Smith: The story you might not have heard

Earlier this month, a senior at a local high school signed to play basketball at Yale. Impressively, the young man is rated among the 150 best high school basketball players in the country. Remarkably, he is also a strong AP and Yale-caliber student.

Jordan Bruner’s accomplishments have been covered by some local media, but I’d like to share a few of the 2014-2015 achievements of Jordan’s classmates that have received little, if any, publicity:

▪ This year and last, 19 of Jordan’s high school classmates have been named National Merit Semi-Finalists. The 10 in 2014 and nine in 2015 are both more than any other traditional high school in South Carolina.

▪ Five other 2015 graduates were named National Achievement Scholars, again the most of any high school in the state.

▪ In 2015, the school had 40 Palmetto Fellows, a President’s Volunteer Service Award recipient, a Congressional Award Gold Medal recipient and South Carolina’s only student to place in Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair.

▪ Jordan’s classmates won first place in the S.C. HOSA State Leadership Conference, S.C. Junior Academy of Science, USC Math Competition and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.

They also led and coordinated a communitywide effort called “Winter Days” that collected 21,450 cans, 1,850 toys, 2,968 books, $6,100 for Children’s Garden, 1,000 denim items and 112 pints of blood. The Junior ROTC students served as classroom helpers at a local elementary school, the girls basketball team won the 4A state championship, and the music and arts programs are exceptional.

The school that equipped and encouraged these students? Spring Valley High School.

Yes, that Spring Valley.

The sad story of a single incident during a single class has been broadcast far and wide. Meanwhile, the day-after-day molding of lives, developing of minds, training of talents and building of community is overlooked and ignored. Not worthy of the attention of the broader world.

For 25 years, the first 15 as a minister and the past 10 as a parent, I have been in and around Spring Valley High School. It has long amazed me that for 180 school days each year, 2,000 diverse young people traveling the journey of adolescence and identity formation handle themselves so well so much of the time. But good behavior doesn’t make the news.

Spring Valley High is composed of Hispanic (5 percent), Asian (6 percent), Caucasian (36 percent), African-American (51 percent) and other students. They come from families that are wealthy and poor, from families that are first-generation American and tenth-generation. Some of their parents didn’t graduate high school, while others have doctoral degrees.

It’s amazing really. With the support and encouragement of dedicated faculty and staff members, these young people — a microcosm of 21st century America — learn together, goof off together, serve together and play together. Six times a day, these 2,000 young people — all with their own issues, ideas and idiosyncrasies — throw on their backpacks, crowd into hallways and make their way through a sea of fellow students to change classes.

Amazingly, and as a credit to each of the students, they almost always handle themselves well. Far better, I dare say, than a similarly diverse group of adults would do under the same circumstances.

Keep your head up, Spring Valley. Keep your heads up, students and educators and resource officers everywhere. Developing potential and character is an awesome endeavor. Keep at it. And forgive us for paying so little attention until something goes wrong.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 5:20 AM.