Bracetti School discount parent concerns
By T Martin (as Escritor X)
Whoa! Hold the phone! NorFilly Magazine published an article on parents’ tales of “humiliation” and “discrimination” last month, but not without some rebuke. In fact, grassroots periodical Community Focus also carried the story last week, receiving several bitter – and rightly so – phone calls.
Admittedly, we dismissed much of what was brought to us by parents, even during our interviews, as “normal” for any school setting. However, language translation problems resulted in misinformation about the school, and we hope to clarify any misunderstandings in a series of articles to follow the school’s response to parents’ accusations.
Though the stigma of the results of our first article in this series may linger shortly hereafter, it is our hope that our readers know and understand that neither publication intended to short-change the organization that boasts accomplishments like the ones that Marianna Bracetti Academy Charter School has since its inception.
Last month NorFilly Magazine hastily compiled and published a story of an angry parent’s venting; this month the magazine eats humble pie in an attempt to right the wrongs of the unintentionally unbalanced reporting published in its March edition.
A few concerns that arose were presented to Focus Newspaper and NorFilly Magazine, however, and those issues need also be addressed:
- For instance, Ida Navarro, the parent quoted throughout the “Discrimination” article, is not – or ever was – the president of the school’s PTA. She is only a member. That was an error that occurred in language translation during one of her interviews. (This point keeps coming up, though, and apparently Navarro is either president or vice-president of the PTA.)
- Another concern was that Navarro was the only parent interviewed. Though she is quoted throughout the article, she was not the only parent interviewed. Other parents brought their concerns, but their issues were of a more confidential nature than would allow us to publish.
- There were questions about the belief that the school is a bad school with little concern for student safety. This was not directly stated in the article, nor was it the intention of the article. Reports from parents interviewed for the article were positive concerning school security, highly applauding Bracetti’s chief of security Victor González.
At the time of this press, most staff that could corroborate stories shared by parents or school administration is on holiday for Spring Break. We will continue our series in the following weeks, NorFilly Magazine publishing several stories in its next monthly edition, to present the full story to our readers.
Appearing in this week’s edition of Community Focus Newspaper is Marianna Bracetti Academy Charter School’s response to parents’ feelings that the school might have failed to live up to any of its promises to students. Students will publish their responses next week. NorFilly Magazine will continue its series, as originally intended, to help parties involved in the school bring their story to the public.