75 cents
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THE CHRO1
See Opinion/Forum pages on A6&7
on page Bl
Volume 45, Number 40
Tevin
Stinson
Senior
Reporter
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C
THURSDAY, June 13, 2019
whitewashing
Before I begin, let me
just say as a 2009 gradu
ate of Simon G. Atkins
Academic and Technol
ogy High School, no one
is more proud of the aca
demic success the school
has experienced over the
past few years. According
to the U.S. News & World
Report, Atkins is ranked
No. 1 among high schools
in the county and 57th in
the state. The students, fac
ulty and staff should be ap
plauded for what they’ve
done to turn things around
at the school.
But I digress.
Built in 1931 and
named after longtime ed
ucator Dr. Simon Green
Atkins, the original At
kins High School was part
of The Rosenwald Fund,
which was established by
Sears Roebuck co-owner
Julius Rosenwald to sup
port the construction of
schools to educate Afri
can'Americans. The con
struction of the school on
Cameron Avenue (now
Winston-Salem Prepara
tory Academy) marked the
first use of the Rosenwald
Fund in the state and was
the first school in Winston-
Salem built to serve Afri
can Americans.
While preparing stu
dents for college, Atkins
also offered courses like
printing, building trades,
sewing and millinery for
students who intended to
go right into, the work
force. With a caring faculty
and staff and family-like
atmosphere, Atkins quick
ly became known as a hub
of black excellence. Those
who remember the days
of the old Atkins, includ
ing Mayor Pro Tempore
Burke, often talk about the
sense of pride that exuded
throughout the building.
Notable alumni in
clude: Togo West Jr., for
mer Secretary of the U.S.
Army and Secretary of
Veterans Affairs; Larry
Womble, former member
of N.C. House of Repre
sentatives; William Bell,
former Mayor of Dur
ham; Nadine Winter, for
mer District of Columbia
Council Member; Law
rence Joel, U.S. Army Vet-
eran and recipient of the
Medal of Honor; and cur
rent Winston-Salem City
Council Member Annette
Scippio, to name a few.
After closing its doors
■ When Simon G. Atkins
Academic and Technol
ogy High School opened
its doors in 2005, it only
housed ninth and tenth
graders. Most of the stu-
as a high school in the dents who attended the
early 1970s, the building first few years were bused
in
5
served as the home of At
kins Middle School until
the early 2000s, around the
same time district officials
started having conversa
tions about building two
new high schools, one in
East Winston and another
in the Northern part of the
county. Thanks to the Bill
& Melinda Gates Founda
tion and their partnership
with the state, called N.C.
New Schools Project, the
high school in East Win
ston came to life and when
it came time to name the
school, the Board of Edu
cation voted unanimously
to name the school Atkins.
About a year before
the school was scheduled
to open, Daniel Piggott,
who served as principal at
Atkins, and other adminis
trators went on a recruit
ing tour, visiting inner city
middle schools and talk
ing to rising high school
freshmen about the oppor
tunities Atkins had to of
fer. As a student at Atkins
Middle School at the time,
1 remember vividly be
ing called into the library
to hear about the legacy
of the old Atkins and how
the new school would con
tinue the legacy of educat
ing and molding the future
leaders in our community.
to the school from neigh
borhoods in the East and
Southeast portions of the
city, which created a stu
dent body that was nearly
90% minority students.
And because it was a mag
net and residential school,
students could also attend
Atkins from other parts of
the city.
As I noted earlier, I
graduated from Atkins
and I was there in 2005
when the school officially
opened, so I saw firsthand
how the plan to house
three schools under one
roof never really devel
oped. Initially, incoming
students had the oppor
tunity to choose between
three different schools or
focus areas: Biotechnol
ogy, Computer Technol
ogy, and Pre-Engineering.
While it looked good on
paper, most students never
really learned much about
jobs and opportunities in
the focus area they chose.
In fact, I can count on
one hand how many cours
es I took related to the
Computer Technology, the
school I chose as a fresh
man.
By 2007 most people
thought Atkins was the
worse school in the district.
And failing test scores,
constant violence, drop
ping enrollment and scan
dals that were reported by
every major news outlet in
the area didn’t help prove
otherwise. Just two years
after the school opened its
doors, talks began about
closing the school.
I’ll admit in the early
years Atkins had its issues,
but they weren’t things that
couldn’t have been fixed.
Although most people saw
the bad things that were
happening at the school,
no one reported on the re
lationships and bonds that
were being built between
teachers and students.
By the time the first
group of seniors were set ■
to graduate in 2008, you
could see the school fi
nally taking shape. There
were less fights, test scores
were improving,. and stu
dents were starting to take
pride in being Camels.
Despite being labeled as
“bad students” who went
to an even worse school,
the Class of 2008 and the
Class of 2009 produced
business owners, business
managers, public relations
specialists, doctors, chem
ists, graphic designers, and
military personnel.
The success of the first
two graduating classes
alone proved that things
were turning around at
Atkins. But when Joe
Childers was named prin
cipal in 2010, he vowed i
to make some changes and i
although he didn’t say it, :
that virtually meant chang- '
ing the make-up of the stu
dent body.
One of the first changes
Childers made was drop
ping the three schools.
He then made the school
a. STEM magnet and
dropped the residential re
quirement, which made it
harder for students of color
to get in and pushed out all
the students from the East
and Southeast Wards.
By 2011, the same stu
dents from the inner city
who were persuaded to at
tend the school less than
10 years earlier, were no
longer welcomed. After
dropping the residential
requirement, enrollment
dropped to 274 students.
Since that time, the school
has seen a steady increase
of students each year from
more affluent parts of the
city and county. Today
only 56% of the students
are minorities.
We Are Atkins?
ally?
While this topic
been on my mind
Re-
has
for
some time, an email to
The Chronicle from a con-
bold print. The parent said
when she logged online
to order the yearbook, she
was taken aback by the
cover.
She said, “I wondered
how Winston-Salem’s first
modern high school for
African Americans, an in
tegral part of the Big 4, and
a school that many of the
black community’s elderly
residents take pride in hav
ing attended, could be so
whitewashed.”
Inthe email, the parent
said after seeing the cover,
she decided not to pur
chase the yearbook. She
said, “I believe that it is ir
responsible, disrespectful
and insensitive for Atkins
High School to produce
and distribute a yearbook
that has only white stu
dents on the cover, with the
title ‘We Are Atkins,’ espe
cially considering the his
tory of the original Simon
G. Atkins High School.
“I’m not saying that
the cover should have only
black students either, but
■the cover should reflect the
diversity that the new At-
cerned parent prompted kins High School is, which
me to put pen to paper and
share my thoughts. The
concerns from the parent
stemmed from the design
of the 2019 yearbook.
Aside from being the
worst design I’ve ever
Seen, the cover of the year
book shows three pictures
of Caucasian students
(who I assume go to the
school) with the lettering
“WE ARE ATKINS” in
isn’t all white!”
I couldn’t have said
it better myself. I’m not
asking the district to make
Atkins like it was in the
1940s and 1950s, but I
would like to see the dis
trict make a better attempt,
to get students of color to
attend the school.
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