Surprise! A new survey conducted by a community youth organization shows that many high school students in South LA — formerly South Central LA — are disappointed with their classroom environments and feeling uncertain about their preparedness for the future.

Of the more than 6,000 students polled, only one-quarter said they felt safe at school and less than half said their school is preparing them for college or a high-paying job. 93 percent believe their school should offer more college-preparatory classes.

This data is diametrically opposite to a report released by the students' school district in February, which claimed that 90 percent of students said they were being pushed to do their best and 80 percent believed their classes "[gave them] useful preparation for what [they] plan to do in life." Oh, and this: "That same report was sharply critical of the district's efforts to get all students into a college-prep curriculum by 2012."

In a follow-up survey of 52 of the dissatisfied students, more than two thirds reported clinical levels of depression.

At right is Eric Delgado, a senior at Bayonne High School and one of 40 finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s most prestigious high school science competition. Bayonne High is situated in a city where the median household income is $41,566 and only half its graduates attend college. Indeed, it's not an easy place to become a biology whiz. But, by definition, "prodigies" are as unlikely to be found in tony prep schools as they are in Bayonne High. The New York Times seems to have forgotten that fact. We suppose it's difficult to see the flowers growing in the ghetto from on high the ivory tower.

I didn't go to a high school where security guards were required — we just kind of had matronly retired teachers working as narcs who posted up against the cafeteria doors and occasionally roamed the hallways.

They were more likely to cast an indulgent smile at the bad behavior of the (predominately white and wealthy) kids. For instance, if someone dropped a piece of cake on the cafeteria floor, they would shake their heads and smile, and kindly ask the person to pick it up. And the person in question would brattily call her a name she didn't understand and grudgingly pick up the cake, no doubt leaving behind a smear of crumbs and icing. That's how things work, or used to work, where I went to school as a teenager.

Let's fast-forward a decade (yikes), and travel to Palmdale, Calif., where a young girl who dropped cake on the cafeteria floor was arrested and ended up with a broken wrist, courtesy of school security. Her friend, who videotaped the incident on his camera phone, was also arrested for his troubles, along with his sister, who was just a bystander. Oh, and the girl claims the security guard said, during the melee, "stay still nappy head." The cake-dropper's mom was also arrested. See it to believe it.

[FOX11 via Racialicious]