Richard Derespina:  

School I went to St. Agatha's Catholic Grammar School, in Sunset Park. Went there from Kindergarten to 8th grades, and graduation. From there I went to Xaverian H.S. for a year. I would have liked to have stayed there but their policy of number of classes failed prevented that. So my family shopped me around to Brooklyn High Schools. They tried New Utrecht, Fort Hamilton, etc. The didn't want to send me Manual Training. They said it had a terrible reputation. They told me that there were always race riots, gang fights and all the girls came out of there "knocked up". Well, it was a tough school. And the name John Jay evoked fear from people who didn't go there. But it was a great school, and they were all wrong. In the midst of the Black Power Movement, the Peace Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, etc. it was a place of relative tranquility. All the different various people got along. We were starting to be "hippies", and we all got an attitude of acceptance. I loved John Jay. Sad to say that it no longer exists. My daughter went there for awhile in the early '80s. And it HAD changed. There was a metal detector at the door (IIRC) and guards. And you had to enter through only one door, the main entrance. It was a shame. I looked around and thought of all the good times there and how it was a very different place. Never did get t...Expand for more