ELIZABETHTOWN — Alternative setting were the buzz words in the latest meeting for the Bladen County Board of Education.

East Bladen High School teacher Cheryl West came forward with a plea, both as a parent and educator.

“There’s a lot that we have seen going on not only at East Bladen but in our schools these days,” she said.

West spoke of a student she taught that was doing pretty well for himself in the beginning but then later fell in with a wrong crowd at school.

“In September I met this young man, and he was a sophomore, and didn’t have the best freshman year,” she said.

West explained that often kids come with baggage, but that she saw potential in this student.

“In November there was an incident that occurred in the lunchroom,” West said. “You know kids talk. They talk and say why things happen, and we as teachers, we listen.”

She said it was clear to her that this student was trying to find his place, and in that process, decided he was going to fight his best friend in the lunchroom, to get accepted into a group.

“From that point on, after he came back from his suspension I saw him two days,” West said. “I could see that the light was dimming in his eyes, everyday, and it was very sad, because I could at least get him to do work for me.”

West said she felt he was being swayed by groups of several young men, and from that point on she had not seen him one day in her class. She has said she has tried to intervene, getting staff involved from administrators to guidance, and calling home.

The transformation she described was that of a student she said talked to her in a way she had never been talked to by a student in her 23 years of teaching, at least not by a student that had drastically changed so much.

“I have never seen such a change in a young man in 12 weeks,” West said.

A portion of the students seem to be what she called “fence sitters” where they were trying to figure out their place to belong. Others, she said, are influences that were changing students in a negative way, and she felt that those students should not be in the school but in an alternative setting.

“I’m just concerned, really concerned, about seeing such a major change in our environment at East Bladen High School, because of just a few young men, that don’t really have a place to belong,” she said. “And when you have these other students influencing them, it’s hard to pull them away.”

At the end of the meeting, the board members shared their concerns, and decided that the concerns need to be examined further.

The board was in agreement of a responsibility to all students and indicated its next meeting would include discussion of alternative settings.

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Emily M. Williams

Bladen Journal

Emily M. Williams can be reached at 910-247-9133 or ewilliams@bladenjournal.com.