SCHOOL'S OUT FOREVER - PART 1
PHOTOS AND WORDS BY JAMES GRIFFIOEN
| A school computer lab with relatively modern hardware. Thieves have removed any precious metals from the CPUs and monitors, rendering them worthless. |
In the last half-century, Detroit lost more than half its population. Those leaving the city were mostly white people who fled to the suburbs. As a result, the tax base was destroyed and the black population that remains has had to govern a 139-square-mile city with limited resources.
With an aging infrastructure built for twice the existing population, the school district has to shut down and vacate school buildings every year. In 2007, the school board awarded a contract for securing, cleaning and removing supplies from closed schools to a Philadelphia-based company with ties to school board members. However, the work at many closed schools was simply never done. As with any buildings left unsecured in Detroit, thieves looking for metal immediately broke in to steal copper pipes and other valuables. These “scrappers” are like locusts. In 2008, I went into several schools closed the previous year to find buildings stripped of metal but left with libraries full of books, computer labs upturned, art classrooms full of supplies, and administration offices filled with confidential and sensitive student records.
It goes without saying that the city’s schools are in a bad way. Only recently, a principal at one Detroit public school asked parents to send toilet paper and light bulbs to school with their children because the district could no longer provide those necessities. Most students are not allowed to bring textbooks home, if their school has textbooks at all. The Detroit Public Schools are allotted more tax dollars per pupil than any other district in the state, and yet none of the money actually reaches those students or their teachers. It disappears in a morass of bureaucratic waste and corruption.
People tend to have a visceral reaction to the sight of books piled ten feet high and left to rot in a windowless warehouse or strewn about a classroom floor. They seem to have more sympathy for books than for the children who’ll never have the chance to use them. Half of Detroiters cannot even read. Unemployment is above 20 percent and our streets are filled with hopeless people. When I see schools left like this, I know exactly what waits for many of these kids. I see it every day on the streets.
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See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Nov 5, 2009 wrote:
does anyone in this city have self respect. I bet in 6 months the mess is still there probably in 5 years it will be there. houses falling down around them but have an escalade in the driveway. Im gonna gets mine well the pictures show what you do with what you get. | | Anonymous, on Nov 5, 2009 wrote:
cant wait for this world to burn people are to stupid to ever fix things | | Anonymous, on Nov 1, 2009 wrote:
These pictures don’t reflect so much a case of money or not; they show more how our society’s lack of respect for other people and others’ property has escalated. Also not an issue of black or white, just people in general who make a choice to destroy and cause mayhem. | | Anonymous, on Oct 1, 2009 wrote:
I believe Detroit’s problems start with the voters. You get what you vote for. Previous Mayor Archer said while finishing his term with no plan to run again that it was to difficult to get through all the red tape. That lead to Kilpatrick and where did he go. | | Anonymous, on Sep 29, 2009 wrote:
This isn’t a black & white issue. I was in DPS back from 1969 to 1977, 32 years ago. Back then there wasn’t enough $ for us to take books home. Now the same thing, doesn’t add up. That is alot of years of corruption. Aren’t there any honest people in the DPS system or Detroit politics????? Doesn’t seem so to me.
Our family moved to Livonia in 1997, got a whole bunch of books to take home then. | | Anonymous, on Sep 23, 2009 wrote:
This is what happens when there is a complete and profound lack of hope. As someone that grew up in that cesspool, I know that reality of Detroit. There’s much beauty amidst the ruins, but the city is in ruins nonetheless.
I’m just thankful that I was able to get out. I tried sticking around and ’helping make things better,’ but the situation was sooo far beyond me, and life is just too fucking short.
I love going home though. I love going home.
PS: fuck you haters. Karma is a bitch. Watch. | | Anonymous, on Aug 30, 2009 wrote:
Perhaps painful, but absolutely true. Blacks have been in perpetual custodial care for the past four-hundred years. The experiment in this country for the last fifty years is disheartening, but illustrates one glowing fact. Left to their own devices, you get Haiti or Zimbabwe. And let’s face it- it’s happening in Motown even with a huge influx of white tax dollars. | |
| Realist, on Aug 30, 2009 wrote:
People are poor because they’re disorganized.
Disorganized and/or stupid people do nothing but destroy.
Detroit doesn’t have a shortage of resources; it has a shortage of competence.
Further, for you racists on here: diversity doesn’t work even among all-white groups. Vive le Belgium! | | Anonymous, on Aug 30, 2009 wrote:
The effects of self-reinforced ignorance in racists are obvious to the impartial observer. | | Anonymous, on Aug 30, 2009 wrote:
The effects of the African-Americans are obvious to the impartial observer. | | Anonymous, on Aug 30, 2009 wrote:
Whites blaming blacks for the universal faults of human nature. Face up to reality, your message doesn’t even make logical sense. | | Anonymous, on Aug 30, 2009 wrote:
Larf. Africans blaming whites for their own uselessness. Face up to reality, you suck. | | Anonymous, on Aug 19, 2009 wrote:
It’s all whiteys fault 4 leavin da city! Us animals needs sum displin! | | Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote:
I’m suspicious about this photo: "A school computer lab with relatively modern hardware. Thieves have removed any precious metals from the CPUs and monitors, rendering them worthless." That is not a computer lab. And how do you know what the thieves did? It actually looks like the monitor cases could have been properly excessed by the school system, then later disturbed by vandals. | | Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2009 wrote:
It is not ethical to post people’s private information. The names and ID info should have been deleted by whoever posted the picture here. | | Anonymous, on Jul 23, 2009 wrote:
How can I get a hi resolution photo by James Griffoen with the caption: Snow fills a former school library after vandals broke the floor-to-ceiling
windows. This is from Schools Out Forever - Part 9. I have a client who would like to use it in a report. Thank you | | Anonymous, on Jul 14, 2009 wrote:
Where can I pick up a copy of Vice in the metro-detroit area? thanks.
markthansen@hotmail.com | | Anonymous, on Apr 9, 2009 wrote:
Read Dr Rich Gibson of Wayne State on the many crises of Detroit schools. Most of his work is online free. | |
| alecrf, on Mar 26, 2009 wrote:
for a second i thought that was a photo of compusa
but it’s detroit
they’re the same thing in essence, as is baltimore. | | Anonymous, on Mar 23, 2009 wrote:
Vice, I cannot deal with these Axe ads. They pop-up and then take 2 or 3 clicks to even go away. | | Anonymous, on Mar 22, 2009 wrote:
Where sub-Saharans go Afreaka follows. | | Anonymous, on Mar 22, 2009 wrote:
I fucking hate racists.
| | Anonymous, on Mar 20, 2009 wrote:
Looks like Pryzbylewski’s got his work cut out for him. | | Anonymous, on Mar 19, 2009 wrote:
Photos remind me of, Hmmm, lets see, yes, AFRICA! | | Anonymous, on Mar 18, 2009 wrote:
the student’s names should be blurred in these photos. it is a violation of their privacy to have their records online for public viewing. | | Anonymous, on Mar 17, 2009 wrote:
You’re right. It’s not a black/white issue. It’s a "I’m-here-for-free-cheese-Friday" issue. It’s allowing your kids to settle rather than push them further. God have mercy. | | Anonymous, on Mar 17, 2009 wrote:
Oh, come on, folks. This isn’t a black/white or Republican/Democrat issue. It’s a city in peril, and bitching about whatever side you’re not on is going to do zilch to solve it. | | Anonymous, on Mar 17, 2009 wrote:
I sure as hell know it wasn’t me. Not the first time, sure as hell not the second time. | | Anonymous, on Mar 17, 2009 wrote:
who elected Kwame Kilpatrick? Hint: it probably wasn’t white suburbanites... | | Anonymous, on Mar 17, 2009 wrote:
You ask where the leaders were? Let’s see, two of the highest officials were off in one hotel or another...or worse yet, getting officers fired for doing their jobs. It pisses me off to no end that people (whoever they are in the city) would allow this to happen and then spin it to say that DPS "needs" supplies. B.S. The DPS needs better leadership. The DPS needs better management. The DPS needs to revamp the entire situation and start over. Why should they get bailout after bailout for something they should have been monitoring from jump street? This is, by no means, a black or white issue. This is a lack of leadership issue (which seems to be the case with most of Detroit). When will the citizens/residents of Detroit FINALLY wake up and say enough is enough and take their city back? When will mediocrity just not be "good enough"? When will you want more for your kids? When will sub-par no longer be the norm? When will average no longer be acceptable? If not now...WHEN??? Sometimes the hardest answers really do come from the reflection in the mirror. | | | Next 30 comments > |
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