Today I was on my way to my mechanic when I noticed a lot of books that were thrown in a nearby Dumpster. Now I'm not a proud person at all. If I see something in the trash that I feel I could use, I will go after it in a minute. Anyway, while "Dumpster Diving", I came across a bookbag filled with all kinds of personal school items that apparently belonged to a girl that just receintly finished High Shool. I found a year book, a Prom Photo, a bookbag filled with research papers, and many other items that had all been tossed. What realy shocked me was that I found her High School Diploma. This girl graduated just last year :(

I thought to myself " This is so sad". Why would someone be willing to throw away such wonderful and important items. Earning a High School Diploma is something that she should really be proud of and should be willing to keep for the rest of her life right along with all of her other Teen Age memoribilia. Unless this girl is dead or somethng, I can't really see anyone in her family throwing things like this away either.

I wonder why she did this :confused:

Lets just hope she isn't in the dumpster across the street.

So many great moments....how easily they can be thrown away (no pun intended)

Originally posted by DrewM
Lets just hope she isn't in the dumpster across the street.

:) like a dumspter diving mystery, only the dumpsters can reveal the truth.

Scarey though the amount of information in ones dumpsters, had you been some scary mama's boy stalker, that would have been your very first stepping stone to stalking the girl providing she wasnt dead already,

Originally posted by DrewM
Lets just hope she isn't in the dumpster across the street.

When I began reading...I felt like that information would be coming at some point.

Originally posted by Dunkirk101
Earning a High School Diploma is something that she should really be proud of and should be willing to keep for the rest of her life right along with all of her other Teen Age memoribilia.

I wonder why she did this :confused:

Graduating high school is something to be proud of? That's a new one to me. When I grew up it was something that was expected. Like eating with silverware.

Maybe she didn't enjoy high school.

I don't even know if I still have my College diploma's, let alone my high school one. I still have my year books though, I use them to cover the heater vents in the basement.

hell yeah with the dumpster thingie and her body! Maybe she didn't do it. I would have been freaked wondering what had happened to her and it seems like everyone else is too.

If you still have her things I would be phoning the police. Too many young girls disappear.

I managed to find a notebook that had a cellphone bill with her name and address on it. The service has been cancelled due to non payment, but I did managed to call information and got a listed home phone number from the mailing address on the bill. I dialed it... and no one answered. :(

I don't know if I should try again or just let it go. What do you guys all think I should do?

Maybe hand it over to the cops and ask them to investigate. If you call her house and have all her goods at your house - she could make an easy case that you were stalking her.

You could get the photo from the year book photocopied 1000 times full page size and paper your walls with it, then put aluminum foil on the ceiling - then call the cops to come over to discuss.

Originally posted by DrewM
Maybe hand it over to the cops and ask them to investigate. If you call her house and have all her goods at your house - she could make an easy case that you were stalking her.

You could get the photo from the year book photocopied 1000 times full page size and paper your walls with it, then put aluminum foil on the ceiling - then call the cops to come over to discuss.

:)

Naw..I think I'll just toss it all out :)

Its still a shame though!

DrewM;

LMAO :D

Originally posted by DrewM
Maybe hand it over to the cops and ask them to investigate. If you call her house and have all her goods at your house - she could make an easy case that you were stalking her.

You could get the photo from the year book photocopied 1000 times full page size and paper your walls with it, then put aluminum foil on the ceiling - then call the cops to come over to discuss.

dammit DREW not while I am drinking... I am gonna sue your ass for coffee choke!

Originally posted by Dunkirk101
Naw..I think I'll just toss it all out :)

Its still a shame though!

yeah to get serious here.......ummm.... it's all a tad tangled now....:confused:

Dunkirk101;

It's to late big brother watches allforums and they are on their way. You can run but you can't hide

Maybe - if you have the address amongst all the belongings you have of hers - just put it in a bag - maybe write a card saying hope you are well with a $20 note in the card, and leave it on the doorstep.

Just hope though that you are not caught on any security cams while you drop it off. You should wear a ski mask.

Either way you should get rid of her stuff. Maybe just put it all in the same place you dumped her body.

LOL @ Drew!

I have a similar strange story. A few weeks ago a guy at my office told me he had found in the rubbish room (correct me if this is nonsense) of his building the WHOLE content of a teenage girl, thrown away. Every thing - personal pictures, diaries, posters. A whole teenage life sent to garbage. We wondered who and why someone would do that - a boyfriend mad at her, parents, the girl herself in a moment of despair ?

I went back to see my Mechanic today and I told him about this. When we looked through the dumpster (again) we both found a couple of notebooks that had her name in them. He said that he knew this girl, but had not seen her around in a while. His hunch was that she and her mother were evicted and the landlord was the one who threw all of these things away. :(

Anyway, the trashman is expected to come tomorrow, so whats left in there will be all hauled off to the compost heap. If what he said was true, there is no way I can tell where she might be staying right now, so I think it best that I toss these things away and forget about it.

Still a great shame though :(

Here, Read this article I copied from Todays Newspaper guys. This is why I felt so bad when I saw this womans High School Diploma in the trash :(




Fewer city high school grads than claimed
February 3, 2005

BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter Advertisement

Only 54 percent of Chicago public high school students graduate in four years -- an alarmingly low rate that has been masked for years by misleading state calculations, a new study contended Wednesday.

Although Chicago's graduation rate has improved over time, it is far lower than the 70.7 percent state officials claimed this year, the study found. And the true rate for black male students is particularly dismal -- at 39 percent, experts said.

The University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research issued the sobering new statistics Wednesday, challenging the way the Illinois State Board of Education has been reporting its four-year high school graduation rate.

Illinois' method of calculating graduates is so prone to manipulation that "there could be some schools cooking the books'' here, said consortium researcher Elaine Allensworth. Most of the inaccuracy comes from the way the state counts high school transfer students, she said. Transfers who drop out of their new schools are not counted as dropouts anywhere. But transfers who graduate are counted as graduates of their new schools.


WHAT'S BEING DONE

Some steps by CPS to cut dropouts:


Evening classes offered at 10 more schools for a total of 40

Department of Dropout Prevention and Recovery was created

Extra math class for low-scoring freshmen and summer classes for lagging freshmen and sophomores


How many enter, how many leave

Currently, Allensworth said, Illinois officials compare the number of kids who enter high school with the number who graduate four years later.

To be accurate, Allensworth recommended tracking kids over time. That method found that 54 percent of Chicago Public Schools freshmen in September 2000 graduated by August 2004.

That's a clear improvement from a U. of C. calculation of 46 percent in 1996, but still far lower than the 2004 rate of 70.7 percent claimed by the state, she said.

Even though Chicago's graduation rate has improved, Allensworth said, it has not improved as much among African-American students as among other ethnic groups. At Manley High, an all-black school where the U. of C. put the graduation rate at around 29 percent, Principal Katherine Flanagan questioned the accuracy of the U. of C. rates. She also cautioned that kids enter her school with a host of underlying problems that schools alone cannot solve. They live in poverty. Many must care for their siblings. Some have terrible home lives.

"They are not thinking about school. They are thinking about survival,'' Flanagan said.

The new study also indicated Chicago bucked a national trend by producing Latino males who graduated at higher rates -- 51 percent -- than black males, at 39 percent.


'A long way to go'



Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said he started a new Department of Dropout Prevention last year to help schools tackle the dropout problem.

"Whether we use state data or consortium data, it doesn't matter to us,'' Duncan said. "Using both data, the same story is told. One, we're seeing improvement, and two, we have a heck of a long way to go.''

State Board of Education spokeswoman Becky Watts questioned some of Allensworth's calculations but agreed that tracking students longitudinally produces a more accurate picture. However, she said, the state won't have the ability to do that until 2006, when it will get a new student information system.

Don Moore of Designs for Change called Chicago's current state-calculated rate "grossly misleading'' and confusing to local school councils charged with approving school budgets. The Marshall High local school council might think the state-reported rate of 70 percent is "not that bad,'' Moore said, but they would have an entirely different opinion if they knew Allensworth said it was 41 percent.

"This huge discrepancy, it's similar to cheating on a test. That's the way we should view it,'' Moore said.


How one school turned things around

byline:BY KATE N. GROSSMAN Education Reporter

In a tiny room lined with editing equipment at Curie High School on Tuesday, the sounds of amateur TV producers finishing their first political commercials filled the air.

In another wing, four dancers polished off a number for an upcoming professional audition.

And upstairs, the normal business of a high school -- English, algebra -- carried on in earnest.

"Everyone finds their place here," said Katarzyna Kubala, a Curie senior. "And here, the counselors and teachers actually care. That keeps me going."

Since 1996, Curie's graduation rates have improved significantly; it now has one of the city's best rates, 73 percent. Students chalk that up to the rich array of offerings, as well as devoted teachers at Curie, 4959 S. Archer. Nine years ago, 58 percent of kids graduated.

It works for black students

Curie also does a better job graduating the kind of students that other schools struggle with, the University of Chicago study released Wednesday found. A student who started at Curie in 2000 was twice as likely to finish than a similar kid at a typical CPS school. About 88 percent of Curie students are poor; about 25 percent are black, and 57 percent are Hispanic.

And at Curie, 75 percent of black students finished in 2004. Systemwide, it's 48 percent, according to the U. of C. researchers.

Curie doesn't target help for black students. Kids say Curie works for black kids because of its mix of programs, its racial diversity and because most chose it. About 70 percent of students chose Curie over their neighborhood schools, most of which are not racially mixed.

"Neighborhood high schools can be the last resort, so you don't feel excited about going there," said Daniel Taylor, a black senior from East Garfield Park. "At an all-black school, you might have a chip against society, that you've been treated wrong."

Some neighborhood schools dramatically improved graduation rates, such as Lake View and Hancock, but neighborhood schools tend to have the city's lowest rates.

Among the schools with the best rates are new selective-enrollment, charter and small schools, which often accept kids citywide, such as North Side College Prep and Noble Street Charter.

TV drawings, lunch privileges

Curie, with about 3,000 students, bucks that trend. It has been around since 1973, and it's huge.

What sets it apart are its three tracks. Students choose a vocational major, such as auto shop, accounting or information technology; the arts, such as theater and band, or, since 1998, they could apply for a small, rigorous international baccalaureate program.

"Because we have so many programs, you don't just come to learn," said Jessica Zapate, a senior. "But once you learn a discipline in art or dance, that carries into academics."

Since taking over in 1999, Principal Jerryelyn Jones established attendance incentives such as TV drawings and off-campus lunch privileges. Daily attendance jumped from 81 percent in 1995 to 90 percent last year. She also re-emphasized academics, with the IB program and more honors and Advanced Placement classes.

The school also won a $1.2 million grant in 1999 and uses it to train student leaders, for technology improvements and weekly staff trainings.

"If you keep doing the right things, eventually it all comes together," Jones said. "We have no magic answers. We just constantly worked to be better." <end>





Heres the link: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-grad03.html

Most likely, one of her deviant classmate is throwing her shit out because she eyed someone else’s boyfriend. Who knows..?