I wanted to take the time to thank you for bringing attention to how the black churches in Roanoke have seemingly turned their backs on the youth in this City. I am a product of Roanoke City Schools and a product of one of the biggest black churches in the Valley. When I was coming up, I received a lot of support from my pastor, members in my church, my mother, my mother's friends and people in the community to get my education. Not only did they just talk to me about my education, they were proactively involved and made certain I did the right things and made the right choices in hopes of having a good life. These people were great role models. Unfortunately, many of these wonderful role models have passes on, along with my mother. But, I shall never forget the life lesson they gave to me and I aspire to pass these lessons on to my son. However, today we live in different times. People no longer get involved with the youth in the community. They no longer take the time to talk to the youth and give good constructive advise. Instead they(the youth)get labeled and draw contempt from many people. In my opinion, the youth sense this rejection and feel that no one cares for them. This in turn brings on the zero concern the youth display for school. Running with the wrong crowd, wearing the latest fashions. Having the latest video game, singing the latest song. Being able to dance the latest dance and more importantly seeing how promiscuous and disrespectful they can be. Which is a code of honor for them. This is all together wrong. This is certainly not how it was when I was coming up and my church certainly did not turn their back on me as a youth. However, as I stated, we are living in different times and all the church does these days is see how much money they can collect on Sunday's and haggle you to see how much they can get out of you. Some people realizing they are making the pastor and first lady and all those involved better off then they are. This has turned a lot of people away from the church. Now that I am an adult, the church that I came to love and know turned their backs on me when i went through a bitter custody/divorce. When I was coming up the church use to go and visit the sick and shut in. Take up a collection for the less fortunate. Help the mother who could not pay her rent or light bill and help feed her children. They would even visit sister or brother so and so's son or daughter in jail. The pastor would even go to court to speak on behalf of sister or brother so and son's son or daughter and plead with the judge not to put them in jail. In today's society this does not exist. I believe this is not just in Roanoke, but everywhere. I strongly believe what is happening is God's way of saying we are responsible for our fellow man and it is our duty as not just Christians to help, but the human spirit to want to help. If we don't start acting now, we are going to leave such an ugly disgraceful legacy behind that we will go down in history when it's all said and done as one of the worst people in history known to man. Many countries already view us as such.

I've got your back on the job teachers face. We have two teachers in our immediate family and their job gets tougher every year. They are both incredible teachers that we would all love for our children to be with in the classroom, but they are beaten down on a daily basis by the incredible lack of support from parents. The administrative duties are only getting more intense with tracking each tiny little detail and being scrutinized for a child's lack of progress. Add in the endless meetings and seminars and it's exausting to teachers. I applaud every single one of them who can get out of bed every day and report to work with a positive attitude. And I agree with you, Harris and Thompson were awful. I am still hopeful for Mrs. Bishop- we'll see what happens there as time goes by. You are absolutely right that things go unreported. No one wants those things on their record, so they get swept under the rug. I am sorry for teachers that the backing goes to supporting the child rather than supporting the teacher (in a discipline issue or assault.) We need more options as far as getting disruptive and abusive students out of a teacher's classroom and into a different program.

Why? This is a great example of getting out what you put in. My children and many others are thriving in the RCPS. But it's because they go to school rested, fed, prepared and motivated. No school system will succeed if those things don't exist.