Tucker High dissed for bad reasons
Since the Supreme Court long ago settled the constitutionality of race-based school segregation, perhaps it should turn its attention to economic apartheid in education.
The starkest examples of this economic divide can be found between the city and suburban schools. But even within the suburban jurisdictions, in school systems that are deemed sound, the chasms exist, pitting the old suburbs against the new.
Take the case of J.R. Tucker High School.
Situated in a bend of Parham Road between Broad Street and Interstate 64, Tucker is the sort of campus-style complex apparently popular among school designers in the early 1960s. The school was named for a law professor who was the architect of Henrico's county-manager form of government.
Its wooded campus is well maintained and dotted with benches. You don't have to look far to see numerous displays of school pride, including "We Love JRT!" on the school's roadside sign. "Unity in Diversity" is the theme that greets visitors to its Web site.
Its diversity aside, Tucker has changed little since those days in the mid-1970s when I spent many a summer evening playing basketball in its sweltering gym.
Surrounded by aging cottages and sprawling apartment complexes, Tucker does not lie in the heart of affluence -- we're not talking a backdrop of Raintree or Twin Hickory. No one would mistake Tucker's environs for the heart of darkness, either.
But some parents in western Henrico are recoiling at a redistricting plan that would send their children to Tucker instead of Mills Godwin, Deep Run or Douglas Freeman.
Note to Tucker: You have been officially kicked out of the West Trend.
Henrico schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson suggested that the negative perceptions of Tucker are baseless.
"This is probably folks who haven't visited Tucker High School," he said, adding that Tucker is home to the county's Welcome Center for English as a Second Language students countywide as well as the system's Center for World Language. The school is also slated to get an International Baccalaureate program in fall 2010.
"I think folks make judgments in part, but not wholly, . . . based on ages of schools," he said. "When you have a new facility, you think: 'That must be where my child can get the best education.' And we know that's not true."
Yes, parents whose children would have to travel five times the distance to school have a legitimate beef. But talk about property values has no place in a discussion of where a kid attends school.
Some parents maintain that attending Tucker will hurt their child's life chances, or at least their opportunity to attend a top-notch college. This is ludicrous. Since I'm not hearing that Tucker's teachers and administrators are inept, I'm assuming this is about the prestige factor.
More than a half-century after the Brown ruling, economic class segregation fuels inequities real or imagined.
As long as the moving of boundaries within a jurisdiction produces such drama, regional education remains a pipe dream.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or
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Reader Reactions
Excellent point lauren…..except for the fact that they were DRUNK…...of course they got in trouble!! Once a student gets him or herself in trouble with the law there is nothing the school can do to help them. So yea they got in trouble. As for every school having its good and bad points, that’s true. But if you sat down and thought about it, you would find there are more bad points than good points at tucker and that there aren’t really a whole lot of bad points at other schools in this county. It’s just the honest truth.
“scurry” the Jr at Tucker High School has hit the nail on the head. Tucker High Schools main problem is the lead administrator. Administrators who can’t gain respect from their student body are losers. The real issues are not within our individual schools however they are with the Henrico County School System. The system is where the problems steem. The leaders of the School System allowed Tucker to become what it is! Henrico is certainly large enough to have diversity in all schools and not large pockets in certain localities. Yes I have a student at Tucker High School and what Scurry states I support, it’s all very true. You citizens that think school zoning has no affect on your housing values need to wake up .... get to Starbucks and smell the coffee!
In response to Scurry…
Do you honestly think Deep Run doesn’t have issues? There issues are just a little bit different.
As for the administration picking favorites, ask around about the first football game 2006 when several of the so-called “favorites” got suspended for 10 days for being drunk at the game.
Are we adults or are we 2 yr olds!!!!
Every school has its good points and its bad….
These upper West-end corridor schools have theirs too.
As in snoddy people…..
We all need to pull together and make each better.
Now grow up and get real..
Ok…this has gone on long enough. Let me be the one to explain everything. I am a junior at Tucker and let me start off by saying that every parent that has complained about their kids going to Tucker is just being a good parent.
Let’s start with the facilities…Tucker is one of the oldest schools in the county and it definitely shows. When it rains, it floods and all of the awnings leak so there are puddles every ten feet. The bathrooms are absolutely disgusting and the equipment for athletics is old and terrible because our prinicipal and A.D. won’t accept anything from the county…that’s dumb.
Second…athletics:
At Tucker, there are few coaches that are truly liked by their team. I think the only coaches that haven’t been criticized are the Volleyball, Tennis, and Cheerleading coaches. Every other coach has had a good amount of students criticize them. And the athletic department is SO corrupt. It seems as if coaches pick friends more than good players now. Why? Who knows?
Third…the faculty:
I’ve had tons of different teachers so far during my time at Tucker and I would say maybe 4 are actually considered good. When Deep Run was built, all of the good teachers wanted to go there since it was a newer and nicer school. And it’s like our teachers feel like they have power over us just because they’re faculty and adults and that their job is to just bully us and get us in trouble.
4th…our administration:
What can I say about our administration? They don’t follow the code of conduct when it comes to punishing kids. They seem to set their own rules. If it’s a kid that they are friends with…they don’t get in any trouble at all. And our administration is so concerned about being everybody’s friend that they are so easily pushed around by parents. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
5th…the students:
Do you know want to know why nothing is reported at Deep Run? Because nothing happens at Deep Run so there is nothing to report. I can’t remember the last time a Deep Run student talked about a fight or gun or knife at their school and to be honest…I don’t think there ever will be.
Last…CHANGES!!
All of you dumb parents that graduated from Tucker 30 years ago and have kids that went there…it’s totally different! Take a yearbook from 2000 and then take the 2008 yearbook and you’ll see a drastic change!! Tucker used to pride itself in its Baseball team in the 80’s and now it prides itself on Diversity. And all this school pride that seems to come up from students is a load of crap. During football games I would guess that only half of the student section is filled…that’s a lot of pride. And our pep rallies (if they can even be called that) don’t even get our school pumped up for anything. All they do is let us out of class for 30 minutes 3 times a year so we can watch the senior class (and somehow the sophomore class) take the stupid spirit stick that everybody forgets about as soon as the bell rings.
So for all the parents who feel offended that people could say such a thing…if you had to go to Tucker for a month and see for yourself what it’s REALLY like…you would absolutely hate having rain soak your clothes, cochroaches everywhere, and nasty bathrooms that look like they haven’t been cleaned since the 70’s.
If you feel like I’m being too harsh…feel free to let me know never because I don’t care about what you have to say and everybody is entitled to their opinion.
This whole issue is just absolutely ridiculous! Parents! Stop fighting what’s in best interest for you, and start to consider what’s best for everyone. I can’t believe what everyone is saying about my JRT high school. Tucker is just like any other school only its about 50 years old. I have no idea why everyone outside of the Tucker district thinks that Tucker is some ghetto high school, with metal detectors, gangs, fights every single day, horrible teachers that raise and teach criminals. First of all HOW DARE YOU! That is totally being prejudice. Second, realize that this is Henrico County. Every teacher is selectively hired by Henrico County and is therefore chosen because they are the best of the best. I am a senior at JRT and I can honestly say that I have received a FANTASTIC education. I have close relationships with all of my teachers and they have inspired me and influenced me in more ways than I can count. I have almost a 4.1 GPA and I have earned every single one of my grades. Now while this argument isn’t about how well I have done in high school, it is definitely about the atmosphere at Tucker. One of the reasons that everyone is so scared of Tucker is because they have never been to the school, and think that it’s just a poor high school that deserves the sub-standards of everything. Now while Tucker hasn’t always received the necessary funds to restore our high school unlike Deep Run or Godwin, Tucker has still been able to get by. While our campus floods when it rains it does get a little crowded under our walkways but that just gives us more of a reason to walk closer to another :) Tucker is the CENTER FOR WORLD LANGUAGES as also the Center for ESL. Tucker has the most diverse population in the county. We have people from all over the world and people from all walks of life. We all GET ALONG WITH ONE ANOTHER! Our theme is Unity through Diversity! Our school shows this time after time. Our school spirit is like a disease, you can’t escape it, and it is CONTAGIOUS! We have so much pride for our high school, even if we aren’t the best at sports! Stop bashing Tucker for reasons that are plain ludicrous! Start being open minded. Tucker is after all a HENRICO COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL! Don’t you think we deserve to be treated like the rest of the county high schools. While people are fighting to not go to Tucker, realize that Tucker is already under capacity, and until just recently, was going to be seriously impacted by the redistricting. I have been right in the middle of all things “redistricting.“ I have gone to all the meetings, public hearing, blah blah blah. Each is the same, with more parents fighting for what they think is in their child’s best interest. They don’t even care about Tucker. While Mrs. Wright has posted a wonderful article to the editor which can also be found on the website, it shows the plain lack of concern, lack of fairness, and the plain ignorance of the Henrico County parents. Stop acting like you are 3, and stop being so selfish. Tucker is “Henrico County’s best kept secret!“ Nothing you say can stop it. Not even your signs, t-shirts, lobbying, arguing, fighting, etc. WE ARE TUCKER! and we will show all of you what we are about. Expect us in full force showing our Tiger Pride of Orange and Blue at the meetings. The Tucker community is fully aware of the situation, and we are just simply not, I repeat, NOT! going to let you tear our school apart just because of selfish reasons. Any more question? and way to go Mrs. Dyer and Mrs. Wright. Keep Fighting!
In reponse to J. Galt, I was told from a faculty member at Freeman that there are just as many discipline problems there as Tucker, but the difference is that Freeman does not report them all.
It still breaks my heart that Tucker is perceived this way. I’m a Tucker alumni, and there was NEVER a time where I wanted to go anywhere else. I loved pretty much everything about that school. Anyone else find it funny that all the other high schools’ boundaries resemble a circle like shape, but Tucker’s boundary is some strange long line that makes no sense at all. Who cares that the buildings are old? Really, what does it matter? I received a quality education at Tucker and got into every college I applied to. I wish the college that I attend now was even close to being as diverse as Tucker was. From what I’ve seen, the kids that grow up around people of other races and learn about different cultures are a lot more well-rounded and RESPECTFUL of others than those that grew up in a cookie cutter community full of clones.
The simple fact is the Tucker facility needs some money from the County. They also need some parents with disposable income to help buy new band uniforms or buy the donuts and support the car washes and sew costumes and raise money. One small corridor of houses cannot provide that. And certain neighborhoods have been allowed to “check out” of that scenario leaving certain other neighborhoods to carry the entire burden for Tucker. It’s not enough “being open minded about appearances” or “looking on the inside at the people.“ Put some money in Tucker and don’t just build a shiny new facility for the lucky ones.
Speaking from experience, Tucker is Henrico County’s “Best Kept Secret”. My son has excelled academically, socially and in sports at Tucker. He never would have had the opportunities in sports if he had attended Deep Run or Godwin. The school spirit is contagious and the campus is beautiful, especially in the spring! My younger child would rather go to Tucker than the new high school and that’s just fine with me…We prefer to carry on the Tucker tradition. I say, let’s keep the fact that Tucker is AMAZING a secret…shhhhhhh…
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