I spent my entire 30 years teaching as a French teacher – for many years as THE French teacher – at Maryvale High School. I started there in 1995 in room 723, then moved to room 703, and finally to 907. Most teachers don’t spend their entire careers in one district, let alone one school. But I did. Teaching changed quite a bit in those 30 years, but being a teacher, in many ways, did not.
Watching the news this past week has been surreal. I saw the campus I knew so well from so many different angles, and I knew that people I cared about were going through some scary things. I thought of my students who were there as well as my friends and colleagues who were dealing with something awful.
We have prepared and trained for lockdowns many times, and we’ve been on lockdowns many times. I can’t even keep track of how many times we had lockdown drills and real lockdowns. Only once while I was there was the lockdown “real” and on campus. Most of the time, it was due to a police situation in the neighborhood and had nothing at all to do with Maryvale High School. We also had some weird ones. Once, a swarm of bees was near the campus and they didn’t want kids walking home until they had settled. Another time, a power line had fallen down and they wanted to fix it.
Usually, we just got the notice of a soft lockdown – meaning nothing that was a true threat to us, but we still couldn’t allow students to leave the room. We could keep teaching and just wait for it to be over. We were prepared with buckets that a student had prepared years before as part of his Eagle Scout project, just in case. I had a case of water and granola bars in my room to be ready for an extended lockdown. You wouldn’t believe how many times I had to tell kids that no, they couldn’t have one today just because – we would need them in an extended lockdown, and who knew when that would happen?
I found out about the lockdown not long after it happened. My daughter’s boyfriend saw something on the Citizen app. I texted my friends on campus to let them know what we were hearing and to ask if they were OK. Usually, teachers are told NOTHING about the situation until well into the lockdown. It didn’t take long for the news cameras to arrive. As the news started showing the video from the helicopter hovering overhead, I recognized the building where they were focusing their actions – it was right around the corner from my old classroom.
As the story started to come out, it became clear that this was different from the prior lockdowns. Rumors were flying of a student stabbing another student. People were saying it was scissors, but of course rumors aren’t always accurate. Video started coming out on social media, which I really tried to avoid. All I could think of was the students who were in that room and how they would be affected by this traumatic event.
As always, social media had a LOT to say about it. Sadly, most of it wasn’t positive. While many people were supportive of the staff and students, others immediately started to share their racist opinions. “Well, it IS Maryvale, what do you expect?” Others started attacking the teacher and admin, assuming that they just stood by and allowed this to happen.
Things you should know about Maryvale High School
Maryvale High School isn’t one of the brand new, modern high schools. It opened in 1964 in west Phoenix in the area named after John F. Long’s wife Mary. Over the years it has changed quite a bit, both in the student population and the physical plant. When I started teaching 30 years ago. the front office was where the auditorium is now, the cafeteria was in the current visual arts building and the 900 and ROTC buildings didn’t exist – nor did the 700 building extension (which is where the tragedy occurred).
The students have changed quite a bit in some ways, but in other ways they are the same as always. Cell phones have definitely caused a diminution in attention spans, but it’s cut down a lot on other classroom behavior issues. The kids who would have been making a distraction by talking or getting out of their seats aren’t really a problem anymore – instead, they are on their phones. This is a common concern of teachers all over the country, not specifically a Maryvale issue.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that these kids are kids. They aren’t grown-ups yet, and they are dealing with the same thing teens have always dealt with. My students were (for the most part) good kids trying to do their best in the world.
Some of them knew what they wanted out of life while others hadn’t quite figured it out yet. Some were good students who showed up each day ready to work and learn, some were motivated some days but needed a push on other days – like most of us! – and a few didn’t really want to be there and were waiting to drop out or graduate. But they were all still kids looking for people who cared about them and could help them through their four years at Maryvale while they decided what to do next.
Seeing how frequently some random person on Facebook was willing to attack the students and teachers of Maryvale during this event was pretty upsetting. I’ll fully admit that the Maryvale area isn’t the safest – in fact, it’s one of the most dangerous in Phoenix. But the school itself is full of people who are hopeful for the future and who are going about their daily business trying to make that future the best that it can possibly be.
The kids at Maryvale aren’t all “thugs” or “losers” or any of the other words people used to describe them. They are young men and women who have hopes and dreams for their lives. Most of the students I had in my classroom – whether they were good or bad students academically – were polite and helpful. I greeted them with a smile every single day and most of them returned that same energy.
Maryvale has a lot of good kids, smart kids. We have kids who get scholarships to state universities and Ivy League colleges. We have kids who excel at ROTC, the arts, and sports. We have kids who work hard at school and then work hard after school to support their families. We are the home of the Gifted and Talented Academy, where some of the smartest student in Phoenix study. We have many students who go on to serve in the military.
While the neighborhood has its issues, the campus itself is supposed to be a safe place. The teachers I worked with made it a priority to welcome and get to know their students and to make them feel safe in their classrooms. The attack and murder of a student on campus stands out because it’s not a normal or typical event. So, anyone who says, “what do you expect from Maryvale students?” – this is definitely not something I expect from them. It was an aberration, and something that shocked everyone. As it should.
Why do some people blame the students?
I have always believed that some people deal with their fears by coming up with reasons why bad things only happen to people who deserve them. We hear again and again the victim-blaming questions like “what was she wearing” or “why was he there so late at night?” Telling ourselves that bad things happen to people because they made these choices allows us to pretend that we are immune from them – it can’t/won’t happen to use if we don’t wear the dress or walk in that neighborhood. It allows us to feel safe.
Saying “what do you expect, it’s Maryvale?” is yet another way of doing this. If we pretend that this sort of thing happens because of who these kids are as a whole lets us pretend that our own children are safe. After all, they don’t go to Maryvale – they go to a good school! Never mind that plenty of “good” schools (which often really means white, suburban schools if we’re being totally honest) have had school shootings that are much more deadly than the incident at Maryvale.
By saying this we also have an excuse to do nothing. A lot of families in the Maryvale area are struggling, in a variety of ways. Some of the students at MHS have difficult challenges in their lives, and yet they keep coming to school each day. They’re making an investment in their futures. But if we dismiss them as just “those kids from Maryvale, you know how they are” – it gives us permission to write them off. We don’t question why some schools get state of the art computer labs and $62 million football stadiums while schools like Maryvale use Donors Choose to buy basketballs, facial tissues, and some lenses for photography class.
No matter what your feelings about the people of Maryvale high school and the Maryvale community, the fact remains that we’ve lost two young men and the lives of their families will never be the same. The teachers and students will be dealing with the trauma for quite some time.
We may never know the entire story of why/how exactly this tragedy happened. But it does seem that the poor decisions of the two students have permanent consequences for both of them, but the effects ripple out across the nearly 3000 people who learn and work at Maryvale. It’s easy to pass judgement and dismiss them, but instead we should be supporting them and helping them as much as we can.