Violence

Segregation Nation

Omaha’s radical experiment in school integration could serve as a national model—though local resistance indicates it might be a tough sell. Sharon Lerner, American Prospect, June 20, 2011

As schools confront bullying, no easy fix on horizon

Research suggests that despite good intentions and feverish competition to pinpoint a solution, antibullying programs have shown, at best, mixed results, and what has worked in one school has not always worked in another. Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe, Dec. 30, 2010

After Rioting, Students Reflect on Changes at Murry Bergtraum

Teachers said hundreds of students began running through the hallways of the Manhattan high school, screaming and pushing each other, after new executive principal Andrea Lewis told students that the schools’ bathrooms would be closed for the day. But students said the incident was fueled by frustration over changes Lewis has made since she became principal at the beginning of this year. Kate Schimel, GothamSchools, Dec. 10, 2010

5 student suicides put focus on bullying issue in Mentor

Do the suicides of five teens suggest bullying inside Mentor High School, one of Ohio's largest, and its feeder schools was out of control? And if a problem existed, has it been fixed? Or does simply accusing the schools of being soft on bullies obscure other factors that lead to teenage suicide? Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer, Oct. 7, 2010

Despite states' efforts, measures to protect students from predators sometimes fail
For nearly three decades, Kevin Ricks exploited gaps in a system that is supposed to keep sexual predators out of the classroom.He landed teaching jobs at one school after another -- public and private, urban and rural, domestic and foreign -- despite mounting evidence of his troubling personal relationships with male students. Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post, July 26, 2010

Disorder in a Merged D.C. School

by Bill Turque

Woodson Academy teacher William Pow had just finished writing on the blackboard one January afternoon, he said, when he turned to face his algebra class and saw the textbook "Mathematics in Life" hurtling toward his head. They say the 260-student ninth-grade academy, housed at Ronald H. Brown Middle School in Northeast Washington while a new Woodson High is under construction, is overcrowded and dangerous. Brown and Pow count five other teachers or administrators who they said have been attacked this academic year, including one who was pelted by textbooks and another pinned to a desktop and choked. Other teachers, Brown and Pow said, are routinely subjected to verbal threats of violence.

The Washington Post, 3/20/2009

The high cost of bad behavior
by Patrick Lester
When students carry weapons into school or become persistent truants or troublemakers, they're not the only ones who can pay a steep price for their decisions. Taxpayers also can pay dearly. In the East Penn School District this year, taxpayers will pay nearly $500,000 to place students in alternative schools, according to school district figures. That's a 900 percent increase over the $51,427 spent just five years earlier.
Of The Morning Call, 12/15/2008

Becoming a Bully Magnet: Why some kids grow up to be targets
by Claudia Kalb
Every parent wants to know the secret to school happiness: why is one kid well liked while another gets picked on? There's no recipe for social success among first graders. But a new study published this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals some intriguing clues about why certain children land in the dreaded world of what science calls "peer victimization."
Newsweek, 10/7/2008

A Long Recess
by Dena Levitz
For nearly 20 years, teaching challenged and excited Francis Bolden. But on Oct. 11, 2005, the job nearly killed him. A student bashed a fire extinguisher into Bolden's skull, causing him to suffer seizures, mood swings, and severe pain. Still, on the anniversary of the attack, the city deemed Bolden ready to return to McKinley. Bolden wants to teach again, but school officials aren't making it easy for him to get his job back.
The Washington City Paper, 8/20/2008

'I can't go outside'
by Rosalind Rossi and Art Golab
Eleven-year-old Maria Rivera is afraid to play in front of her own home. She spends much of her free time indoors, alone with her mom. Fear of the guns and gangs that plague her Little Village neighborhood has left Maria virtually a prisoner in her own home. In a Chicago Sun-Times survey taken in May, almost a third of fifth- through eighth-graders indicated that their everyday movements have been severely limited by the specter of gunfire.
The Chicago Sun Times, 8/6/2008

The dilemma of expulsions: They increase as more schools go to zero tolerance
by David Jesse
Karrie Rhodes didn't see the first punch that was thrown. She didn't see the second, either. What she did see was one of her students being shoved to the ground. Rhodes' account of what happened during the fight and in the hours leading up to it - even the parts she didn't see - was enough for the Willow Run school board to expel the new student for almost two months. It's a debate being won more and more by those who favor zero-tolerance policies in schools in the state, some experts say.
Ann Arbor News, 8/2/2008

State weighs limits on school 'timeouts,' restraints
by Staci Hupp
Iowa has joined a nationwide push to curb the use of physical force and "timeout" rooms in schools to discipline the most unruly students. A proposal before the state Board of Education would limit how and when teachers can lock up children and would ban risky methods of restraint, including chokeholds.
Des Moines Register, 6/30/2008

Teachers defend shock tactics in teen drunken driving program
by Allison Hoffman
On a Monday morning last month, California Highway Patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend. Classmates wept. Some became hysterical. A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax - a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials, with several dozen students' participation, to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.
Associated Press, 6/13/2008

1 in 10 students suspended each year
by Mandy Zatynski
About one in every 10 Coachella Valley in Calif., public school children is suspended, on average, at least once each year, according to a comprehensive analysis of suspensions and expulsions in the valley's 77 public schools over the past six years. Reporter Mandy Zatynski put together a database on discipline records and examined the issue in a series of stories.
California Desert Sun, 5/28/2008

Out of school, risking violence
by Sara Neufeld and Annie Linskey
Baltimore students who were murdered or shot had poor school attendance before they fell victim to the violence, according to new data released yesterday by the school system and health department
The Baltimore Sun, 5/12/2008

Saving Nashville schools
by Jaime Sarrio
Nestled between a country club and rows of million-dollar homes sits Hillwood High, a school named after the West Nashville community that shuns it. The bulk of Hillwood students come from the poorest areas in the school's 90-square-mile attendance zone. And because Hillwood is now an island populated by students from other places, the people living in the upscale neighborhood surrounding it have no stake in the school and don't want one. It wasn't always that way.
The Tennessean, 5/11/2008

At McLean School, Playing Tag Turns Into Hot Potato
by Michael Alison Chandler
A playground pastime is getting a timeout this spring at a McLean , Va., elementary school. Robyn Hooker, principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School, has told students they may no longer play tag during recess after determining that the game of chasing, dodging and yelling "You're it!" had gotten out of hand. Hooker explained to parents in a letter this month that tag had become a game "of intense aggression."
The Washington Post, 4/15/2008

Expelled, but not out
by Emily Richmond
For the past few weeks, Clark County, Nev., principals have been recommending up to 100 students for expulsion each day, putting extra strain on a disciplinary system that many say has long been stretched too thin. The increase is putting pressure on the district to find enough seats at its three continuation schools for expelled students and at its five behavior schools for students given less severe punishments.
The Las Vegas Sun, 4/14/2008

Attack highlights 'chronic problem'
by Sara Neufeld and James Drew
The assault on Jolita Berry, a new art teacher at Reginald Lewis High, has shined a light on what educators in the city school system say has been a problem for years. This academic year, school police have made about 50 arrests for staff assaults, and the system has expelled students 112 times for assaulting staff members. Officials couldn't say how many of those expelled also were arrested.
The Baltimore Sun, 4/13/2008

Meaner bullying is leading schools to find new tactics
by Seema Mehta
Bullying once largely restricted to stolen lunch money or hallway shoving that were taken somewhat lightly has grown increasingly serious. Today, parents are filing lawsuits against students and schools for failing to protect their children, administrators are taking stronger disciplinary action against perpetrators, and a virtual industry of antibullying programs has sprung up.
The Los Angeles Times, 3/10/2008

Teachers become casualty of increased student violence
by Edith Starzyk
James Cappetto, the South High teacher hurt recently while breaking up a fight, is one of dozens of Cleveland teachers assaulted by students this school year. There were 74 assaults reported through Dec. 31, ranging from a shove to the beating that left Cappetto with broken bones in his neck and a fractured skull. Ohio educators say the actual number of assaults is higher than what's reported. In some districts, administrators may discourage reports because it makes the schools look bad, they say. And often, the teachers themselves decide not to file a complaint.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1/28/2008

Parents Blame Bullies for 5th-Grade Suicide
by Alan Scher Zagier
For Kim Myers, her youngest son's death is the result of what she calls incessant bullying that his teachers and other administrators at Voy Spears Elementary School failed to stop.
The Associated Press, 1/28/2008

As fingerprinting begins in schools, experts warn system isn't foolproof
by Joshunda Sanders