WHO'S IN CHARGE OF PROBLEM SCHOOLS?

The principal of Baltimore's Northern High School showed she meant business when she suspended 1,200 of the school's 1,800 students for refusing to pick up their report cards in their home rooms.

Although Alice Morgan-Brown's mass suspension brought the ire of superiors and parents alike, she demonstrated that discipline must be maintained. The students, after all, had refused to go back to their rooms and get their report cards, instead gathering at the front doors of the school, and chanting, "Hell, no, we won't go."

The parents of some of the students were disturbed by her harsh action, but there have been many problems at the school. Someone had to take control.

Perhaps if some of those parents would take more of an interest in their children's behavior and the problems at Northern High School, they might consider Morgan-Brown's decision a sensible one. With attitudes like those children displayed, it is doubtful much learning is taking place.