MARCH 15, 2013
FEATURE
THE CHIEF 11
The 1950’s shooting at MHS: rumor confirmed BY CONOR MCMILLIN JOURNALISM STUDENT
They informed us about the shooting, and then dismissed us.” “I think that it was a result of taunting, bullying, and constantly putting Bruce down. Finally, Bruce just snapped,” he added. “I always felt safe in the school. I never expected
CONOR MCMILLIN//THE CHIEF
With the effects of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre still being felt, many people are surprised by how something so tragic can happen so close to home. Well, on May 1, 1958, a fatal shooting took place in our own school. “Two fifteen year old schoolboys quarreled yesterday in this suburban Long Island community,” reported the May 1, 1958 edition of the St. Petersburg Independent. “Hatred welling within him, one waited for the other in the high school washroom this morning.” Both the victim, Timothy Wall, and the assaulter, Bruce Zator, were freshmen in Massapequa High School. Massapequa, a generally peaceful suburban neighborhood, was not too different in 1958 compared to present times. There were groups of people who stuck together, and also people who mostly kept to themselves. “I was sixteen at the time of the shooting—a junior. During that time, there were different cliques in the school,” former MHS student David Murray (Class of 1959) said. “Timmy was part of a clique called the Clovers, whereas Bruce was a loner. The Clovers were terrible to Bruce. They called him names, put him down, knocked his
books out of his hand.” On the day of the incident, Murray reported that Bruce, filled with anger towards his tormentor, hid a sawed-off shotgun under his overcoat, and waited for Timothy in the main hall bathroom. He exclaimed “You creep!” and shot Wall
The boy’s washroom where the shooting is reported to have taken place twice in the chest. “It was between homeroom and first period. I actually had my hands on the washroom door, opening it, when I heard the shot. I thought it was guys lighting fireworks into the toilets, so I left. I didn’t find out that it was a shooting until later,” Murray said. “After the shooting, they held us in the auditorium until about 1:30.
something like that to happen.” Knowing that something of this magnitude could happen in a such a simple place like Massapequa makes one wonder if it could ever occur again. However, the administration stresses that students should feel safe in MHS. Since the shooting in 1958, the school has become much more
Teaching for America’s future program BY RYAN SCHULTE
JOURNALISM STUDENT
Look at some of the most successful people today, and a common denominator quickly emerges: education. Whether it’s Lady Gaga—who attended an elite Catholic school in Manhattan— or Harvard graduate Barack Obama, education makes a difference in successful, effective lives. Teach for America is an organization that tries to ensure that every American child has this common denominator. According to its website, Teach for America is a national organization that trains some of America’s brightest college graduates to teach in some of our nation’s poorest-performing schools. “This is an incredibly competitive program since top scholars across the country want to participate,” Principal Dr. Barbara Williams said. Only the best and brightest are therefore able to both be admitted through TFA’s highly selective admissions process as well as survive the organization’s rigorous training program. This program focuses on making Teach for America corps members highly effective classroom leaders; it covers topics everywhere from setting goals for classroom achievement to connecting with students’ families. Some critics say that the program does not offer nearly enough time to learn the science of education; Gary Rubinstein, a TFA alumnus, is one of those critics. “Teach for America has only five weeks of training, and I actually think that it could be enough time, but I don’t think they use the time wisely,” Rubenstein said in an interview with National Public Radio. “These student teachers sometimes only teach for twelve days, one hour a day, and the classes often
safe and secure. “Massapequa takes security very, very seriously. We have professional, retired policemen on campus, and we monitor all points of entry throughout the school day,” Dean Patrick Howard said. “We also have five additional staff members to monitor the bathrooms and periodically check the lots of the school and the perimeter of the building. We also coordinate workshops with the Seventh Precinct. They have our floor plans, and have walked the building so they can get to a certain part of the building as quick as possible.” The tragic shooting of 1958 will never be forgotten. However, should another threat ever arise, Massapequa High School is now properly prepared to protect the students and staff from harm’s way.
only have maybe ten or twelve students in them...this is not a realistic training model.” TIME Magazine’s Andrew Rotherham thinks differently. “The selection process and boot camp training produce teachers who are as good, and sometimes better, than non-TFA teachers, including those who have been trained in traditional education school,” he said in February 2011. One place where these “talented grads” are working is the New York area, where only ten percent of kids from low income communities will graduate from college and just one in five graduating seniors is even prepared for it. Even worse, only one in ten children in the Bronx will ever even attend college. There is hope, however. “I think this organization can expose the city’s students to a level of education they’ve never known before, which will ultimately be for the better,” senior Ben Dash said. Students in the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School, an institution whose faculty members include many TFA teachers, are indeed receiving exposure to this new “level.” In 2008, sixth graders entering the school read at a fourth grade level, but were reading at grade level just three years later. Further, ninety-five percent of seniors at W.H.E.L.S. are currently on track to graduate. The TFA effect is not only being felt in Washington Heights, but the entire city—reading levels of the area’s ninth graders are one full grade level higher than they were a decade ago, and graduation rates of African Americans and Hispanic Americans have risen twenty points. The organization is not completely responsible for all of these advancements, but it was definitely a major contributor.
The other perk of Teach for America is how many of its welltrained and experienced alumni eventually work in the American education system. According to Rotherham’s article in TIME, sixty-seven percent of TFA alumni still work in the field of education, earning numerous Teacher of the Year distinctions. “I have interviewed several Teach for America alumni, and these individuals have a very comprehensive understanding of education,” Dr. Williams said. “Teach for America has taught them how to be innovative and creative in the classroom, so they put together insightful lesson plans and really know how to connect with students.” In New York City alone, almost one hundred alumni are currently school principals and thirty-five graduates of the program currently serve as officials in the New York City Department of Education. “You can learn how to teach by either observing others teach or learning as you go, and Teach for America allows you to learn as you go. I think that makes you a better teacher,” college student Kelly O’Hara, daughter of mathematics teacher Kathleen O’Hara said. “Unfortunately, this program cannot affect all students,” Dash also said. Despite all of Teach for America’s advantages, this is indeed an obstacle that the organization simply cannot overcome. However, with corps members working in forty-six low income communities nationwide, it can be said that TFA is doing its best.
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TFA timeline
Timeline of Teach for America History, taken from the organization’s website: 1989-Wendy Kopp creates the idea of Teach for America in her Princeton University undergraduate thesis. 1990-500 corps members join the organization, beginning its work. 1990-TFA teachers begin work in New York City schools. 1990-TFA teachers begin work in the greater New Orleans area with 375 corps members. 1991-TFA teachers begin work in the Mississippi Delta with 9 corps members. 1992-TFA teachers begin work in Washington, D.C. and its surrounding area with 17 corps members. 1993-TFA teachers begin work in the greater Newark area with 166 corps members. 2003-TFA teachers begin work in the greater Philadelphia area with 119 corps members. 2008-TFA teachers begin work in Jacksonville 2010-TFA teachers begin work in Detroit with 100 corps members. 2011-TFA teachers begin work in Appalachia with 22 corps members.