From a teacher via e-mail:

I spoke with a graduating senior today - a great kid - who was finishing up an essay for his last class.

His little brother is an 8th grader. His mother is a teacher in another city school.

I asked him, "So, should we expect your little brother here next year?"

The look on his face was one of alarm, then disappointment.

"My mother," he says, "won't send him here.

"She says she's in the system, so she's heard things from faculty and staff about the direction of this school. And she said she walked in the front door one afternoon, and could just tell that the whole atmosphere had changed. The school is a different place now."

Another fire was started in the building today, so that's not a hard thing to argue with. This school needs a heavy hand and it's just not getting it.