allowing himself to be in such a place. He probably has a better understanding of why CA Urban Schools such as LA Unified are down to 6% White. And he also learned a good lesson about people, one that is not in the schoolbooks but is taught every day in Urban Schools.

As far as Real Oakland Native – whatever that means – they violent urban blacks haven’t learned any lessons yet. Their lessons will come on the mortality tables. They won’t see what is soon coming for them. That’s the way it goes.

Brave New World.

By: Real Oakland Native

Real Oakland Native — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:21:03 +0000

Susan, get out of Oakland if you don’t like it here. Believe me, we won’t miss you at all.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:11:48 +0000

This absoultely outrageous! This is wrong on so many levels! For starters, how did these people get on campus without getting checked? I have opposed charters much in the past, but they are small and wear uniforms thus this would hve been caught!

Second- where was the teacher? A few years ago- my nephew was assauted in a classroom that was left unattended. The kid who did it, got away with it on that day- but my newphew pointed him out. Should be done right?

Of course not- a group of black students began threatenting to hurt my newphew calling him racial slurs such as cracker and honkie until he had to leave for his safety.

Back then the district stated this was not policy-yet nothing happened to the teacher. My nepwhew on the other hand- recieved a fractured nose and a broken spirit.

You know since the police shooting- and also opening my eyes to this city- I must say that Oakland is doomed! As long as we make excuses, stay hands off and exteremly soft and accepting of low performance- this will be the norm.

Go ahead those no nonsense principals and go ahead charter schools. I fold from this blog and supporting failure.

My kids will not be raised in this crappy city for too much longer. By the way- i went to the memorial and saw groups of Blacks- yes I said it-BLACKS spitting on the memorial and yelling at thos friends and families of the officers.

Oakland- The Model City.

By: Alli

Alli — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:03:19 +0000

As a student, I heard rumors about it through the grapevine until the principal announced it on the loud speaker. She was vague about it, only calling it an ‘incident’ but we quickly learned what happened. Four people were robbed, or so I was told, but everyone is alright, though a little shaken. It’s scary because we live in a little bubble and you don’t think anything bad would happen but it does.

I’m glad that they were caught before they could do any physical damage.