Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Frank Mickens in the hallway at Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1993.
NYTIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/nyregion/11mickens.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=frank%20mickens&st=cse
By DENNIS HEVESI
Published: July 10, 2009
Frank Mickens, a blunt, no-nonsense principal who brought order and significant academic improvement to what was once one of New York City’s most troubled schools, Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, died Thursday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 63.
He died of natural causes, his cousin Sharon Rose said.
Mr. Mickens, a mock-gruff bear of a man, took over Boys and Girls High in 1986, when it seemed to be more in the hands of hardened youths from the neighborhood’s streets than controlled by the faculty.
Though Bedford-Stuyvesant has experienced a degree of gentrification in recent years, back then it was tormented by gangs, drug dealing and drive-by shootings. Mr. Mickens created a haven within the walls of the school, at 1700 Fulton Street, and a chance for children to succeed.
“We service seven or eight of the toughest housing projects in the city,” Mr. Mickens said in 1993. “I have a simple proposition: This is my house. I’m 46 years old. A 15-year-old is not going to dictate to me how this school is run.”
Mr. Mickens’s efforts drew national attention and were compared to those of Joe Clark, the baseball-bat-wielding principal in Paterson, N.J., who was the subject of the movie “Lean on Me.” Like Mr. Clark, he drew criticism from some educators, who questioned whether his tough measures translated into academic success.
To a degree, they did. In his first seven years as principal, the school’s graduation rate rose to 40.5 percent from 24.4 percent. In 2004, the year he retired, it was 47.5 percent.
Mr. Mickens brought an array of tactics to his law-and-order philosophy. In his first semester as principal, he forbade students to wear hats in school or listen to Walkmans. He went on to ban ripped jeans, sneakers with lights in the heels, “excessive jewelry” and decorative gold tooth caps — and sometimes mandated what students wore.
Two days a week, the school’s 2,000 boys were required to “dress for success” by wearing a dress shirt and necktie to class. If a student could not afford a tie, Mr. Mickens provided one. The school’s 2,500 girls were also required to dress appropriately for success in the working world.
Critics said the dress codes violated the students’ rights. But in October 1990, on the first Dress for Success Day, 400 seniors in the auditorium gave their principal a standing ovation and chanted: “Go, Mickens!”
Mr. Mickens instituted the dress code, he said, to enhance self-respect, but also because he was tired of attending funerals of students who had been killed over their clothing.
Every school morning and then at dismissal time, Mr. Mickens led a patrol of teachers around the school’s perimeter to keep drug dealers and other potential troublemakers from approaching students. Teachers on patrol were equipped with walkie-talkies. On the day before Halloween, teachers would help Mr. Mickens empty out lockers to make sure students were not stashing fireworks or eggs to throw at one another.
To deal with unruly and truant students, Mr. Mickens created two programs. In his Principal’s Academy, students with disciplinary problems received individual attention in separate classes. Another program was for students with more than 50 absences the previous year.
“He’s a father figure,” one senior said of Mr. Mickens in 1993. “He’s about discipline and he’s from the old school.”
Frank Nathaniel Mickens was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant on June 22, 1946, the only child of John and Hortense Mickens. His father was a furrier and his mother a teacher. Mr. Mickens, who was single, had no immediate survivors.
After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, Mr. Mickens received a bachelor’s degree in history from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1968; he later received a master’s degree from New York University.
At 22, Mr. Mickens was hired as a teacher and basketball coach at Boys and Girls High. In his 10 years as coach, his team won six division titles; was runner-up in the Public Schools Athletic League championship in 1971; and won the P.S.A.L. title in 1978-79.
From 1982 to 1986, Mr. Mickens was principal of a junior high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant and then principal of Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Manhattan. He returned to Boys and Girls High in 1986.
In 2000, Muhamed Berte — a senior at Boys and Girls High who had once been robbed on the way to school and on another day dodged bullets in the crossfire of rival gangs — graduated and was headed for college. “I’m so excited about his graduation I don’t know what to do,” Mr. Mickens said of Mr. Berte that day. “These kids are survivors.”
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May Frank Mickens continue to live in the hearts and minds of our people today and forever. How do we remember a hero? We remember a hero by making his light shine before men for them to see his good works and glorify God. May Frank Mickens, the man and his works so shine generation after generation. Nefertari Ahmose.
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