Within a matter of weeks, Courtney Sutton’s son will graduate from Bard High School Early College DC with not only a D.C. high school diploma under his belt, but an associate’s degree from an accredited university and at least three college acceptances.
However, as Sutton explained to The Informer, her son will also carry the trauma of physical and emotional violence experienced at a D.C. public school that, despite its reputation as an academically rigorous program, has its share of problems as it relates to student safety.
“My son was robbed when school first started during his 10th grade year, and nothing was done about that,” said Sutton, a Ward 7 resident. “This year, he was robbed and shot at by another student. They’ve been going to school for months [and] the boy was never suspended or penalized. It’s on camera but they don’t know why he ran back [to the school].”
In 2019, shortly before the pandemic relegated students and teachers to the virtual realm, Bard High School Early College DC opened as part of a collaboration between D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and Bard College in Annandale, New York, through which high school students would graduate with a high school diploma and associate’s degree, or college credits at the least.
Two years later, Sutton started attending the high school, then located on the grounds of what was known as Davis Elementary School in Northeast. She said that he counted among students who commuted between home and school and completed hours of classwork while trying to those who preyed upon community members.
During the earlier part of 2023, just months after Sutton’s son became the victim of a robbery near the former Bard High School Early College DC and a District youth was killed at Congress Heights Metro Station, District Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), DCPS, Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee and a bevy of education officials celebrated the high school’s move to Alabama Avenue with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Students, teachers, and staff, back from winter break, moved into a newly revitalized state-of-the-art school building with three dozen classrooms, rooftop solar panels, a theater and gymnasium, a soccer field, track field and basketball court, and several energy-saving amenities. By that time, school officials, as Sutton recounted, denied her request that her son receive virtual instruction. Years after the ribbon cutting, Sutton says that Bard High School Early College DC has yet to live up to her expectations as a parent seeking accountability, transparency, and organization.
“Whenever there’s a situation at the school, no one ever calls you,” Sutton said. “You find out through the kids. There’s no one ever in class the times I go there. They got children entering and exiting the school at all times of the day.”
Parents Protest to Save the School They Were Promised
On Monday morning, Sutton counted among nearly a dozen parents, former staff members and community members who stood in front of Bard High School Early College DC out of frustration with the violence they said students have experienced on and near school grounds.
The press conference that the group known as Concerned Parents of Bard High School Early College DC conducted took place days after footage of an on-campus melee made the rounds on social media. For the better part of an hour, parents told their stories, all as part of their demand that Bowser, Ferebee and other education officials attend a parent-led town hall about campus safety.
Other demands on the morning of May 5 centered on the creation of policies that: protect students involved in violent incidents; restrict students’ cell phone use; ensure accountability for harmful social media activity; remove violent students; and pave the way for proactive and ongoing conflict mediation training for all students.
The press conference attracted a group of community, including former D.C. Councilmember Trayon White, who expressed solidarity with parents in an Instagram post.
With her son’s career at Bard High School Early College DC soon coming to an end, Sutton said that she wants to see the school environment improve for parents east of the Anacostia River seeking unique, quality high school options for their children.
“I don’t want people having the wrong idea, thinking Bard is better than it is,” Sutton said. “Because it’s like every other school. I wanted to take him out plenty of times [but] the only thing that kept him at the school was his associate’s degree.”
DCPS Officials Respond
In a May 6 letter to Bard High School Early College DC students, parents, and community members, Kim Jackson, D.C. Public Schools’ (DCPS) chief of schools, outlined security measures that the public school education agency is taking in the press conference’s aftermath.
Some of the measures include: additional school resource officer partners during mealtimes, transition periods and events; moving contracted security officers to areas of high visibility; and increasing the number of non-instructional staff during meal times.
In regards to behavioral and mental health services, Jackson touted Better Morning, Inc., Bard High School Early College DC’s community-based partner and acknowledged guidance officers who are trained in restorative practices.
These resources, according to Jackson, will be implemented in response to an on-campus incident that Bard High School Early College DC principal Dr. Kym Sturdivant described in a May 2 letter as a “multiple physical altercations between students,” that triggered a lockdown, the dispatch of Metropolitan Police Department officers, cancellation of after-school activities, and the staggered dismissal of students.
Jamice Butler, the parent of a 10th grader at Bard High School Early College DC, told The Informer that, long before she received the school’s communique about the May 2 fight, she learned about the melee from her daughter and her mentor.
“The young man who initiated the fight is from Congress Park,” said Butler, a Ward 8 resident. “There were kids who jumped the school fence and started the fight in the schoolyard and it spilled into the school.”
Butler told The Informer that, though her daughter remains adamant about continuing her studies at Bard and attaining her associate’s degree, she’s been slow to re-enroll her.
However, with similar situations unfolding at other public and public charter schools, Butler admitted that she might succumb to the pressure to stay.
“She feels like once the seniors graduate, everything should die down because it’s beef between freshmen and seniors,” Butler said. “It’s not promising at any other school.”
Like other parents, Butler enrolled her daughter at Bard High School Early College DC with the hope that she could flourish in an environment as rigorous and prestigious as its unique offering— college-level courses and an associates degree.
That outlook, Butler said, slowly changed with each story that her daughter told her about outsiders entering through the backdoors of the school. As the months went by, Butler recalled having more clarity about a root cause.
“Listening to other parents, there are issues that administrators have with each other,” Butler told The Informer. “Some of them treat their students like friends.”
A Look at Policy, and a Middle School Counselor’s Take on Enrollment
Earlier in the academic year, parents at Ballou Senior High School, located blocks away from Bard High School Early College DC, coalesced around similar demands for a campus safety plan and safe passage infrastructure. Around that time, the D.C. State Board of Education and the D.C. Council set its sights on the issue of student cell phone use in the classroom, with D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) introducing legislation to prohibit the frowned upon, but common, practice.
As recently as the council’s May 6 legislative meeting, Pinto called on newly approved State Superintendent Dr. Antoinette S. Mitchell and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to support her efforts to immediately curb in-class cell phone use.
“It’s my understanding that it’s right now OSSE’s position that they need an additional year to implement these changes,” Pinto said on the dais on Tuesday afternoon shortly before the council approved Mitchell’s nomination to the helm of the state education agency. “I think that’s too long. I think every week and month that we wait to implement these changes, it undermines our student outcomes and our student experiences.
As Pinto extended an overture to Mitchell, she recognized parents as a vital partner in facilitating a smooth transition to classrooms without cell phones.
“I’d love to work with Dr. Mitchell and you, Mr. Chairman [Phil Mendelson], to make sure that we can get that bill passed and funded and implemented as soon as possible,” Pinto said. “Recognizing we’re going to need our parents to be a part of the solution and be part of sharing with our young people that these are the changes that are happening and we all need to be on board to make sure that they’re implemented appropriately.”
In years past, graduates of Bard High School Early College DC spoke about parents who transferred them from another D.C. public or public charter school to attend the high school marketed as Southeast’s answer to Banneker Academic High School, School Without Walls, and other application-based high schools.
During the spring of 2021, 15 students who enrolled in Bard High School Early College DC at its inception two years prior completed their K-12 journey with a high school diploma and associate’s degree– free of charge. As the years went on, and other students of every high school grade level matriculated to the school, all students navigated a four-year course load starting with conventional high school-level courses during their freshman and sophomore years and 60 hours of college-level coursework during their junior and senior years — or what’s referred to as Year 1 and Year 2.
A D.C. public middle school counselor, who agreed to speak anonymously, told The Informer that there have been questions about recent events and the caliber of students they’ve seen enter Bard High School Early College DC since its move to Alabama Avenue. The counselor said the students and challenges call into question whether DCPS and Bard College are indeed enrolling students who, during their middle school career, demonstrated intellectual curiosity, a command of grade-level concepts, and a propensity for engaging difficult coursework.
A representative for Bard College didn’t immediately return The Informer’s request for comment.
“I know kids that have been accepted in the school, and I’m like, how did they get accepted?” the middle school counselor said. “ I give every kid a chance, but that’s not what they sold us on. This was going to be our highly qualified high school east of the river that our kids don’t have to go uptown for. This was going to be like our McKinley and Banneker right in our backyard.”
The middle school counselor told The Informer that Bard has become the school of choice for eighth grade families in recent years. As parents continue to press for campus safety measures, the counselor expressed a desire for what they described as admissions standards and a campus environment that attracts highly talented Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents competing for a spot at application-based high schools west of the Anacostia River and west of Rock Creek Park.
“Bard can succeed, just like Banneker, the McKinley’s, and the School Without Walls,” the middle school counselor said. “They just got to hold their ground and don’t care about enrolling [every student], just care about what you put out and what you said you were going to be. Because you have schools not only in D.C., but you have schools in P.G. County the same way, and Baltimore that are public schools.”
