Imagine the Waco High Lions driving down the field with a minute left on the clock. They’ve been behind all game, but they have one more chance to score and win. 

They’ve been making progress down the field. Now it’s fourth down with the ball on the opponent’s 10-yard line.

Suddenly, the coach sends in the play: Just kneel and quit.

The coach says, “Send the players to another school. Let them join that team.”

That’s what it feels like for the people of East Waco and the students, parents, faculty and staff of G.L. Wiley Middle School.

Among them are people who have had a connection with Wiley for decades, and who have shown they can advance the ball.

They — we — are not ready to quit with time on the clock.

That’s what would happen if the school district shut it down as a middle school for this fall. It would do so in the face of improvements that caused State Education Commissioner Robert Scott to give it an additional year to advance out of the unsatisfactory category.

If Wiley stays open that extra year and doesn’t make the grade, that is one thing.

If Scott has given Wiley another year to improve its standing, then why would the Waco ISD administration and trustees contemplate giving up on these kids?

Adults are always telling youth “don’t quit.” Yet we turn around and violate the same principles that we try to teach them.

We tell children that money is not everything.  Yet, we turn around and use money as a justification to close Wiley.

The Waco community should be about “us” rather than division. But Wiley has needed help for more than five years. Now it is showing improvement on the TAKS. The state has given it additional time, and the trustees are considering shutting it down?

Instead of sending Wiley students across the river for help, let us show the real Waco spirit of unity. Let’s have all of Waco come to Wiley.

Residents of East Waco have lost schools that were important to them since the beginning of integration: Moore High, Carver High, R.L. Smith Elementary, Jefferson Moore, Paul Quinn College, and now potentially Wiley.

We are tired of our schools closing and our families being manipulated.

Trustee Pat Atkins said in a guest column Sunday that if Wiley students were forced to go elsewhere, the historic building would still be put to use.

Well, we don’t want a professional development center, and we don’t want a conference center. East Waco wants a school.

If Wiley ultimately has to close, build a new middle school in East Waco and change the name.

If claims of “unity” truly mean something besides empty rhetoric, then show it.

Nikka Davis of Waco is pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church of Waco.