Back to gallery

chem room

Detroit's public schools system is in shambles. The city has closed 67 schools since 2005, and the city's graduation & literacy rates are the lowest in the nation.

 

This school, the alma mater of such illustrious Detroiters as Diana Ross, Lily Tomlin, Ellen Burstyn, and Jack White, was recently closed and a new school built next door. But the Detroit Public School system neglected to move everything out of the old school, and improperly sealed the building, making it vulnerable to vandals and trespassers. In 2007, the building, which is a noted historic structure, experienced a number of fires. Today, the school looks like it went through an atom bomb blast. The last day's assignments and equations are still hauntingly scrawled across blackboards, and fully stocked classrooms only make the school system's recent complaints of lack of supplies and money seem self-inflicted.

 

For a student's-eye-view of life at Detroit Public Schools, please see Oren Goldenberg's feature-length documentary "Our School", to be released soon.

web.mac.com/ogoldenb/Site/Welcome.html

 

Mamiya 645, Fujipro 160

 

Detroit, Michigan

4,082 views
10 faves
10 comments
Uploaded on March 3, 2009
Taken on March 3, 2009