High Schools New York City

Like a lot of reporters, I sometimes have this image of myself as one of those thick-skinned sorts who isn't fazed by anything. But on a visit to Mater Dei High School on Tuesday, a student said something that left me flabbergasted. My next-to-last stop in my daylong series of interviews was in Tanya Reminiskey's seventh-period journalism class. I asked students about Mater Dei, and I invited them to question me. One student asked where I attended high school. "In the Bronx," I replied.

Lt. Helen Rossi adjusts her blond hair and her blue cap, checks her red lipstick in the rear-view mirror and jumps out of the police van marked "Truancy Patrol," ready for a day nabbing students drawn to the glitter of Times Square. Rossi, a 23-year veteran of the New York Police Department, is a tough-talking hooky cop who can spot a truant in a minute. She quickly spots two boys strolling down 34th Street. "Excuse me, boys, aren't you supposed to be in school?" Rossi asked, giving a sly smile.

Mayor David N. Dinkins on Monday enacted a $28-million plan to protect high school students from rampant violence. Dinkins had more police stationed in school corridors and metal detectors installed at the doors less than a week after a 15-year-old brought a stolen, .38-caliber handgun to school and killed two other teen-agers in a hallway that was teeming with police because the mayor was coming to the school to make a speech.

Sweat shirts and baseball caps. Students wearing T-shirts, mouths filled with braces. Horseplay in the halls between classes. At first glance, it could be almost any public high school. But a closer look reveals that this particular mix of students is a multiculturalist's dream: a cornucopia of European, Asian and African faces, all filling the halls with a chorus of Caribbean, Eastern European and Chinese voices. It's New York's International High, a four-year New York City public school.

Martha Harvey thinks it's just a matter of setting a good example. Harvey is president of the A. Phillip Randolph High School Parents Assn., and it's a commitment she and her fellow board members take seriously. They meet through the summer and at least two times a month during the school year. Some even give up vacation time. And some stay on after their own kids graduate, to help the next group learn the ropes. "We feel that by doing, we exemplify what we expect our kids to do," Harvey says.

An argument among students at a Brooklyn high school escalated into gunfire Monday, leaving a 16-year-old student dead and a teacher seriously wounded, authorities said. The dead student, Darryl Sharpe, "was an innocent bystander" to a dispute at Thomas Jefferson High School, a detective said.

Proud and self-conscious in their new black robes, they marched to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" down the side aisles of the auditorium as parents and loved ones snapped their pictures. And when Principal Carol A. Beck introduced the graduating class of 1991, they rose from their seats on stage with precision--just as they had practiced days before. Graduation this year at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn was a time of joy and hope, reflection and relief.

Lt. Helen Rossi adjusts her blond hair and her blue cap, checks her red lipstick in the rear-view mirror and jumps out of the police van marked "Truancy Patrol," ready for a day nabbing students drawn to the glitter of Times Square. Rossi, a 23-year veteran of the New York Police Department, is a tough-talking hooky cop who can spot a truant in a minute. She quickly spots two boys strolling down 34th Street. "Excuse me, boys, aren't you supposed to be in school?" Rossi asked, giving a sly smile.

The textbook budget is only $25 per student. In some classrooms, students can barely hear, what with carpenters' power saws whining in the halls. Then there's the science teacher assigned by the Board of Education. A disaster. He has survived in the system because other principals chose to pass their problem along rather than endure an exhausting dismissal process. Small problems, perhaps, as things go in New York public schools.

A student gave Principal Carol A. Beck a small cake Tuesday with a single red rose and the words "cheer up" written on the white icing. Another drew a poster with a gray gun shooting red smoke and the word "tragedy." A local merchant dropped by with $100 in a pink envelope to help pay funeral expenses.

Mayor David N. Dinkins on Monday enacted a $28-million plan to protect high school students from rampant violence. Dinkins had more police stationed in school corridors and metal detectors installed at the doors less than a week after a 15-year-old brought a stolen, .38-caliber handgun to school and killed two other teen-agers in a hallway that was teeming with police because the mayor was coming to the school to make a speech.

A principal's dream to show off a high school, nationally recognized for making educational progress in one of this city's toughest neighborhoods, was shattered Wednesday when a 15-year-old student, firing at point-blank range, killed two other students before being captured. The killings at the Brooklyn school were called one of the worst incidents of school violence here in decades. They took place less than an hour before Mayor David N. Dinkins was scheduled to tour the school.

A student gave Principal Carol A. Beck a small cake Tuesday with a single red rose and the words "cheer up" written on the white icing. Another drew a poster with a gray gun shooting red smoke and the word "tragedy." A local merchant dropped by with $100 in a pink envelope to help pay funeral expenses.

An argument among students at a Brooklyn high school escalated into gunfire Monday, leaving a 16-year-old student dead and a teacher seriously wounded, authorities said. The dead student, Darryl Sharpe, "was an innocent bystander" to a dispute at Thomas Jefferson High School, a detective said.

Proud and self-conscious in their new black robes, they marched to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" down the side aisles of the auditorium as parents and loved ones snapped their pictures. And when Principal Carol A. Beck introduced the graduating class of 1991, they rose from their seats on stage with precision--just as they had practiced days before. Graduation this year at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn was a time of joy and hope, reflection and relief.

Like a lot of reporters, I sometimes have this image of myself as one of those thick-skinned sorts who isn't fazed by anything. But on a visit to Mater Dei High School on Tuesday, a student said something that left me flabbergasted. My next-to-last stop in my daylong series of interviews was in Tanya Reminiskey's seventh-period journalism class. I asked students about Mater Dei, and I invited them to question me. One student asked where I attended high school. "In the Bronx," I replied.

Sweat shirts and baseball caps. Students wearing T-shirts, mouths filled with braces. Horseplay in the halls between classes. At first glance, it could be almost any public high school. But a closer look reveals that this particular mix of students is a multiculturalist's dream: a cornucopia of European, Asian and African faces, all filling the halls with a chorus of Caribbean, Eastern European and Chinese voices. It's New York's International High, a four-year New York City public school.

A principal's dream to show off a high school, nationally recognized for making educational progress in one of this city's toughest neighborhoods, was shattered Wednesday when a 15-year-old student, firing at point-blank range, killed two other students before being captured. The killings at the Brooklyn school were called one of the worst incidents of school violence here in decades. They took place less than an hour before Mayor David N. Dinkins was scheduled to tour the school.

Martha Harvey thinks it's just a matter of setting a good example. Harvey is president of the A. Phillip Randolph High School Parents Assn., and it's a commitment she and her fellow board members take seriously. They meet through the summer and at least two times a month during the school year. Some even give up vacation time. And some stay on after their own kids graduate, to help the next group learn the ropes. "We feel that by doing, we exemplify what we expect our kids to do," Harvey says.

The textbook budget is only $25 per student. In some classrooms, students can barely hear, what with carpenters' power saws whining in the halls. Then there's the science teacher assigned by the Board of Education. A disaster. He has survived in the system because other principals chose to pass their problem along rather than endure an exhausting dismissal process. Small problems, perhaps, as things go in New York public schools.