When school starts, in a few weeks, it’ll be the beginning of my 14th year teaching at Deering High School in Portland.

The recent front-page article about the disparity in enrollment numbers between Portland and Deering high schools (“Deering enrollment tumbles as school wrestles with discipline,” Aug. 3) suggests that a few high-profile incidents last November raised safety concerns and influenced students’ choice of high schools.

Those back-to-back incidents were a rough patch for Deering, and our administrators responded swiftly and with care. The perception of Deering as a school with safety issues is not the reality that I live there each day. Deering is the city’s most diverse high school – socioeconomically, linguistically and ethnically – and our classes, at all levels, reflect much of that diversity.

I teach a variety of classes and levels, from support classes to Advanced Placement, and here is what I see: students being challenged and supported by their teachers, students learning about themselves and their relationship to their communities and the world, students working together and teachers working to design relevant, engaging curricula and lessons.

I have two children in Portland schools: a rising sixth-grader and a rising third-grader. I hope they choose Deering High School when the time comes. If they do, they will get a great education in a safe school with a diverse community.

Jessica Bean

Portland

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