How Not to Close a School
by Melissa Kissoon
Melissa Kissoon is an 18 year old graduate of Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn & a youth leader with Future of Tomorrow and the Urban Youth Collaborative.
I was victim of high school phase out. My first two years of high school at Lane were great. There were clubs and extra credit activities to help students get ahead or to help struggling students pass. I had some teachers I really liked and there were many teachers who had been in the school for over 15 years. Overall it was a great school despite its reputation and as a student, I would say it was improving. Then one day the principal and deans got us together to tell us our school is phasing out, which meant that they would be putting another school into our building and would no longer accept any new students