MITCS students support fired principals and suspended students

MIDLAND – While advocating for their voices to be heard by administration, students at Midland Innovation and Technology Charter School (MITCS) used their lunch break to stage a peaceful protest Wednesday afternoon.

On May 8, students walked out of the building during their lunch break to support their former principal, David Krakoff, and to protest the suspension of 10 students following an assignment-related incident earlier in the week. According to students and parents, the suspension of these students began approximately two hours after Krakoff’s sudden removal, and no information was provided to parents as of Wednesday afternoon.

“The problem now is that there is something wrong with MITCS,” said Robin Maria Hood, a parent at the school whose son was suspended May 6. “I contacted every single board member by email and phone. I have reached.” He is the only one who reached out to me. The CEO has no interest in finding out what happens next. So the leadership of the school is gone We’re left with no answers.

As of Thursday afternoon, the charter school’s CEO, Terrance Smith, had not responded to the Times’ request for comment on Krakoff’s firing or the student suspensions. While reporters were able to obtain information about what allegedly led to the suspensions, parents and staff said they did not know what led to the principal’s sudden firing.

Steve Hood, who attended the event with his wife and sons, said there were no visible problems with Krakoff as principal and that the administrator did a good job making students feel accepted. For his son, who was diagnosed with ADHD and autism, the environment created at the school was welcoming until these recent events.

“The principal is the nicest, most helpful student out there,” Hood said. “He really creates a great environment. My son can be against going to school and he makes sure he looks forward to going to school and learning. “He’s really improved his education and I’ve never heard anything negative about the principal until this happened.”

According to parents, they were not officially informed that Krakoff was suspended on Monday, but parents had spoken to each other and confirmed that he was no longer in that role. By the end of Tuesday he had been officially relieved of his role as principal, but parents had not been informed of this at the time either.

Although the school has not publicly explained why Krakoff was removed from office, parents fear his removal may have been a political move by the school.

“I found out that some of the staff are against the principal doing everything he can to help kids with IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) and that’s just hearsay that they don’t want the school to go out of its way for.” IEPs,” Hood said. “They want everyone to be treated exactly the same, but that’s not what an IEP is. That’s not what an autistic student needs, and the principal has given the students exactly what they needed.”

Two hours after Krakoff was suspended from his office, the Hood family received calls that their son had been found with a note that mentioned he had murdered another student and that he needed to be picked up immediately. When they arrived to pick up their son, they discovered that the “note” was an assignment completed in class and that the paper had several students’ handwriting on it.

The assignment in question was given during a creative writing class in which students were encouraged to write prompts for haikus “whatever was on your mind that day.” It is unknown what sparked the discussion, but teachers allowed students to “engage” their ideas with the topic. Apparently several students in the class used this prompt, naming people they knew or others in the class class, and each student’s work was edited by peers.

At the time of the assignment, teachers involved in the project said that they did not believe that these assignments contained credible threats and that students were joking when suggesting their ideas. According to an instructor, some of the students named in the assignment also suggested haikus about how murder might happen to themselves.

While administrators said they would reach out to other parents by the end of Monday, the Hoods say that never happened and their son was the only person suspended. They were told their son could not return to class until he received a psychological evaluation.

“There were no secrets, the class had a great time,” said Robin Maria Hood. “I think there’s a particular department within the school that turned it into something it wasn’t and used it to appeal to students and administration alike.”

Hood believes the situation was poorly handled at this point. She says no one was available to sign the form confirming her son was being sent home because the CEO was “on the other phone” at the time. She also said her son was allegedly bullied by a staff member at the school throughout the year, which may have contributed to the discrimination he faced.

When she later asks about her son, Hood says her family was told the suspension was a mistake and he shouldn’t have been sent home. When they accused the school of discriminating against their son, Hood said two hours later nine other students were suspended “to protect themselves.”

“This is ridiculous and now my son, who has autism and ADHD, is out of school,” Hood said. “The principal is gone and we have no answers. The board is on our minds, so that’s the mood.”

The combined incidents prompted students and some staff to walk out of their lunch break Wednesday afternoon to show solidarity with the suspended students and support their former principal. Several students reported that they were unable to leave the building after the first group was let out, but the group outside respected that decision and continued their demonstration.

Related Posts

Deadly shooting at Northeast Philadelphia store – NBC10 Philadelphia

The investigation into the ammonia incident in Teutopolis is ongoing

UPDATE: Alleged rapist now in custody