Students speak up: Toki Middle School is great
On the heels of in-school fights that were broadcast on the Internet video Web site YouTube, a group of concerned Toki Middle School students want the media and community to know its school is a positive place for learning.
Members of Toki's Social Justice Club gathered 228 classmates' signatures to squash some of the negative publicity garnered after two girls were involved in a pair of fights in the hallways of the west side school nearly three weeks ago.
Students outlined details of the petition in a presentation Monday night to the Madison School Board. They stepped up to the podium at the Doyle Administration Building to read parts of the petition, which received rousing applause and an ovation by a handful of School Board members.
Flanked by first-year principal Nicole Schaefer, several teachers and parents, the 11 students who appeared before the School Board were Kelly Malsch, Khadijah Wilson, Patrick McNulty, Christian Eggers, Shawn Tredinnick, Allison Statz, Claire McCarthy, Alexis Meyer, Wendy Vang, Henry Maysack and Annica Harley.
The students told the board: "Regarding the perception of who Toki Middle students are: Toki Middle School is a unique learning environment with a lot of vibrant, successful students who are a reflection of their teachers."
"People at Toki make mistakes in life just like everyone else in the world. Instead of focusing on the negative, people should pay more attention to the positive."
The fights, which occurred April 17 and 18, were a hot topic of conversation among members of the student body and were eventually taken off YouTube. The altercations are being investigated, and the girls involved in the incidents are being disciplined.
Schaefer said the Social Justice Club is made of sixth- through eight-grade students who collected signatures over a two-day period during lunch hours last week. She added the students hope their efforts also will help put the fights in the past.
Many Toki students were frustrated that the school was treated unfairly in print and television reports and online, and the Social Justice Club decided to take action. Toki added an extra security guard and dean of students to its staff in March to deal more effectively with troubled students.
When a negative incident becomes public, Schaefer said, students' opinions are often lost in the shuffle, and the community should not lose sight of the fact that their views are important and "powerful."
"We do recognize that there are issues and we're not perfect," Schaefer said in an interview Tuesday morning. "There are kids who do have some problems and some issues that we need to deal with, and that in the petition instead of more police officers, we're looking at things like mentors and tutors to create positive support for all of us that we can benefit from and increase learning time at school."
Social worker Marie Drumm and teachers Johanna Golden and Carlene Bechen assisted with the petition, but the content and words all came courtesy of the students.
Superintendent Art Rainwater was more than happy to give the students a platform for their petition. Rainwater, who has led the Madison Metropolitan School District for a decade and will retire this summer, said he sometimes is not pleased with the coverage local media offer up in regard to problems and negative issues within schools.
"They (media outlets) exacerbate every problem," Rainwater said. "They do it over and over and over again. The funny thing is it only lasts one year at each school and we move on to another school. This year is Toki's turn.
"Toki is a wonderful school. It's filled with wonderful kids and wonderful teachers, and somehow in the rush to the press and the rush to complain, we lose sight of that -- that they love their school."
File photo
Akira Toki blows the candles out on his birthday cake in 2006 at Toki Middle School.
