You described an urban high school or other urban school exactly.

I have advocated for Local Control with Smaller Schools with smaller Teacher-Student Ratios for years.  In other words, return the public school system back over to the state and local governments where they belong, and where all control was until, beginning in the 1960's the U.S. government began it's Social Engineering Experiments with public education.

Then, along came Jimmy Carter, who had heavy support and contributions from Teacher Unions in getting elected in 1976. As a promise and Pay Back to the National Teacher Unions, Jimmy Carter Created the U.S. Department of Education, and things really went downhill fast after that.

Then, they kept experimenting with schools and policies, and passed federal laws involving special education, especially, and in the 1990's the new catch phrase became "inclusion" where all "special education" students became known as "exceptional needs" students and all of these same students were attending "regular" classrooms, regardless of abilities, disabilities, etc.  This "inclusion" model was the latest "Craze" by the Experts who kept meddling in educational matters.  I know of many cases where "Little Johnny" who was autistic and had no controls over his outbursts and behaviors were "included" in regular classrooms and "Little Johnny" who had no social skills or self control would dominate the class period with hitting, cursing, biting, etc. and the teacher was supposed to sit idly by and say, "Oh, don't mind Little Johnny, he can't help himself."  While I have compassion for Little Johnny and a condition he cannot help, "Little Johnny" does not belong in a regular classroom where capable and able children are trying to learn.

This sort of insanity did not happen over night.  Before Federal Meddling, local schools were run by local communities with teachers who had good teaching skills and abilities and common sense reigned supreme. 

Every bit of the federal meddling and their Political Correctness, Cultural Diversity, Sexual Perversity curriculums have dumbed down and brainwashed the kids after first cowering down and beating down the teachers into submitting to all the new and crazy "innovations" of political correctness and all the other garbage being handed down by mandates from the U.S. Department of Education and then carried out by local school districts who were too gutless to challenge the Mandates, no matter how insane the federal Mandates and Suggestions were. And, of course, I lay this all at the Teacher's Feet.  Teachers could have and should have stood up, spoke up and defended their Right To Teach and an Environment Where Teaching could Be Accomplished and Learning Could Take Place.

And, before any of you critics come on here an criticize my use of CAPITAL Letters, I am using Capital Letters for Emphasis.  I do know what words are supposed to be capitalized and which are not.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education had a budget of about $70 billion, and none of that was spent to pay a teachers salary or to build a school or buy a book. That $70 billion all went to running this bogus, bloated and worthless U.S. Department that does more harm than good, and is, in fact, the reason that public schools are now war zones and in shambles.  They have Engineered the Dumbing Down and Brainwashing and destruction of the Public Education System since the inception of that worthless department, and that Department Was Created Specifically at the Request and Demands of the National Teacher Unions.  So, I have no use for teacher unions.  I taught school for many years, and I refused to join one, and I also refused to be cowed down by administrators, directors or other teachers or by parents, and especially not by students.

The classroom is the teacher's responsibility and it is the teacher's responsibility to provide a safe place for kids to learn and socialize.  Safe from physical, verbal, mental, emotional or psychological abuse by anybody. 

I told my students when they entered my classroom that they had 3 choices, and that I had only 3 clasroom standards or rules.  The 3 standards were: Respect for Yourself;  Respect for Others;  and Respect for Resources.  The 3 choices students had were:  Sit down and let's go to work.  Or sit down, and do no work, but while you are not working, you will not sleep, you will not disrupt other students and keep them from working and learning, and you will not disrupt me and keep me from teaching.  And, some kid would say, what is my third choice.  I would point to the door, and tell him or her, there is the door.  If you are not going to sit here and learn or sit here and do nothing while not bothering other people, your choice is to leave my classroom, because you are not going to stay in here and keep others from learning or me from teaching.

I never had a kid take the third choice.  Once they realize that you are in charge and that you say what you mean and mean what you say, they get the picture.  And, my classroom was a classroom specifically for the "Emotionally Conflicted", "Behavior Disorders" and other so-called labels for kids who were in trouble all the time for disruptive behaviors, attitudes, etc. And then we got down to learning once I was able to screen each student for his needs after he or she had been attending for years without learning as he or she got passed from grade to grade with numerous labels being attached as he or she went along.  Labels being put on them by so-called Experts.  ADD, ADD/HD, LD, MIMH, etc.  And, about 99 percent of these labels were as bogus as the Experts Who Pinned Them With The Labels and then Prescribed Treatments, Drugs, etc.  The public schools as they are being run and operated are creating the majority of the Emotional Conflicts, Intellectual Conflicts, and behaviors, all of which are destroying our children, and in the meantime are not even teaching them good academic skills, so that they become dependent on government for subsistence and welfare.

There is a lot a teacher can do in spite of where they work if they have the Courage and Intellectual Honesty and remember that they are responsible for the students more than they are responsible to principals, administrators, unions and the U.S. Department of Education.

Back to the Worthless U.S. Department of Eduation and Budgets.  Under the Obama plan, that worthless department now has a budget of over 200 billion dollars, and not one cent builds a school, buys a book, or pays a salary of a teacher, and it takes all local and state control away from local districts.  And, like all the other Federal Meddling, it brings more Mandates for Standardized Tests that do nothing but continually lower standards to seek norms, and to mandate other Non-Teaching mandates that further erode the system. And, also, Obama wants to Mandate attendance for kids in pre-K and even nursery schools, eventually mandating attendance in public schools all the way down to age 2.  These idiots and subversives do not want to leave Even One Child Behind who has Not Been Dumbed Down and Brainwashed Into Being A Good Little Dependent Socialist.  Much of the local and state budgets go to buying Mandated Standardized Tests, Computers, and other things that do great harm and no good at all.

I have advocated for parents to march on their schools and take their kids and their schools back.

By abolishing the U.S. Department of Education immediately, that would free up $200 billion to be spent on Smaller Schools Located in the Communities where The Children Live, With Smaller Teacher-Student ratioes, and under Local Control Only.  That way the schools would be required by local parents to teach Local Community Standards, Culture, Customs, Beliefs and Traditions and not the Socialist Model of Education now being Crammed Down everybody's throats based on the San Francisco, California or Oakland model.

As for ESL (English as a Second Language).  That is nonsense.  Teach English Only.  When students who are proficient in English and want to take a foreign language, let them take that as an elective in high school.  If you want to learn English as a second language, go back to your own country and learn it.  In the meantime, the common language in the USA is English.  Learn it.  Teacher's should refuse to have translators in their classrooms. If a child does not speak English, then put them in a classroom with other non-English speaking students and let them learn the language together.  It is totally unfair to hold all students down to the lowest common denominator for students who are not proficient in the language. It is equally wrong and unfair to have an autistic or severely mentally handicapped in the classroom with kids who are there to learn and have the capacity to learn to his or her own level and not have to be taught and learn at the lowest common denominator level.  Is it fair to cheat a bright child with ability out of an education for the sake of Warm and Fuzzy Political Correctness?  I don't think so, and neither does anybody else who has a lick of common sense or for somebody who cares what is happening to our children.

And, teachers in grades 1-8, should be teaching academic skills and core curriculum only. No calculators or computers allowed until after 8th grade skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic are achieved.  Getting rid of the Computers and Calculators would free up a lot of money. Getting rid of the endless mandated standardized tests would free up a lot of money.  Teaching Basic Skills is what needs to be taught for the first 8 years.

As for cell phones, no kid at school should be allowed to bring one to school.  Period.  If they do not like that, so be it.  Rules are rules, and besides, no kid needs a cell phone at school which is just one more distraction.

At any rate, return to 1966 standards with local control and back to teaching basics is what is needed.  In 1966, we had one of the top 3 public school systems in the world, and today, after 44 years of Federal Social Engineering, we are at about #28 in the world while spending more per student than any other country in the world for dismal outcomes.  We now trail many third world countries.

A child and his mind are terrible things to waste, but we have now wasted several generations of great minds, thanks to the U.S. Government Social Engineering and to the National Teacher Unions who have run this system and allowed it to go to hell in a hand basket.  But, nobody tells an Individual Teacher that He or She Has To Be Gutless and Refuse to Fight Back and Demand the Right to Do Your Job.  You are, afterall, a surrogate parent. Would you allow your own children to behave in this way???