Former teachers and parents complained to WEAR-TV about the restrictions placed on the seventh-grade students at Warrington Preparatory Academy after some students had flooded a bathroom and damaged several classrooms. Dr. Eddie Ruiz, state superintendent for Charter Schools USA, which runs the school, talked with Inweekly.
“When we came into this project, we knew it was going to be a heavy lift for culture and high expectations, and we went pretty fast,” said Ruiz, who noted that the sixth and eighth grades made the adjustments. “Our seventh graders were the ones; we didn’t reset with them how we should have.”
He pushed back against allegations that the students were placed in lockdown. “It wasn’t a lockdown, it was we limited movement. We do that in our K-8 buildings where our students don’t move as much. I quote Spider-Man, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ And seventh graders, we had to understand they have a lot of privileges and a lot of responsibilities, and we had to just make sure that they understood the expectations that we needed them to follow in order to do all the things that they’re able to do.”
Ruiz continued, “And so we took this opportunity to reset and that’s what we were able to do. We’ve seen lots of things happen positively with doing that.”
