Post by red sky admin on Feb 25, 2009 22:29:31 GMT
Coleridge Cove, NJ. Home to the Fighting Loggerheads and some of the best beaches in Jersey. But the Cove isn't all about touristy destinations and fine weather. It's also the location of one of Jersey's newest, biggest reform schools: Red Sky Academy. Students with shady pasts and rap sheets a mile long have been sent to Red Sky to "reform". As a larger number of students have been sent in as the months go by, the people of Coleridge show a greater amount of disdain and paranoia.
Any act of vandalism, crime, or bad behavior is immediately suspected to be of the students' doing. Some of this suspicion may be well-founded, but most of it seems to stem from the growing mob mentality that has infected the citizens of the Cove. Even those students who were sent to the academy for no other reason than convenience or their family's financial position have faced scorn from people outside the school.
Teachers and other faculty members working at the academy are either looked at with contempt or pity. The hiring rate of Red Sky Academy has dropped to an astonishing low in the past few months, since few employees are enthusiastic about working in a school with such a bad reputation.
Many consider the academy a dead end, and who knows, maybe it is. But even if that is the case, the dedicated members of staff who run Red Sky Academy have refused to let their idea of second chances die. They opened this school knowing there would be trouble, apathy, and failure in some cases. Nevertheless, the school carries on, and as long as there are students in need of a new chance at life, Red Sky Academy will always keep its doors open.