Chalkbeat

Newark Public School awards $12M contract for new AI camera system aimed at keeping schools safe

2024-05-03T21:58:13+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

More than 7,000 cameras equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities will be installed in Newark schools, under a $12 million contract approved Thursday by the Newark Board of Education.

District officials say the high-tech surveillance system is meant to make schools safer, but security experts warn that systems with such capabilities could result in an invasion of privacy or could potentially misidentify items or students.

Turn-Key Technologies Inc., based in Sayreville, N.J., will install the cameras and their required servers and storage across schools this summer as part of a two-year contract. Approving the contract was “time-sensitive,” said Valerie Wilson, Newark’s school business administrator, as district officials want the 7,700 cameras – roughly one for every five students – in place by Aug. 31, before the start of the new school year.

The project will be funded in part by federal COVID relief dollars, specifically, American Rescue Plan dollars that expire at the end of September, in conjunction with local funds and grants, Wilson added.

Board member Vereliz Santana said the project was “comprehensive and ambitious” and asked for routine updates as installation begins in June. Other members raised questions about how the system would work to detect vaping.

“It’s a large bid, as you can see from the funds that are being allocated, but we want to make effective use of our federal funding,” said Wilson during Thursday’s meeting.

The new system comes as city leaders and advocates call for measures to reduce violence among youth in Newark.

The city will begin enforcing a youth curfew on Friday. The rule is in response to an increase in youth violence, said Mayor Ras Baraka last week, which includes two shooting incidents this school year. In November, a 15-year-old Central High School student was shot during a drive-by and in March, another two students were shot outside West Side High School.

Turn-Key’s new system will expand the district’s surveillance capabilities, going beyond its current camera system to detect weapons and track people and cars across schools by using license plate and facial recognition. Last year, Newark schools said new technology was needed because its current security set-up is “outdated, inefficient,” pointing to no remote access, storage, and other limitations.

In May 2023, the district said it expected to install cameras by the end of that year after requesting bids from surveillance technology companies in September 2023. But the installation was delayed for almost a year after bidders did not meet the New Jersey Alarm or Locksmith License requirement, prompting the district to revise its project specifications and request bids for a second time in April 2024, Wilson said.

In addition to upgrading the district’s surveillance technology, the new setup will use an Avigilon surveillance system, a type of framework that allows Newark to expand its systems as security needs change or develop, said Jermaine Wilson, a senior research engineer at IPVM, a security and surveillance research group.

That system will work with HALO sensors that can detect vape, gun sounds, and abnormal noise in areas where there are no cameras such as bathrooms, according to the district’s request for proposal.

“I want to be very clear to everybody that in no way shape or form will this result in an invasion of privacy of anyone’s students, staff, or otherwise,” Wilson said. “Cameras and devices will not and cannot be placed in areas that are not approved and authorized.”

The contract was approved by all school board members except Crystal Williams who abstained from voting. During the Thursday meeting, board member Josephine Garcia said vaping in schools is an issue the district has “been battling and sounding the alarm on for quite some time.” She requested clarification on the type of vape sensors that will be used in schools, an explanation that would be given during the board’s private operations committee meeting this month due to security concerns, Wilson said.

“So as we talk about our safety and security initiatives, we want to ensure that we do not provide all of our information in the public domain,” Wilson added.

Superintendent Roger León said the district is in conversation with the city’s Office of Emergency Management “about a number of things” that are set to take place this coming school year. He would share more information with the public “once those initiatives are in effect,” León added.

Wilson also said city police officials would not have access to the system, which includes cameras inside and outside of school buildings and other district locations.

The district has spent millions to increase security over the years. The school district installed metal detectors to scan students for contraband and weapons and added six new patrol cars for school safety officers. It also provided its security guards with training on bag scanners, active shooter response, and the district’s drug and alcohol policy. Newark plans to hire more security guards and update its software to track school incidents.

Thursday’s contract was approved during May’s reorganization meeting where Haynes, Santana, Helena Vinhas, and Kanileah Anderson were sworn in after winning this year’s school board election. Hasani Council was chosen as board president, along with Santana and Allison James-Frison as co-vice presidents.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Where Tennessee lawmakers landed on vouchers, guns, AI, and other education issues in 2024

2024-04-29T10:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Tennessee’s legislature is done for the year after a session marked by political infighting over private school vouchers and emotional debates about whether teachers and staff should be able to carry a gun in public schools.

The statewide voucher proposal fizzled after the Senate and House couldn’t agree on the specifics. Gov. Bill Lee quickly pledged to come back next year with another plan.

The bill to arm some school employees easily passed, defying dramatic protests at the state Capitol, a year after a Nashville school shooting in which three children, three adults, and the intruder were killed.

“This was a session of good, bad, and ugly,” Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari said after the legislature adjourned on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, some really really bad bills ended up passing,” the Memphis Democrat added.

Republican leaders hailed the four-month session as a success.

“We accomplished things that will benefit the people of this state,” the governor told reporters minutes after the gavel fell.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks with reporters at the close of the 2024 legislative session on April 25. He's flanked by the General Assembly's Republican leaders.

He cited the passage of a “historically important budget” that includes a consolation prize of $144 million for his Education Freedom Scholarship Act, in case it passes in future years. The failed voucher proposal seeks to give taxpayer money to any family who wants to send their children to private schools, regardless of their income.

“That shows a clear intent that we believe in this concept and that we expect that to get done next year,” Lee said.

By the end of the week, the governor had signed the bill to let some school employees carry guns, which took effect immediately.

The new law marks the biggest expansion of gun access in Tennessee since the killings at The Covenant School. Last year, the legislature appropriated $140 million to help place an armed officer in every public school, but many districts, especially in rural areas, haven’t been able to hire an officer for every campus.

“Districts have the option to choose,” Lee said earlier, arguing that some school systems need to let some employees carry a concealed handgun.

Protesters stage a "die-in" on the rotunda floor at the Tennessee State Capitol outside of the House chambers on April 23, 2024, after state lawmakers passed a bill to let certain teachers and school staff carry handguns in schools.

Legislation at the intersection of schools and guns

Lawmakers sorted through some 230-plus education bills filed in time for this year’s session — about 300 if you count those left over from last year in the two-year General Assembly. They ultimately passed about 70 that directly affect K-12 education.

For the second straight year, they made tweaks to a 2021 reading and retention law to address what many called unintended effects for students in grades three and four. Under a compromise approved on the last day of session, parents and educators of fourth graders will now have input on whether their students get held back because of low reading scores on state tests.

The legislature rejected tighter gun laws sought by Democrats and gun control advocates, and continued instead to pass legislation aimed at fortifying campuses. Among the initiatives: new school fire alarm protocols to take into account active-shooter situations; a pilot program to give teachers wearable alarms; increased safety training for school bus drivers; and guidelines to digitize school maps so first responders can access school layouts quickly in an emergency.

A rare bipartisan bill increases the penalty for anyone who threatens to commit an act of mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity.

Another measure, which Lee has signed into law, requires public schools to teach children age-appropriate firearms safety concepts as early as pre-kindergarten. The video-based training is to begin in the 2025-26 school year and, among other things, will instruct students who find a firearm that they shouldn’t touch it and should notify an adult immediately. The bill bars parents from opting their children out of the training.

So-called culture war issues played prominently again

One new law requires public school students to watch a video on fetal development produced by an anti-abortion group, or something comparable. Another measure will require public school employees to out transgender students to their parents. But a bill designed to ban LGBTQ+ flags in schools failed in the Senate amid concerns of a legal challenge based on First Amendment rights.

Tennessee’s age-appropriate materials law, championed by Lee in 2022 to cull certain titles from school libraries, now includes a definition of “suitable” materials for certain ages and maturity levels. And if a local school board doesn’t address a book complaint within 60 days, the complainant can now take the issue straight to the state textbook commission.

Another GOP bill that passed seeks to make sure that material related to “sexual activity” is excluded from the state’s mandatory family life curriculum for students in kindergarten through the fifth grade.

Meanwhile, legislation sponsored by Democrats directs the state education department to develop a program that public schools can use to teach students the skills of nonviolent conflict resolution.

Lawmakers exit the House of Representatives at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville on April 25 after adjourning their two-year session.

Social media and technology also were on the minds of lawmakers.

They signed off on legislation requiring minors to have parental consent to create social media accounts.

In addition, school districts, charter schools, and higher-education institutions must develop and implement their own policies on the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, if they haven’t already done so. Those policies could include restricting or outright prohibiting the use of AI.

Amid that discussion, one bill requires that Tennessee history be taught in fifth grade. Having that issue codified in state law settles, for now, a debate that erupts whenever the state revises its academic standards for social studies.

Memphis was the focus of more legislation

Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor, both Memphis Republicans, drafted several proposals aimed at education in their community.

The legislature passed one bill allowing the University of Memphis to create its own K-12 school district and expand its innovative University Schools model beyond campus borders. University officials said they’ll launch the district this fall, even as they’re still in talks with Memphis-Shelby County Schools about their contract that runs through fall 2026.

Another proposal — giving the governor the power to appoint up to six new members to the board of Memphis-Shelby County Schools — was never heard in committees after White agreed to hold off and work with the existing board and the district’s new superintendent, Marie Feagins, on an improvement plan.

Rep. Antonio Parkinson D-Memphis, has sought for years to shut down the Achievement School District.

A Democratic-sponsored proposal to end the Tennessee Achievement School District, the state’s sputtering takeover and turnaround initiative, passed out of the Senate but not the House. Rep. Antonio Parkinson, the sponsor there, pulled the legislation on the last day of session when White sought to amend the bill. Still, the ASD continues to shrink on its own as its 10-year contracts with charter operators end.

An effort to expand a separate pilot school turnaround project — which started in 2021 in Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga — failed to clear budget committees.

Lawmakers passed House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s charter school proposal to create new alternative education options for Tennessee’s at-risk youth. The plan opens the door to residential charter schools, a concern of disability advocates who warned against any measure that could lead to the institutionalization of youth or commingling distinct student populations facing varying issues such as substance abuse, juvenile crime, chronic absenteeism, and teen pregnancy.

Sexton trumpeted his and other charter school legislation headed to the governor’s desk. One bill rewrites state law governing vacant and underutilized public school properties to give charter operators the “right of first refusal” to purchase those public assets.

“This session did more than it’s ever done in our history to continue to put (charter schools) on a path to give parents the choice and alternative to traditional schools,” Sexton said.

A tighter budget meant fewer education initiatives

Passing a budget for state government is the legislature’s only required constitutional duty, and the task was more challenging this year as tax revenues flattened and federal COVID relief funding ended.

Still, Republican lawmakers approved a $1.9 billion package of tax cuts and refunds to corporations and businesses.

Representatives on the floor of the Tennessee House in 2022

They ultimately approved a nearly $53 billion spending plan that allocates an additional $126 million to raise the annual minimum salary for public school teachers from $42,000 to $44,500. The goal is to get to $50,000 by the 2026-27 school year.

Also included is $8 million to hire more school-based behavioral health specialists amid record reports of students experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. Another $15 million in non-recurring funds will help charter school operators pay for school facilities and maintenance.

But the legislature killed efforts to hire more school-based nurses and counselors, reimburse teachers for some of their child care expenses, and provide free feminine hygiene products in high schools, as well as separate proposals by a Democrat and a Republican to make school meals free for all students. It also said no to a bill to use tax revenue from Tennessee’s growing sports betting industry to offer child care scholarships to low- and middle-income families.

When the 114th General Assembly convenes next year, it will look somewhat different after this year’s elections. All seats of the 99-member House of Representatives and half of the Senate’s 33 seats will be on the ballot.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Gov. Bill Lee says he’ll sign bill to let some Tennessee teachers and staff carry guns in schools

2024-04-26T01:34:18+00:00

Gov. Bill Lee said Thursday he will sign legislation to let some teachers and staff go armed in Tennessee public schools.

“Districts have the option to choose,” Lee told reporters after the legislature adjourned for the year. Some school systems, he added, need that option.

His decision comes despite calls from teacher and gun control groups for the governor to veto the bill, as well as concern that parents won’t be notified if their child’s teacher is armed. In nearly six years as governor, Lee has advocated for parental rights on education matters such as curriculum and library materials.

The impending law becomes one of the most significant public safety actions in Tennessee since an intruder shot and killed three students and three staff members a year ago at a private Christian school in Nashville.

Partisan votes in the GOP-controlled legislature advanced the bill this month despite mass protests at the state Capitol seeking stricter gun laws in the wake of the massacre at The Covenant School.

Since Tuesday’s dramatic House vote sent the bill to the governor’s desk, many of the state’s largest districts, including in its four urban counties, have announced they will not use the option if the bill becomes law. They say their campuses generally have a trained law enforcement officer on duty.

“I think meeting … general threats to an environment with another threat to an environment is not something that we want to participate in,” said Marie Feagins, the new superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Rural districts, where it’s more difficult to hire school resource officers for every school, are more likely to use the option, according to Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville and Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta, the bill’s sponsors.

Under the legislation, carrying a gun would be voluntary, and allowed only if the local school district and law enforcement agencies agree to the policy. The school employee carrying the gun would have to possess an enhanced permit, complete 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense, and pass a mental health evaluation and FBI background check.

Meanwhile, the bill’s passage has put Tennessee in the national spotlight, drawing criticism from gun control groups such as Brady, the nation’s oldest gun violence prevention organization, and Sandy Hook Promise, founded by family members of the 20 children and six adults killed in a 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

“The Tennessee legislature has just dishonored all who were killed at the Covenant School shooting last year by choosing to promote the proliferation of firearms in classrooms,” said Kris Brown, the president of Brady, after the House vote. “There is no evidence to suggest that arming teachers will keep children safe from gun violence. Multiple teachers were armed at Covenant Day School, yet that was not enough to stop six children and school employees from being murdered.”

Tennessee Democrats, who voted against the bill, expressed disappointment that the governor plans to sign the bill.

“This legislation is an affront to every parent, to every Tennessean,” Sen. Raumesh Akbari, of Memphis. “We appropriated a record amount of dollars to fund SROs in every school. But instead we’re leaning into this type of policy.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

IPS board president announces safety task force following School 87 lawsuit over ‘fight club’

2024-04-24T02:12:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

The Indianapolis Public Schools board president said the district will create a task force focused on student safety, following the widespread circulation of a video that is part of a lawsuit alleging that a teacher encouraged attacks on a 7-year-old student with a disability.

Board President Angelia Moore said in a statement at Tuesday’s board meeting that the board was shocked and upset by what the video showed. The statement did not reference the lawsuit.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in a video released Wednesday that the district would also have an external partner review its policies and procedures.

“We will further clarify our guidance for all staff, teachers, and administrators regarding follow-up communication of incidents in schools, which is a place where we fell short in this instance and have regrettably caused some families to question their trust in us,” she said.

The lawsuit claims that first-year IPS teacher Julious Johnican orchestrated a “fight club” style of discipline at George Washington Carver Montessori School 87, in which he encouraged and recorded physical abuse that the student — identified as “O.D.” — suffered at the hands of other students.

The complaint references a video that the family’s attorneys say was taken by Johnican and that they believe shows an incident in September.

The video shows one student hitting O.D. repeatedly until he begins to cry, according to the complaint.

“That’s right,” says a teacher, which the lawsuit identifies as Johnican, in the video. “You get him.”

Johnican, who resigned from his position in early November and no longer works in IPS, could not be reached for comment.

Johnican told the Department of Child Services, which the lawsuit states investigated the claims of neglect after O.D.’s mother discovered the video, that O.D. and another student had had issues all year. He said he spoke with administration on what to do with classroom behaviors and management and was told to “utilize all of the resources available,” according to the DCS report.

IPS said in a statement that DCS was notified immediately when it became aware of the behavior alleged in the complaint, and that it takes reports of potential abuse and neglect seriously.

News of the lawsuit sparked an outcry among IPS parents as the video circulated last week.

“This behavior was alarming and hard for anyone to watch, but we know it’s especially close to home for parents and caregivers of IPS students — which includes four of us on this board,” Moore said on Tuesday. “Every Indianapolis family should be able to send their children to school with full confidence that caring adults are looking out for their well being.”

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that it’s investigating an incident at School 87 at the request of the prosecutor’s office.

School 87 parents told Chalkbeat that they did not know about the allegations until media outlets reported it. Some also say that longstanding concerns brought to the school’s administration over teacher turnover, staff morale, behavior, and communication issues have gone unaddressed.

An online petition launched last week demands new leadership at the school.

Moore thanked the community for their input and said it has driven “crucial” conversations on next steps for the district.

“You have been heard, your voices are valued, and ensuring our children’s safety is all of our most important jobs as adults,” Moore said.

On Sunday, the district also informed parents that the principal and vice principal will not be at school while the district gathers information about school climate. Executive Director of Schools Adrienne Kuchik is serving as the school’s leader in the meantime.

The district is also reviewing protocols on how principals communicate with families, Moore said, and is bringing on an “external partner” to interview families at School 87.

“Our promise is to report back to you on this work in 30 days and continue to share ways in which you can get involved,” Moore said.

This story has been updated to include comments from Superintendent Aleesia Johnson.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Bill to let some teachers and school employees carry guns heads to Tennessee governor’s desk, despite protests

2024-04-23T23:54:26+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with state education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Protesters screamed “blood on your hands!” then lay down on the floor of the Tennessee State Capitol as if they were victims of gun violence, after lawmakers passed legislation Tuesday to let some teachers and staff carry guns at school.

In between, House Speaker Cameron Sexton paused business in the House of Representatives and ordered state troopers to clear the spectator gallery of protesters.

The 68-28 vote came one year after an intruder shot and killed three children and three adults at a Nashville school, prompting mass protests by gun control advocates and ongoing calls for tighter gun laws.

But instead of restricting gun access in one of America’s most gun-friendly states, the GOP-controlled legislature is sending Republican Gov. Bill Lee a bill that would expand it.

Gun control advocates were angry.

“They’re going in the wrong direction,” said Marley Mello, a 15-year-old Nashville student. “Guns are the problem, not the solution.”

Lisa Bruce, a retired Tennessee principal, called it a “Band-Aid to cover a gaping wound.”

“I could maybe get on board with it if we were already doing common sense measures to reduce gun violence in our state,” she said. “But this feels like a huge leap.”

After the bill's passage, students shout in protest in the rotunda of the Tennessee State Capitol.

The bill’s Republican sponsors have said the legislation is needed to provide an armed presence on every Tennessee school campus, especially in rural areas. Nearly a third of the state’s 1,800-plus public schools don’t have a school resource officer, despite an influx of state money to pay for them, due to a shortage in the profession.

On the House floor, Rep. Ryan Williams, of Cookeville, emphasized that carrying a gun would be voluntary, and allowed only if the local school district and law enforcement agencies agree to the policy. The school employee carrying the gun would have to have an enhanced permit, complete 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense, and pass a mental health evaluation and FBI background check.

Republican lawmakers voting for the measure liked that local officials ultimately could decide whether the policy works for their community.

“I trust my local law enforcement. I trust my director of schools. I trust my teacher,” said Rep. Brock Martin, of Huntingdon.

But Democrats said the effort was misguided, shortsighted, and dangerous.

“We’re going to give somebody a little pop gun to go against a weapon of war. It does not work, folks,” said Rep. Bo Mitchell, of Nashville.

Tennesseans would be better served, Democrats argued, if the legislature passed laws requiring safe storage of firearms and background checks, as well as to temporarily remove guns from any person who is an imminent risk to themselves or others — all proposals that have been defeated by Republicans in charge.

The vote came after an hour of debate in which Democrats tried unsuccessfully to change the bill to exclude their counties, ensure parents are notified when their child’s teacher is armed, or remove a clause that shields districts and law enforcement agencies from civil lawsuits over how a school employee uses, or doesn’t use, a gun.

On Monday, one parent at Nashville’s Covenant School, where the shooting occurred on March 27, 2023, delivered a petition signed by more than 5,000 Tennesseans asking lawmakers to vote the bill down.

“While we all want safe schools and an end to gun violence, arming teachers with guns is not the way,” wrote Sarah Shoop Neumann, whose 5-year-old son was enrolled in Covenant’s preschool.

Another Covenant parent, Mary Joyce, called the bill “ludicrous.”

“Had my daughter’s teacher left the classroom to pursue the shooter, a classroom of 9-year-olds would have been left to protect themselves,” Joyce said.

Jeff Bledsoe, the executive director of the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association, told Chalkbeat he expects few teachers to carry a gun if the bill becomes law. More likely candidates, he said, are school staff members who have a military or law enforcement background.

His organization opposed the legislation in 2019 when Williams sponsored a similar bill. However, it is neutral on the current bill after working with the sponsors to add more requirements before a person can carry a weapon at school.

Alison Beale, a mother and former teacher, is among spectators escorted by state troopers from the House gallery at the Tennessee State Capitol on April 23. Beale, of Hendersonville, is a Democratic candidate for the House.

Two weeks earlier, the bill easily cleared the Senate, where spectators also were ejected from the gallery after defying warnings from Lt. Gov. Randy McNally to stay quiet.

The governor has signaled he likely will sign the measure into law.

“I’ve said for many years that I’m open to the idea, but the particulars are important,” he told reporters last week.

An advocate for parental rights, the governor declined to comment on the bill’s intent to block a parent from being notified if their child’s teacher is carrying a gun.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Three state Board of Education safety proposals fail to move forward

2024-04-09T18:27:26+00:00

After the State Board of Education dismissed her three school safety proposals, member Nikki Snyder stormed out of the meeting Tuesday morning.

It was the second time in five months one of Snyder’s proposals on safety measures in response to the Oxford school shooting was rejected by the board.

“The cowardice of this board is disgusting,” she said as she left.

Snyder, a Republican, introduced three resolutions to urge lawmakers to create a statewide emergency response plan, remove protections shielding public school officials from legal liability, hold staff accountable for lapses in safety, require annual school safety inspections, and create a database of student deaths and injuries, among other measures.

“The board shouldn’t exist if it’s not impacting the safety of our students,” Snyder said in a phone interview after she left the meeting.

Only Snyder and Tom McMillin, the other Republican on the eight-member board, voted in favor of discussing all three resolutions.

The members of the majority-Democratic board who voted against adding the proposals to the agenda said they care about school safety, but they either needed to do more research on the issues or wanted to wait to support related legislation to be proposed. Some members said they had already passed resolutions on safety issues. The board is an elected body that does not have the power to pass laws, but is expected to provide recommendations to legislators.

“Shame on you for saying that we don’t have urgency when we’ve continuously promoted resolutions and been out advocating for safe schools,” said Board President Pamela Pugh, a Democrat, to Snyder at one point in the meeting.

Three parents whose children attended Oxford High School in November 2021 when a 15-year-old killed four students and injured seven others decried the Michigan Department of Education and the board for not taking up the resolutions.

“You put Oxford High School students, staff, and families in your rearview mirror and you continue to refuse to see us,” said Renee Upham, whose son survived the mass shooting. “You are dishonoring them and the institution that you represent.”

An independent report on the shooting released in October found multiple failures by school officials to take steps to prevent the killings.

On Tuesday, the parents of the Oxford shooter were both sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for their failure to take steps to prevent their son from carrying out the shootings.

Civil suits were filed against Oxford Community Schools and several Oxford staff members. Last year, a circuit court dismissed a claim against the district and its employees due to government immunity. Litigation is still ongoing in some of the cases.

One of Snyder’s resolutions said the Oxford shootings could have been prevented if best practices in prevention were followed, echoing the findings of the independent report. The resolution would have encouraged the implementation of a statewide emergency operations plan, making independent third-party investigations of student injuries or deaths mandatory, and making schools and staff liable for negligence that leads to lapses in school safety. It also would urge the legislature to amend the state’s Freedom of Information Act to remove blanket exemptions that prevent the public from reviewing emergency plans, among other measures.

Another of Snyder’s resolutions says that Michigan students are put at risk of violence, injury, and discrimination because existing rules on how schools can use seclusion and restraint are not enforced in schools. It would urge the legislature to mandate state reporting on instances of seclusion and restraint, create state compliance oversight, create consequences for noncompliance, and change laws to make schools and employees liable for violating the laws.

Snyder also introduced a resolution to urge legislators to pass Liliana’s Law, a bill that has been introduced four times after a 3-year-old died from being crushed by a recalled folding table in 2017 at a Dearborn Heights Head Start program. The bill would require annual safety inspections of all schools. The resolution also encourages the lawmakers to pass a bill that would create a database of student deaths and injuries in public schools.

Board Member Tiffany Tilley, a Democrat, said that she believes resolutions are more effective in informing the legislature when the board has time to discuss issues at length and have an “informed position.”

“I think that we all need to understand that we are not legislators,” said Tilley. “We operate in a different capacity.”

Marshall Bullock, another board member and a Democrat, agreed and said the board and its legislative committee had not yet discussed some of the issues.

“While all of these have merit, I think they are put together in a haphazard way and they are definitely not thoughtful, vetted, clear, or concise,” he said.

On Monday, Snyder held a press conference with the mother of the girl who died in Dearborn Heights, parents of two Oxford shooting victims, and the father of a boy injured while being restrained in his school. She said their input was given on all of her proposals.

“All of these parents are saying the same things – that schools aren’t safe,” said Snyder.

In November, Snyder introduced a resolution calling for more training requirements for public school staff to prevent violence and more accountability for school employees and administrators for safety lapses. The board voted against taking up the proposal, saying they would consider it later after more research.

Pugh noted Tuesday that she voted in support of Snyder’s previous resolution related to an emergency operation plan. The board president said she expected that issue to come up in the legislative committee by now and that she will push it forward to the committee again.

After the public comments, Tilley said that as a survivor of a brother lost to gun violence, she deeply cares about safety issues.

“The resolutions are us coming together in our voice saying to the legislature that we want to see laws passed,” she said. “We just need time to do that. Nobody is saying that we’re not gonna do anything.”

Snyder expressed frustration during the meeting when state Superintendent Michael Rice reminded her that presenters, including a group of students set to talk about a pilot AP African American Studies course, were waiting to address the board.

“You’re trying to have more presentations about things that are not keeping kids safe and not educating them,” she said. “I’m fully aware of what we have done since the seven years I have sat on this board. Yes, let’s get to those presentations that aren’t keeping our kids safe and educating them. That’s important.”

A presentation on school safety and student mental health initiatives from the MDE and public safety officials took place after Snyder left.

The presenters discussed their vision for a comprehensive school mental health system as well as existing safeguards like tip lines, regularly updating emergency plans, and partnerships with law enforcement.

Snyder told Chalkbeat she didn’t regret any of the comments she made to the board.

“I think the cowardice of the way the board is handling these things is disgusting, and I feel no shame in saying that out loud,” she said.

Snyder did not return to the meeting. She said she was willing to discuss her proposals at the meeting next month.

“These resolutions are blueprints on how to move forward,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Bill to let some teachers carry guns advances in Tennessee. Parents wouldn’t be notified.

2024-04-03T00:19:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Legislation to let some public school teachers carry handguns advanced Tuesday in the Tennessee Senate as the Republican-controlled legislature quashed new attempts to tighten the state’s lax firearm laws following last year’s mass school shooting in Nashville.

The bill, which still faces votes before the full Senate and House, would let a teacher or staff member with an enhanced permit carry a concealed handgun at school after completing 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense, as well as passing a mental health evaluation and FBI background check.

The local district and law enforcement agency would decide whether to let faculty or staff carry a gun under the bill co-sponsored by Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta and Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville, both Republicans.

But parents would not be notified if their student’s teacher is armed, which runs counter to the GOP’s emphasis on parental rights and notification on education matters such as curriculum and library materials.

“The director of schools, principal, and the chief of the local law enforcement agency are the only ones notified of those permitted to carry,” Bailey told senators, “and they are not to disclose if someone is or is not permitted to carry on school grounds.”

The 7-1 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee comes as Tennessee’s legislature continues to pass measures aimed at fortifying school campuses rather than restricting gun access in one of the most gun-friendly states in America.

Last year, after a shooter killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville, the legislature allocated $230 million and passed laws to upgrade school facilities, pay for a school resource officer for every school, and ensure school doors remain locked.

Gov. Bill Lee later called lawmakers back for a special session on public safety. But none of the bills that passed specifically addressed concerns about easy access to guns that were raised by the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, where a 28-year-old intruder, who police said was under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disorder,” used legally purchased guns to shoot through the glass doors.

This year, bills moving through the legislature would require age-appropriate gun safety training for school children as young as kindergarten; change school fire alarm protocols to take into account active-shooter situations; create a pilot program to give teachers wearable alarms; increase safety training for school bus drivers; and set guidelines to digitize school maps so first responders can access school layouts quickly in an emergency, among other things.

Meanwhile, Democratic-sponsored legislation to restrict gun access by broadening background checks and promoting secure firearm storage have met swift defeats. Earlier on Tuesday, one House panel dismissed, without discussion, a bill seeking to ban semi-automatic rifles in Tennessee.

School safety is one of the top three education concerns of Tennessee parents, but significantly fewer parents agree that schools are safer when teachers are armed, according to the latest results in an annual poll from the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy.

Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat who voted against the measure, said more guns aren’t the solution to stopping gun violence.

“I do not think that it is the responsibility of teachers in our state, who have taken the oath to educate our children, to now become law enforcement officers,” she said.

Lamar also expressed concern about one provision to shield districts and law enforcement agencies from potential civil lawsuits over how a teacher or school employee uses, or fails to use, a handgun under the proposed law.

Organizations representing Tennessee teachers and school superintendents prefer policies that place an officer in every school over any that could arm faculty.

But Bailey told the Senate panel that nearly a third of the state’s 1,800-plus public schools still don’t have a school resource officer, despite an influx of state money to pay for them.

Law enforcement groups have struggled to recruit enough candidates because of inadequate pay, occupational stress, and changing public perceptions about the profession.

“Everybody’s got a shortage right now, but it’s been going on for years,” said Lt. Kyle Cheek, president of the Tennessee School Resource Officers Association.

Cheek, who oversees school-based deputies in Maury County, said equipping a teacher for school policing would require extensive training beyond a basic firearms course. And it would raise other concerns too.

“Who takes care of the teacher’s class if they’re going to check out a security issue?” he told Chalkbeat. “It’s a huge responsibility.”

The advancement of Bailey’s Senate bill means the measure likely will face votes this month in the full Senate and House before the legislature adjourns its two-year session.

The House version cleared numerous committees last year, but Williams did not pursue a vote by the full chamber after the Covenant tragedy prompted gun control advocates to stage mass protests at the Capitol.

You can track the legislation on the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Majority of American teachers worry about shootings at their schools, survey shows

2024-04-11T21:20:53+00:00

This story was originally published by The 19th and is republished under a Creative Commons license. Sign up for The 19th’s newsletter here.

The majority of American K-12 public school teachers say they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting at their school, according to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Fifty-nine percent told Pew researchers that they were concerned about shootings on their campuses, with 18% saying they were “very” or “extremely” worried. Only 7% of teachers polled said they were not worried at all. School shootings reached a record high last year, with 83 separate incidents occurring in 2023.

Juliana Horowitz, associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, told The 19th that the genesis for this research came from doing preliminary interviews with educators before launching surveys on the state of teaching today. Many brought up concerns about gun violence and safety. “In asking about the day-to-day of being a teacher, I felt like this was a really important topic to capture,” Horowitz said.

Fears about campus safety have become widespread in the 25 years since two senior students opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School in Colorado. They killed 12 students and one teacher.

Last year, roughly one in four American teachers reported experiencing a gun-related lockdown at their school. Fifteen percent of respondents said they went through one emergency lockdown, with another 8% saying that it happened where they teach more than once.

These numbers tell an important story, Horowitz said. “Especially for high school teachers, this is something that is really top of mind for them.”

High school teachers experience gun-related lockdowns more than any other demographic: 34% said they had at least one incident during the previous school year, compared to 22% of middle school teachers and 16% of elementary school teachers.

Approximately one-third of teachers who work in urban areas said they had a gun-related lockdown during the last school year, compared with 19% of those in suburban areas and 20% in rural ones.

Teachers in urban schools were the least likely to say that they felt adequately prepared by their school, with only 21% saying their school had done a good or excellent job, compared with 32% of teachers in suburban districts and 35% of teachers in rural ones.

Most of the surveyed teachers pointed at the role mental health care could play in addressing the gun violence crisis. A large majority — 69% — said they believed improving mental health screening and treatment for children and adults would be extremely or very effective in preventing school shootings. This emphasis on improving mental health held across party lines, with 73% of Democratic teachers and 66% of Republican teachers all saying that investment in mental health resources would be an extremely or very effective prevention tool.

Only 13% said that allowing teachers and administrators to carry guns in school would be extremely effective at curbing this form of gun violence.

Related: Amid clamor from protesters, Tennessee Senate passes bill to arm some teachers

Party affiliation had a lot to do with teachers’ opinions on how to be proactive about school safety. Sixty-nine percent of Republican teachers were in favor of having police officers or armed security in schools, compared with 37% of Democrats; 43% were in favor of metal detectors compared with only 27% of Democrats; and 28% were in favor of allowing teachers and administrators to carry guns, compared with just 3% of Democrats.

Horowitz said that teachers tend to lean Democratic, meaning that the majority of those surveyed are more likely to identify as Democrats than the public overall. “The results among Democratic teachers mirror more closely what we see overall among teachers — and so that’s why it’s really important to also look at these differences and see how Democratic and Republican teachers are reacting differently to these questions.”

She also points to the 3% of teachers who say that staff at their schools are allowed to carry guns. But that circumstance depends on the political leanings of the school district where the campus is located. Teachers in districts that went for President Donald Trump in 2020 saw this number reach 5%. In districts that went for President Joe Biden, it dropped to 1%. “I think that captures that partisan differences are important not just among teachers, but that there are partisan differences in terms of the sort of political environment where the schools are that they teach in,” Horowitz said.

For this study, Pew surveyed 2,531 members of RAND’s American Teacher Panel, which is nationally representative. Survey data was weighted to state and national teacher characteristics to account for differences in sampling and response.

Parents also echo teachers’ concerns, Horowitz added. A Pew Research Center study released last fall found that a third of American parents said they were extremely or very worried about a shooting at their child’s school, with an additional 37% saying they were somewhat worried. That means about seven in 10 parents have fears about school shootings.

This survey did not tie school shooting concerns to how teachers intend to vote in the November election. But Horowitz believes it is clear that issues affecting schools “are things that people will be talking about in the context of the election and politics.”

Amid clamor from protesters, Tennessee Senate passes bill to arm some teachers

2024-04-10T00:44:08+00:00

Amid outbursts from gun control advocates in the spectator gallery, Tennessee’s GOP-dominated Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns in public schools.

The vote was 26-5 vote along partisan lines.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally ordered the gallery cleared of protesters after issuing several warnings before the vote, but many of them refused to leave, despite the urging of state troopers and warnings that they could be arrested.

Some held up signs that said “We’re still here” and “1 year later, are kids safer?” referring to Nashville’s Covenant School shooting, in which an intruder killed three children and three adult staff members on March 27, 2023.

Others chanted “Vote them out!” and “Let them teach!” as it took nearly 15 minutes to resume debate.

“People were damn mad,” Nashville mom Carol Buckley Frazier told Chalkbeat later.

“Some wonderful amendments were introduced to try to craft something better out of a horrific bill, but every one of them got tabled by the Republican supermajority. We just couldn’t believe it,” said Frazier, who came to the state Capitol to show her opposition to the bill.

A group of parents from The Covenant School were also in the balcony but were allowed to stay. Wearing school colors or with ribbons pinned to their chests, they have had a steady presence on Capitol Hill since the shooting to meet with legislators, attend committee meetings, and advocate for gun reforms.

The legislation still awaits a vote by the full House. If it passes there, Tennessee will be on the verge of enacting a law that most teachers and parents oppose.

The latest results from the annual statewide poll conducted by the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy found that school safety is one of parents’ top education concerns, but significantly fewer parents said yes when asked if schools are safer when teachers are armed.

However, some rural lawmakers have sought the measure for a decade to help districts that can’t place an armed law enforcement officer on every campus, most recently due to a shortage in the profession.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta and Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville, lays out specific conditions before any school employee could carry a concealed handgun if they’re not a law enforcement officer.

First, the local district and law enforcement agency would have to agree to pursue such a policy.

Second, interested teachers and school staff who have an enhanced handgun permit would have to complete 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense, and pass a mental health evaluation and an FBI background check. That training would have to be renewed every year that the teacher was carrying.

Parents would not be notified if their child’s teacher is armed. And one provision of the bill shields districts and law enforcement agencies from potential civil lawsuits over how a teacher or school employee uses, or doesn’t use, a handgun under the proposed law.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat, noted the irony of any legislation blocking a parent from being notified about a gun in their child’s classroom, given the many GOP-backed laws passed in recent years to restrict curriculum and library materials under the banner of parental rights.

And Sen. London Lamar, another Memphis Democrat, gave an impassioned speech while holding her 8-month-old son.

Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, holds her infant son as she speaks against legislation that would allow some Tennessee teachers and staff to go armed in public schools.

“I’m upset. My child is at risk under this bill,” Lamar said. “This bill is dangerous and teachers don’t want it. Nobody wants it.”

Bailey, the Senate sponsor, said the provision about not notifying parents is intended as a deterrent to potential intruders who would not know who is armed and who isn’t.

Any liability for an accident would be borne by the teacher who chooses to carry a weapon under the law, he said.

Sen. Ken Yager, a Kingston Republican, spoke in favor of the bill.

“We are not trying to shoot a student,” he said, “but protect a student from an active shooter whose sole purpose is to get into that school and kill people.”

But Claire Jones, a Williamson County mom and hospice nurse who was at the Capitol on Tuesday, saw it differently.

“When you ask for stricter gun legislation and they actually loosen the laws, that feels intentional,” said Jones, who is running as a Democrat for the House seat currently occupied by Republican Rep. Gino Bulso.

“How did we come from a tragedy like Covenant to this point?” she asked.

You can track the bill’s status on the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Student aggression against teachers spurs Colorado lawmakers to find solutions

2024-04-02T19:36:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

Almost a third of Colorado teachers who took a recent teachers union survey said they had experienced physical abuse by a student in the past two years. A bill under consideration in the legislature aims to find solutions and stem teacher turnover.

“When I bring this bill up, every single person will then respond with, ‘Oh my gosh, this happened to my neighbor last week, this happened to my sister-in-law last week,’” State Rep. Meghan Lukens, a Steamboat Springs Democrat and former high school teacher, said during a hearing on the bill, of which she is co-sponsor.

“It’s crazy how many personal stories I’ve gotten from folks in the education space ever since I started talking more about this bill.”

House Bill 1320, which passed the House Education Committee March 18 a 7-4 vote, would create a task force to investigate those incidents and other topics, including the effects of special education staffing shortages and insufficient funding for student wraparound services. The task force would make recommendations for policy or law changes needed to improve teacher safety.

The same Colorado Education Association survey that spurred Lukens to co-sponsor the bill found that 58% of teachers who responded said they are considering leaving the profession in the near future, though the reasons varied. National surveys have found similar results.

But balancing teacher safety and student needs can be difficult, especially when a student’s trauma or disability is the reason for their behavior. Educators have said the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental and behavioral health issues for many students and worsened already unsustainable special education caseloads.

In testifying for the bill, Kevin Vick, the CEA vice president, told a story about a pregnant teacher who he said was kicked in the stomach by a high school student “hard enough to cause bruising, but fortunately not hard enough to endanger the child.”

The teacher quit that very same day, Vick said. When a long-term substitute teacher took over, the same student beat the substitute with a metal water bottle, he said.

“I don’t blame the student,” Vick told state lawmakers. “He had a condition that manifested that.”

Vick said a diverse task force is needed to come up with solutions to what is a complex problem. Others, including Brandon Smith, a social worker in 27J Schools in Brighton, agreed.

“For years, my coworkers and I were told that being assaulted in various ways was part of the job and we signed up for — and we should know what we were getting into,” said Smith.

He spoke of a first grade student he said “would flood sinks, destroy walls, furniture, take their clothes off, pee, throw feces, play with electric sockets, [and] punch and kick” staff members. District staff tried to get the student into a private program that could better meet his needs, but Smith said they encountered long wait lists and hesitancy about accepting the child.

Erin Kane, the superintendent of the Douglas County School District, the third-largest in the state, was the only district leader to testify. Speaking in favor of the bill, she ticked off specifics: In a district with 8,500 staff members, Douglas County schools had 313 workers compensation incidents last school year related to student aggression against a teacher.

Kane said the incidents usually mean a staff member had to see a doctor or go to the emergency room. So far this school year, Kane said the district has had 269 claims.

“We need help,” said Kallie Leyba, the president of the American Federation of Teachers Colorado, which represents teachers in Douglas County.

“The kids are not all right. And the educators are not all right.”

The four Republicans on the House Education Committee voted against the bill. Several Republican lawmakers said they agreed that aggression against teachers is a problem, but they disagreed that a task force would help.

“Why are we not taking action instead of just a study?” said Rep. Anthony Hartsook, a Parker Republican.

Republican lawmakers also expressed concern about an amendment that said the task force could not recommend policies that would increase student discipline or result in more students being referred to law enforcement. The amendment passed on a party-line vote.

“If a student is beating up teachers, then what is the task force supposed to do about that scenario? What is their policy supposed to be if it doesn’t include discipline?” asked Rep. Don Wilson, a Monument Republican.

“Those solutions are going to be coming from our group of experts,” answered Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a Glenwood Springs Democrat and one of the sponsors of the bill.

Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, said her yes vote doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t be disciplined or even charged criminally, but represents the hope that the task force can come up with solutions that get at the root causes of unsafe behavior.

“We need right now to think of something different,” Bacon said.

The bill says the task force would be made up of:

The director of the state Office of School Safety.
Three teachers at district-run schools, representing urban, suburban, and rural districts.
Two school administrators employed at district-run schools.
One school leader or administrator of a charter school.
One charter school teacher.
Two education support professionals, including one who works with English learners.
One school support professional, such as a school psychologist or social worker, who understands neurological and developmental disorders such as autism.
A representative of an organization that works with low-income families in a school district where most students identify as students of color.
A representative of an organization that works with students with disabilities.
A student representing a community that is disproportionately impacted by school discipline.
A person who works for a nonprofit organization focused on school safety and training.
A certified restorative justice professional experienced in community-based juvenile restorative justice, which focuses on repairing harm rather than punishment.

The task force would meet at least four times this year and three times next year to come up with a final report and recommendations by June 30, 2025, the bill says.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

After a gun scare, our school district is reeling from the trauma — and the financial toll

2022-12-13T20:35:00+00:00

Months after a threat locked down the school district I work in, students and staff are still reeling.

On June 3, we received a report of a gunman at one of our middle schools. While multiple police agencies searched the building, the rest of our district was on lockdown, unsure of what was happening.

Eventually, we learned a student had called in a false report. But the fallout was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. As prepared as we were to protect our students, the crisis left a lasting impact on every member of our school family. Some of our children no longer see school as their safe place. Some teachers struggle, too.

After the incident in June, we spent hours debriefing. We worked with law enforcement agencies. We shifted professional development time away from reading and math instruction so we could run safety drills with teachers instead. We went above and beyond the state-mandated hours of training on physical security. And all of that took resources that hadn’t been budgeted for school safety.

Likewise, we found ourselves revisiting recent renovations to our elementary school because of a small detail with potentially huge impact. The doors were designed to lock with keys – which means a person needs to run over and manually turn them – rather than flip locks. We’re spending more than $40,000 to fix this so that teachers can more easily protect students from a potential shooter.

Was it worth it? Of course. It also meant we were unable to update our outdated learning spaces. Likewise, local residents would like us to add a school resource officer. But at budget time, we will have to make a choice between that officer and a teacher.

The reality is that, in most cases, every dollar allocated to advance safety is money taken from teaching and learning.

Our district is not alone when struggling under the rising cost of security. In 2021, schools and colleges spent $3.1 billion on safety precautions. Yet, as The New York Times reported, researchers at John Hopkins University found little evidence that major infrastructure modifications have stopped violent school events. An article in The Washington Post went so far as to say, “Experts call it ‘school security theater’ – the idea that if a school system buys enough technology or infrastructure, it can keep its children safe from the horrors of a gunman.”

Even so, what is so tough about these decisions is that students and teachers’ feelings of physical safety make a big impact on our schools. As administrators, teachers, and parents continue to see how school violence is threatening our kids’ emotional health and their education, I hope legislators can lessen the financial burden on districts that are making every sacrifice possible to defend our students.

The U.S. Department of Education has announced $1 billion in grant funds will be available through the Bipartisan Safety Communities Act, one step in that direction. Now, legislators must monitor where spending is most effective. Lawmakers should be under the microscope to determine if their decisions to allocate funding to school safety is the best way to defend our most vulnerable, just as schools and teachers must defend their spending and curriculum decisions.

In my district, we work hard to create a welcoming environment for all students every day. We also have to pause throughout the day to remind students what to do in case of a threat. What to do in the classroom. The cafeteria. The playground.

The reality is that, in most cases, every dollar allocated to advance safety is money taken from teaching and learning.

We want to continue to prioritize social-emotional support – not only for the trauma students and educators experienced in June, but for what they may continue to experience as we practice lockdown drills. And that’s before we even get to working on social-emotional skills to cope with the normal situations they encounter in their day-to-day lives.

Schools everywhere are weighing these costs. Since 1999, more than 300,000 kids have been on campus during an act of gun violence, according to a Washington Post estimate. Unfortunately, districts nationwide have been left to fortify their schools while also trying to address other overwhelming issues.

During COVID, we picked up the banner of mental health, made sure our kids are fed, and stepped up in so many other ways. But protecting our kids from guns with limited funding, too? It’s too much.

It takes tremendous courage for school leadership to weigh these competing priorities and make difficult decisions. I feel called to help others understand how hard it is for us to eliminate safety threats and still accomplish all of our other educational goals, too.

Kelly Carpenter-VanLaeken is the chief academic officer of the Gananda Central School District in New York. She began her career in education as a social studies teacher and then became a principal. Kelly is a member of the Institute for Education Innovation and a board member of the GVASCD.

I train future teachers. Gun violence has them on edge.

2023-03-10T16:30:00+00:00

At the end of third grade, I wrote an essay in response to the prompt: “If you could wish for anything, what would it be?” My mom recalls that my response — “I want to feel safe in school” — nearly broke her heart. Since it was 1999, and I was a third grader at an elementary school just blocks away from Columbine High School, where gunmen had killed 12 students and a teacher just months prior, my response was not all that surprising. And yet, nearly 25 years later, my wish remains the same: I want to feel safe in school.

This wish remained front of mind when I was a third-grade teacher guiding my 8-year-old students through active shooter drills. The exact same wish often overcomes me as I try to ignore the relentless news stream of gun violence and drop off my two young children at school each day. Now, as a teacher educator in the School of Education at the University of Colorado whose work focuses primarily on preparing future teachers, I hear the same wish coming from my students. They, too, want to feel safe in school.

Deena Gumina

Incidences of gun violence are so commonplace that they can barely hold the 24-hour news cycle. In the past two weeks, there were three separate incidents within a square mile of our campus, and many of my friends and family didn’t even hear about them. And despite the prevalence of mass violence, including school shootings, we have to show up each day to teach, just as our students will be expected to when they have their own classrooms. We are all tired, but we have to go on.

As a teacher educator, I am expected to model the types of behavior with my students that I hope they will then enact in their future classrooms. I work to facilitate difficult conversations and hold space for their fears and anxieties while also pushing forward and instilling hope.

But what happens when I, myself, begin to feel hopeless? What happens when they look to me for answers I don’t have? Of course, there are many situations in my work where I don’t have the answers, and my students and I try to find them together. I intentionally position myself as a learner rather than an expert, just as I hope they will with their students someday. Though making peace with not knowing is much easier when it doesn’t feel like lives are on the line.

In recent years, the perception of teachers as martyrs has shifted from metaphor to reality.

As a profession, teaching is often framed as an act of martyrdom. Society will expect you to work long, difficult hours with few resources and little pay because the job is noble and thereby involves sacrifice. In recent years, the perception of teachers as martyrs has shifted from metaphor to reality. Future teachers are asking themselves, Would I be able to step in front of a gun for my students? And if the answer is no, Should I really become a teacher?

Much of my work centers on helping teachers find the power to imagine what is possible amid constraints instead of focusing on what they can’t do. Together, we work to find space to dream of what could be as a way to transform education from the inside out. Right now, though, everything we are doing feels colored by either real violence or the fear of it. My students want change; we all do. We want to know that if we are going to commit our lives to this work that those in power are committed to making it safe. Safety does not mean teachers coming to school armed. Safety means not having to think about guns at all while you work with your students.

I find myself wondering where these spaces for change might be. What if we refused to believe that our current reality is all that could be? Imagine if more educators unions took on gun lobbyists. Imagine if school boards called on state legislatures to make laws to protect children from gun violence. Imagine if elected officials banned the kinds of firearms being used to shoot children with the same ferocity and urgency that others are banning books and drag shows. Maybe reaching our breaking point finally gives us the opportunity to build something new.

Dr. Deena Gumina is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the School of Education at CU Boulder. Her work focuses on preparing teachers to work with and advocate for culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families. She lives in Colorado with her husband, her two children, and their chocolate lab.

New metal detectors in NYC schools will still be paired with backpack checks

2024-03-28T22:23:00+00:00

As Mayor Eric Adams launches a high-profile effort to pilot new weapons detection technology in the subways, New York City has also begun quietly rolling out new weapons scanners in schools, according to education and police officials.

The NYPD, which oversees school weapons detectors, is in the process of replacing the existing metal detectors at nearly 80 city campuses with new scanners from the company CEIA at a cost of roughly $3.9 million, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed. An additional nine schools will get the new devices for “random scanning” on select days, the spokesperson said.

The new CEIA Opengate scanners for schools, which consist of two wireless, standalone pillars that can be customized with the school’s name and colors, are supposed to feel more welcoming and “less intrusive” to students than the traditional, box-shaped metal detectors, according to Mark Rampersant, the Education Department’s Chief of Safety and Prevention Partnerships.

The new CEIA Opengate scanner in the foreground is replacing the traditional metal detectors seen in the background.

But Education Department officials aren’t planning to take advantage of the device’s major selling point: allowing students to walk through without removing their backpacks, which would save a significant amount of time.

Instead, New York City schools will continue asking students to put their bags through a separate X-ray machine – the part of the process that usually takes longest – Rampersant said.

“In terms of the students not removing their backpacks, this technology does not allow for that,” Rampersant said Thursday at a press conference. “We’ll continue to use the X-ray machine that tells you what’s in the bag.”

That runs counter to the company’s marketing of the product, which promises that “individuals can go ahead and keep their bags on them,” because the machines can, in theory, distinguish between weapons and other metal devices like cell phones, bottles, and tablets, the company’s website reads.

Nikita Ermolaev, a research engineer who studies CEIA products for IPVM, a security industry research publication, said it’s “extremely rare” for a school district to purchase the CEIA Opengate scanners while continuing to use X-ray bag machines at the same time.

“That raises a lot of questions,” he said. “If one can have a similar experience with traditional metal detectors, why would you need to buy a more expensive unit?”

An Education Department spokesperson referred questions about the new scanners to an NYPD spokesperson, who said “the CEIA Opengate is a low profile detector, however, it does not replace an X-Ray machine.”

More welcoming and portable devices

City officials pointed to two main advantages of the new CEIA scanners. First, since they’re wireless and relatively lightweight, they’re easy to move. That would allow schools to scan students before entering sports games outside, Rampersant said recently to parent leaders.

Officials also say the CEIA devices will feel more welcoming because they can be customized with a school’s logo and colors.

“It has the school’s branding on it so when kids see it … it doesn’t look like a metal detector scanner,” Rampersant said earlier this month at a meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee.

But Ava Harris, a 16-year-old senior at the Walton Campus in the Bronx, said walking through metal detectors each day makes her feel “like a criminal,” and the design of the scanners won’t change that.

“I find that quite ridiculous,” said Harris, a member of the student groups Urban Youth Collaborative and Sistas & Brothas United, which advocate for the removal of scanners from schools. “I don’t really think the logo of the school or anything would make a difference. It’s still a scanner, kids will still know it’s a scanner.”

Officials didn’t immediately say what will happen with the old scanners or whether they will be repurposed.

CEIA is a competitor of Evolv, the company whose technology Adams touted at his Thursday press conference on subway safety. Evolv has attracted significant scrutiny from experts and government officials over accusations that it overpromises with its aggressive marketing and triggers false alerts on objects like Chromebooks. Ermolaev said CEIA is a more established company and is more conservative in its marketing.

But he said the devices can still miss items, or falsely alert on non-weapons when sensitivity settings are too high.

Ermolaev questioned whether the ability to move and decorate the new devices was worth the additional cost. He pointed out that most traditional metal detectors can be put on wheels and moved, and many can also be customized with school designs.

The major advantage of a system like Opengate is that it can significantly speed up the scanning process by eliminating the need for the X-ray bag machine, he said.

Harris, the Bronx student, suggested the city divert the roughly $4 million it plans to spend on the new scanners to “things that would actually help students like counselors, restorative justice, and conflict mediators.”

Officials offer conflicting messages

Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks have talked for years about introducing new scanners in schools, but officials have recently offered conflicting messages about what those devices will do and the timeline for rolling them out.

At the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee meeting earlier this month Banks said, “we’re trying to get in place … these non-invasive scanners where you don’t have to take everything out.”

He added that he was hopeful that technology is coming “sooner rather than later.”

It’s unclear if Banks was referring to the CEIA Opengate, or a different device.

But Rampersant, later in that same meeting, sounded a more cautious note.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as less invasive tech, they’re all invasive,” he said. “The scanning machine the Chancellor speaks of, there is no real timeline for that being introduced into … our school system.”

Education Department officials didn’t immediately say how many schools have gotten CEIA scanners, but multiple principals at schools with metal detectors told Chalkbeat they haven’t yet received the new devices.

The city school system has seen a significant uptick in students arriving with weapons and other dangerous items in the wake of the pandemic — a reality students say is driven by safety concerns on the commute to and from school.

So far this school year, the NYPD has collected a total eight guns, 1,774 knives, 455 box cutters and razors, and 1,382 “other” items including pepper spray from students across the city’s roughly 1,600 public schools. That’s down slightly from last year’s totals during the same period, but still up significantly over pre-pandemic numbers.

Rampersant said “more and more of our schools, including our affluent schools, are asking for scanners in the school building.”

But critics have long alleged that the NYPD offers little explanation or rationale for where the scanners are placed.

At one school campus serving middle and elementary school students that got “pop-up” scanning this week, a parent said there was little explanation about why the metal detectors were necessary that morning, and that the scanners caused fear and confusion rather than reassurance.

“It was quite chaotic,” said the East Village elementary school parent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I think really it more alarmed a lot of parents … than assuaged their fears.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Lawmakers consider Michigan school safety bills prompted by Oxford shooting

2024-03-19T23:52:22+00:00

School mental health professionals, safety experts, and education leaders on Tuesday voiced support for five proposed bills that aim to prevent violence in Michigan schools, saying the measures could save lives.

The bills, which come a year after the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University and more than two years after the killings of four students at Oxford High School, would put in place more mental health support for struggling students, including creating specific service plans to meet their needs, and more stringent protocols for responding to emergencies.

The proposals also would increase oversight of threat assessment, or the process of determining whether a student poses a risk of physically harming themselves or others.

Melissa Kree, who has been a psychologist at Oxford Community Schools for 12 years, said during a hearing of the House Education Committee that the bills “have the potential to save lives” and would give districts the guidance they “desperately” seek on assessing potential threats.

“This work cannot be ignored,” she said. “The bills before you today have the potential to equip schools with the best practices and policies so that our students, staff, and families can be confident in their districts’ ability to conduct threat assessments and follow school safety protocols in a way that prioritizes both their physical and psychological safety.”

Karen Dunholter, a social worker at Southgate Community Schools, said educators want more training and guidance to make kids safer.

“People want to be trained,” she said. “We want policies and procedures so we are not doing something that we don’t know might be harmful.”

Tuesday’s hearing comes more than two years after most of the proposed legislation was introduced. Republicans have criticized Democrats for allowing the bills to languish in the Michigan Legislature since they were first introduced in 2022. Many Democrats, however, had previously said that gun reform could not be left out of conversations about school safety, and the bills do not change gun laws.

The proposed laws have support from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers.

One of the bills, co-sponsored by Rep. Kelly Breen, a Democrat from Novi, would require every public school to have a behavior threat assessment and management team that would monitor students for concerning behavior. Students who were identified as struggling would be provided with a plan for support.

The bill was based on the findings of a third-party report on the response to the Oxford shooting, which was released in October. That report concluded that the killings could have been prevented if proper threat assessment and suicide prevention were carried out by school staff and law enforcement.

Legislation introduced by Rep. Ranjeev Puri, a Democrat from Canton, would require the Michigan State Police to create standardized terminology for use during school emergencies. A related bill co-sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Young, a Democrat from Detroit, would require all schools and districts in the state to adopt that terminology, which supporters say would create less confusion during crises.

A bill authored by Rep. Nancy DeBoer, a Republican from Holland, would mandate that the Michigan Office of School Safety notify district emergency and safety managers of any tips regarding potential threats to schools in their system as soon as possible or within 24 hours. Local law enforcement would also have to be notified within that time frame.

Another bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Luke Meerman, a Republican from Coopersville, would create a permanent School Safety and Mental Health Commission in the Michigan Department of Education. The existing commission, which was created in 2022, focuses mostly on student mental health and preventing youth suicide. The bill would add more members to the commission, and those members would be experts in threat assessments.

Jason Russell, current member of the School Safety and Mental Health Commission and a former U.S. Secret Service agent, said creating universal language for schools and law enforcement to communicate during emergencies would streamline responses.

For example, school staff and law enforcement may mean different things when using phrases like “room clear.” To law enforcement, that means students are cleared from the room. Law enforcement could also give specific instructions to rapidly move from an outdoor space to inside a building with the command “reverse evacuation.”

To become law, the bills will need to move through several more steps of the legislative process. The committee has not yet voted to advance the bills. If the bills move out of committee, the House would hold a vote. Then, the bills would go to the Senate Education Committee before a vote in the Senate.

“I think we can agree, all of us, no matter what side of the aisle you sit on, that our kids have a fundamental right to a safe and respectful learning environment,” said Breen during the hearing. “And we know that if our kids are not physically or mentally safe, they cannot learn academically.”

Lawmakers avoid discussion of guns

To get bipartisan support for some of the school safety measures, lawmakers involved in writing the bills had to agree not to discuss gun reform, Breen said.

“It was clear that we could not leave politics out of any discussion involving firearms,” she said.

One Republican accused Democrats of “political grandstanding” on the issue. Rep. Angela Rigas, a Republican from Caledonia, said Tuesday in a prepared statement that such grandstanding by Democrats had caused the bills to be stuck in “purgatory.”

“Shootings have and continue to happen at Michigan schools,” she said. “It breaks my heart to see politics take the place of humanity right now.”

Since both mass shootings, Michigan has addressed school safety in different ways, both at the K-12 and postsecondary levels. The state has allocated more than $500 million toward school safety and mental health initiatives since 2022, including $328 million for school safety grants last year.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also signed into law several gun safety measures last year, including universal background checks and safe storage requirements. Some Republican lawmakers opposed the changes.

Breen, who has taken the lead on legislative school safety efforts, said during Tuesday’s hearing that work on the bills has been time-consuming because lawmakers have spent months meeting with experts and others to gain insight into best practices and needed improvements. The Oxford report also made lawmakers update the bills, said Breen.

Two other bills that were part of the original package on school safety legislation were not discussed in the hearing.

A bill introduced by Kathy Schmaltz, a Republican from Jackson, would make districts implement emergency plans for each school building in their system. Districts would have to update the plans every three years.

The other bill, which was introduced by Rep. Donni Steele, a Republican from Orion Township, would mandate that student identification cards list contact information for the OK2Say safety tipline.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers challenge Chicago school board’s plans to remove police, rethink choice policy

2024-03-11T20:07:43+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois state lawmakers filed two bills last week aimed at reversing the Chicago Board of Education’s decisions to rethink school choice policies and remove school resource officers from campuses.

The bills focus on board moves that have drawn both support and sharp pushback in recent months from school communities and elected officials. Those decisions include a plan to reconsider the district’s system of school choice — including charter, selective enrollment, magnet, and gifted schools — and to create a new school safety plan that bans the use of school resource officers, or on-campus police.

The new state bills would significantly curtail both board decisions. One bill would prevent the closure of selective-enrollment schools and any changes to admissions policies at those schools for the next three years. The other would let local school councils retain the power to decide whether they want on-campus police — a right they would lose by next school year under a new safety plan.

Both bills have gathered support from other Chicago-based state lawmakers and powerful allies, including House Speaker Chris Welch.

The legislation is an example of lawmakers seeking to use state power to override Chicago’s authority over its schools. It comes just days after the Illinois House and Senate passed a bill governing elections for Chicago’s first-ever elected school board.

That power dynamic drew criticism from Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, who has supported the board’s moves around school choice and resource officers.

“I remember being told by (Illinois General Assembly) members that they would *not* circumvent local control of CPS BOE,” Davis Gates tweeted in response to a tweet about the resource officer legislation. “That was in 2013 when Rahm Emanuel closed down 50 Black schools impacting nearly 20K Black children. Can anyone help me define irony?”

Dwayne Truss, a longtime activist on the West Side who has opposed the board’s decision on school resource officers, felt state lawmakers took an important step.

It’s the state’s attempt, Truss said, to “say, ‘Hey, if this is what they want, and it’s fair and it’s reasonable, then we have to protect those rights.’”

Some local school councils want to keep police officers

One of the state bills, House Bill 5008, would allow local school councils to contract with the Chicago Police Department for school resource officers. It would counteract a board vote two weeks ago to create a new school safety policy by June 27 that would end the use of school resource officers, effectively removing officers from 39 schools that currently have them, by next year.

“Local school councils are designed to make the best decision for their school,” said Rep. Mary Gill, a Democrat who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side and south suburbs, and is a key sponsor of HB 5008. “This is about keeping the power local to be able to decide if a (school resource officer) is needed, and from my research, 39 high schools would like to keep them. I think that’s enough.”

This bill passed the House’s Police and Fire committee last week, 13-0, and is headed to the House floor.

The safety plan board members called for in their vote two weeks ago would focus on more “holistic” approaches to discipline, such as restorative justice practices, which emphasize conflict resolution.

In steering away from on-campus police officers, the board cited data showing that Black students and those with disabilities were disciplined and arrested at school at disproportionately higher rates than their peers.

Schools that implemented restorative justice saw a drop in student arrests, according to a recent study.

The board decision drew substantial support, including from organizations that had pushed for years to get rid of on-campus police officers and use the money on other resources, such as more social workers or alternative discipline practices.

But it also triggered a backlash from community members and elected officials who want local councils — not the board — to decide whether their schools should have school resource officers.

Froy Jimenez, member of the district’s Local School Council Advisory Board, said Rep. Gill is “doing the city a big favor” by letting councils make the decision. Many parents, students and staff will be happy if the bill passes, said Jimenez, who is also a teacher at Hancock College Preparatory High School, which voted to remove its resource officers.

“Some will choose not to, and having that ability is crucial,” he said.

CPS spokesperson Sylvia Barragan said in a statement that the district “follows the policies and procedures set by the Board of Education and the Illinois State Board of Education” and that the district “remains committed to working with our leaders, administrators, and school staff toward improving efforts to bolster student safety and protection.”

Lawmakers say ‘hands off’ selective enrollment schools

The second bill, House Bill 5766, would prevent the closure of any school with selective admissions criteria — such as the city’s 11 selective high schools — until Feb. 1, 2027. The bill also calls for a halt to any changes to admissions criteria for selective schools or any decrease in funding to selective schools until 2027.

The bill is a response to the board resolution stating that it would rethink the school choice system and invest more resources in neighborhood schools. The resolution criticized admissions policies at selective enrollment and other “choice” schools, which were originally created to desegregate the school system but have in recent years led to segregation along the lines of student race and income.

Rep. Margaret Croke, a Democrat serving neighborhoods on the city’s northern lakefront who is sponsoring the bill, said her constituents were concerned about changes to selective enrollment schools under a majority appointed school board. They would rather wait for changes to be made after the Chicago Board of Education is fully elected during 2026, she said.

“If an elected school board that has been elected by the city of Chicago decides to take a position or action as it pertains to selective enrollment schools, I may not agree with it, but they were elected by the constituents and the voters of the city of Chicago,” said Croke.

Croke said she believes the current board is trying to change the funding formula to provide less money to selective enrollment and give more to neighborhood schools. The board’s resolution states that it wants to “ensure equitable funding and resources across schools within the District using an equity lens.”

Board members have expressed a desire to scrutinize charter schools more closely. They also want the district to provide more resources to neighborhood schools, or a child’s zoned school, in order to support “students furthest away from opportunity and ensure that all students have access to a world-class public pre-K through 12th-grade education,” officials said.

The board’s resolution did not include any language about closing schools, and board members have stated they don’t plan to close selective-enrollment schools. Written into the compromise hybrid school board bill in 2021 was a moratorium on school Chicago closures until after Jan. 15, 2025.

The resolution didn’t call for specific changes; board members said they want to hear from the public on what the district should do. The resulting plan will be part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, which the board is expected to vote on this summer.

Community groups call for better engagement

The pushback in Springfield comes after a coalition of community groups in Chicago sent a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson urging him to push his hand-picked school board to do more — and better — community engagement.

The letter, which was sent to other elected officials, city staff, district officials, and school board members, also asked that the resolution on rethinking school choice policies, among other things, be repealed because it “was crafted with no input from the communities it will impact” and was published and approved during the final week of classes before winter break.

“There wasn’t a public comment opportunity when the resolution was announced. And then it just kind of passed,” said Daniel Anello, executive director of Kids First Chicago, a parent advocacy organization that helped create the letter.

In December, district officials said they would hold community engagement sessions in February. A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said last week that the district now plans to hold community engagement sessions around the next five-year strategic plan after spring break, which is the last week of March.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Student voices on Uvalde: Our leaders ‘are just not going to protect us’

2022-06-07T12:00:00+00:00

Today’s high school students were born after the mass shooting at Columbine and were in elementary school when a gunman murdered 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook. These teens are old enough to remember the massacre in Parkland, but most of them were too young to join the protests that followed.

They grew up with routine active shooter drills at school and with the perfunctory “thoughts and prayers” politicians offered when tragedy struck.

Following last month’s school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, 10 days earlier, and a year that saw rising homicides in many major American cities, Chalkbeat invited teens around the country to tell us how gun violence affects their lives and education.

In their lifetime, there have been thousands of mass shootings, including those in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tennessee this past weekend. There have been hundreds of school shootings, too, but no new and significant federal gun control laws. (Bipartisan talks on firearm restrictions are again underway.) Because of pervasive gun violence, students say they have learned to scan every classroom for places to hide from an active shooter, plan out escape routes, and contemplate whether and how they might help stop a shooter in their school.

Some teens say they have become desensitized to news of mass shootings because there’s no time to process one massacre before another occurs. Other students say the American gun violence epidemic keeps them in a constant state of high alert and that they are traumatized and exhausted.

They fear more than mass shootings and shots fired inside school buildings. Everyday gun violence has them considering how they get to school, where they sit in public spaces, and whether or not they’ll see their families at the end of the day. One student talked to Chalkbeat about Kyhara Tay, the 11-year-old girl struck by a stray bullet last month in the Bronx. Another remembered her schoolmate Jimari Williams, an 18-year-old Chicagoan killed by gunfire just two months before he would have graduated from high school.

The students who opened up to Chalkbeat shared a range of emotions, from numbness to fear, from anger to despair. Although they want more from their leaders, they don’t believe elected officials will take meaningful action to curb gun violence any time soon.

Their stories have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Pragnya Kaginele: Walking into a classroom, I think about hiding places

Jeremiah Griffith: It can’t get much worse

Amaya Turner: Kids are not pieces on a chessboard

Radiah Jamil: Schools should focus on student mental health and teach self-care

Meleena Salgado: Since third grade, I’ve worried about being shot at school

Anjali Darji: I’m in that crisis state of mind

Bryan Bastidas: America is normalizing gun violence on every scale

Ajibola Junaid: Elected officials must stop fighting the wrong battles

A view of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the site of the deadly May 24 mass shooting.

Walking into a classroom, I think about hiding places

Pragnya Kaginele, 15

Freshman, Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas

Pragnya Kaginele

It almost feels hopeless sometimes. I can’t think of a good solution other than good gun control. But it’s not like I can say “There should be gun control,” and magically there’s gun control. The people who are supposed to be protecting us are just not going to protect us, and they have so much more power than all of us. I’d like to think it would happen when our generation becomes eligible to run [for office], but we can’t wait 15 years.

It’s so strange that people just have guns and can carry them into schools and cause this kind of destruction. What happened in Buffalo wasn’t a school shooting, but it was a hate crime, and it was about a week before. In the span of 10 days, there’s been a racially motivated shooting, and then there’s been a shooting where 19 little kids died. For those to happen back to back, it’s like you don’t finish processing the fact that one happened before the next tragedy. It just keeps coming at you, and I guess your brain starts to think, this is just normal.

Just because it’s been happening so much doesn’t make this loss of life normal. Just because the Founding Fathers wrote in the Constitution 200 years ago that Americans have the right we have the right to have guns — just because people are so obsessed with not making any change to [the status quo] — students are forced to live their lives in fear. (The Second Amendment states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”)

When I first go into a classroom, I think about hiding places. If I’m in a hallway, I think, if something happened, what bathroom would I go into? And there are these weird moral questions, like, would I throw myself in front of someone, or would I jump behind them? It feels weird to think about that because I’m 15 years old.

A small memorial sits outside a Chicago liquor store where 58-year-old community activist Willie Cooper was shot and killed on July 17, 2017.

It can’t get much worse

Jeremiah Griffith, 16

Junior, Noble Academy in Chicago

Jeremiah Griffith

I am a student journalist and was covering the Chicago Sky ring ceremony on May 24. The WNBA commissioner was talking about the mass shootings in the past month. She mentioned Buffalo and Texas, and I was confused because I hadn’t heard what had happened in Texas. There was a moment of silence, and the whole arena was silent.

I found out more about it during the post-game interview. When I went home, as I was finishing up the recap of the game and the article, I looked up what happened. It’s sad because, on the one hand, it’s like, oh, another mass shooting — same old, same old. But on the other hand, we have to change something.

The next day, in my AP language class, we talked about the mass shooting in Uvalde. My teacher let us have a Harkness, which is a kind of group discussion. We were talking about how we could possibly change the Second Amendment of the Constitution, but we know that might not happen. We’re being held back by the government and the lobbyists who control the NRA.

Here in Chicago, there are shootings every day. I remember when it first started getting warmer a few weeks ago, there were at least 28 people shot over the weekend , and all it got was local news reporting, and that was about it.

The Buffalo shooter literally used a live stream app, Twitch. All my friends use that app, and a lot of people saw the video (before the stream was removed). We’ve become desensitized to mass shootings, but there’s not much we can do unless there is a drastic change to the entire system. Otherwise, these things are going to keep happening. It can’t get much worse. We’re already witnessing murders on camera, and it’s normal.

This candlelight vigil, held on Feb. 14, 2019, in Orlando, Florida, commemorated the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Kids are not pieces on a chessboard

Amaya Turner, 17

Junior, Abington High School in Abington, Massachusetts

Amaya Turner

School shootings affect me more than I think they should. No matter how often they happen — and happen often, they do — I can never quite manage to feel desensitized. I suppose that’s good. I do not want to become desensitized, but the familiar fear and grief they stir up are beyond exhausting.

Every time a new school shooting occurs, I cannot stop picturing the hundreds of people who were close to the victims and will be forever changed. I cannot help but think about the surviving students who will live forever with the memories. Have we really come to a place in our country where lifelong trauma after a shooting qualifies someone as “one of the lucky ones” because at least they survived?

In 2018, when the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting happened in Parkland, Florida, I remember being terrified to go to school for weeks. In every classroom I sat in, I would try to figure out where I would run or hide if there was a shooter. I was 13. I already knew about Sandy Hook and had internalized the idea that school shootings were a part of life I might as well accept.

But it is difficult to feel safe when watching your teacher cover the narrow floor-to-ceiling window pane with a cabinet because she is afraid a would-be shooter could break the glass. It’s difficult to feel safe when you’ve grown up practicing how to huddle together with the lights off, staying as quiet as possible, and then going through ALICE training (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate). Many adults did not grow up with active shooter drills because they were mostly implemented after the Columbine shooting in 1999. So the majority of our government officials don’t know what it is like to hear kids joke nervously about who would jump in front of a shooter to buy time.

After each tragedy, there are desperate pleas for change but no real change, and then we end up repeating the tragic cycle. It is absolutely soul-crushing.

Student safety is a human right, and children, teens, and their teachers should be able to go to school without fearing the worst. I worry less for my own safety and school — Massachusetts, where I live, has some of the country’s most restrictive gun laws — and more for all the school communities bound to be impacted by mass shootings unless something changes. I worry about the parents planning funerals for their children. I worry about the surviving students who face a lifetime of traumatic memories. I worry about mental health professionals trying to help students who are suffering. I worry about innocent people who have the same mental conditions as past shooters and are now being unfairly stigmatized. Mostly, I worry about how many more children will die before change is finally enacted.

I feel so powerless hearing another shooting being politicized and debated. Kids are not pieces on a chessboard. For now, I can only hope that there will be a generation of children who never know the ever-present anxiety of school shootings or have to watch the death count slowly rise over a series of days. I can only hope my peers and I are granted the time and resources necessary to bring about the changes we deserve.

A girl visits a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims outside the Uvalde County Courthouse in Uvalde, Texas, on May 29, 2022.

Schools should focus on student mental health and teach self-care

Radiah Jamil, 18

Senior, Brooklyn Latin School in New York City

Radiah Jamil

I found out about the school shooting in Uvalde on social media — Instagram specifically. That’s where I get most of my news. It was just an infographic that said the number of people who were dead in Texas.

After mass shootings, a common thing people say is: Make it stricter to get guns or even abolish them completely. But I’m a big-picture person. Mental health is the primary thing that schools can focus on fixing. Mental health affects your thoughts, your decisions, your actions, and your interactions with everyone. It really impacts every aspect of your life, so that’s why I think it’s the primary thing to tackle.

Mental health has long been a crisis that has not gotten enough recognition. There has been a lot of stigma. I think we’re getting a bit better at reducing the stigma with technology, but technology can also make people’s mental health worse. It makes you more prone to cyberbullying, and online, you can be exposed to a lot of negative stuff.

When we were isolated during remote learning, we turned to Instagram and Snapchat to feel more connected. But that might not have been great for our mental health because there was a lot of stuff going on. The country was in such a tough space, and it definitely trickled down to have a negative effect on the mental health of many students.

Like most people, I was in my room for a year and a half and not socializing much. It took a toll on many of my friendships. I was diagnosed with depression. Coming back to school, it’s been so hard transitioning for both teachers and students. I feel like everyone is getting burnt out a lot more. There are many schools that don’t have access to a social worker on a daily basis, and a social worker is someone students can turn to when they’re having a hard time.

Last year, after winning money in a “Shark Tank”-style contest, I founded Mentalligence, a peer-to-peer mental health support organization to teach New York City high school students about different therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and existential therapy, and self-care techniques. Our peer support gives students a comfortable place to talk about their mental health, especially if they can’t afford a therapist or don’t have a reliable person at home to talk to.

If schools focused on mental health and self-care, it would really go a long way because, at school, we don’t talk about any of that stuff. Even little things like carving out 15 minutes to meditate and do gratitude journaling — teaching these self-care activities so that students can form these habits — could have a greater impact on students’ mental health in the long term.

People mourn at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 31, 2022.

Since third grade, I’ve worried about being shot up at school

Meleena Salgado, 17

Junior, John Hancock College Preparatory High School in Chicago

I was feeding my dogs, and my dad rushed in and said a school had been shot up. My heart just sank. I was frustrated that there was another one. I hate to use that term because there were people who were lost. But I was just like, come on. No matter how many are hurt, [politicians] are just going to say, “Oh wow, what a tragedy,” and then we’ll find out about the next one.

I’ve been worried about a school shooting since I was little. The oldest fear I have about being shot up at school is when I was, maybe, in third grade. I was in the bathroom alone and heard this really loud bang, and I thought, “Oh, God, maybe this is it.” (That bang turned out to be someone dropping a textbook in the hallway.)

A few weeks ago, my friends and I were discussing where we’d hide if there was a shooting. My friend was saying that there are a lot of windows in this building, and I said that’s unfortunate because what if someone gunned down the windows? Then we said we could try the library, but there are windows there, too. They said, “Well, we could try the theater,” but we realized that is right where the doors are to get into school, so maybe that would be the first place that would be attacked.

Later, when I talked about hiding places with my brother, my mom was looking at us in horror.

A Senate staff member prepares for a press conference on Capitol Hill on January 24, 2013. House and Senate Democrats were joined by law enforcement officials to introduce legislation to ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

I’m in that crisis state of mind

Anjali Darji, 17

Junior, Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly, New Jersey

Anjali Darji

When I walked into class on Wednesday, my history teacher had the last four mass shootings and the death tolls on the board.

We’re currently learning about the George W. Bush administration, and my teacher went off about the 1994 assault weapons ban that President Bill Clinton signed into law and how the weapons used in the recent mass shootings would have been banned under that law. He told us how the ban ended during the George W. Bush administration and was never renewed.

Then, we had a conversation about how we go forward as America. Do we continue to be proud of America despite this? Or what do we do to change? Or do we just condemn America? He was asking that and no one answered because, honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m in that crisis state of mind.

On social media, people have been posting the number of U.S. shootings compared to other countries and how high America’s toll has been. And what I proposed in class is that we analyze other countries’ policies on gun control and related policies because they must be doing something right if they have significantly fewer shootings.

When someone brought up what happened in Uvalde, we either had to stop talking about it because someone was gonna cry, or there was just this resigned feeling.

I have plans for what to do in case of a shooting. In one plan, I’m running to save myself. I have another plan in which I’m trying to evade the gunman and help people get out of the building because my school has over 2,000 kids, and it employs hundreds of people. I’m numb to the idea that I do this kind of planning now. It’s just a thing that I do for self-preservation.

Local residents pay their respects at a memorial for Kyhara Tay, an 11-year-old girl shot to death by a stray bullet, May 19, 2022 in the Bronx.

America is normalizing gun violence on every scale

Bryan Bastidas, 17

Senior, International High School for Health Sciences in New York City

Bryan Bastidas

In the middle of a beautiful Tuesday in New York City, after watching “Better Call Saul,” I found myself scrolling through Twitter, bombarded with the news of another mass shooting in Texas. This time it happened in an elementary school.

I was shocked and confused about how a person could do this to small kids. I watched my little brother smiling as he played and watched videos; I was thinking about how someone could take those beautiful smiles from their mouths. I felt disgusted.

The worst part of it is that we are normalizing gun violence on every scale. Not only in Texas but also in New York, where I live. Two weeks before this, a little girl named Kyhara Tay was killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx.

Walking on the streets of New York City does not feel safe, especially for me, a student who always takes trains and buses and uses public spaces to socialize or take a break. Every day, I fear not seeing my father or mother coming back alive from work or my siblings from school. I fear dying on the bus or the train. It’s absurd that an 18-year-old can get a weapon and carry it into public spaces like it’s a cellphone or a toy.

Many people think that banning guns will fix the problem — and yes, it would reduce violence significantly — but we do not think as much about the person who used the weapon. He was only 18. What kind of life did he have? What kind of problems? Sometimes, we see symptoms and signs, but we do not do anything until everything explodes.

I think there should be more and stricter regulations on who and when to carry a gun. Firearms are not toys and should be difficult to get. One great example is Switzerland, which, like the U.S., has a high rate of gun ownership. But, unlike the U.S., which has had more than 200 mass shootings just this year, there have been no mass shootings in Switzerland in 21 years. That country issues licenses for firearms and carefully vets would-be gun owners before issuing these licenses (sometimes talking to mental health professionals in the process).

I think schools should also have more security to prevent these kinds of actions. We can use metal detectors and give police more tools to prevent these events. It is complicated to talk about this problem, but it is worth letting people know that this problem should be fixed. I want my family and friends to have a future where they do not have to fear for their lives in any situation, from walking in the city to being in school.

A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults killed on May 24 during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on June 1, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.

Elected officials must stop fighting the wrong battles

Ajibola Junaid, 18

Senior, Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Chicago

Ajibola Junaid

Gun violence means I don’t know how to ride a bike or have friends in my neighborhood because I don’t feel safe going out. The summertime is the worst because there are gunshots all the time. It’s hot inside, and it’s too risky outside.

Several students at my school have died of gun violence, including, last year, a senior named Jimari Williams, just two months before graduation. This year, a shooting outside my school injured a student and a security guard. It’s sickening. Nowhere feels safe.

We need gun control. We need politicians to stop fighting the wrong battles. Why are so many of them willing to do anything to make abortions illegal but not willing to take the necessary steps to protect the children who are here? Children like the 19 gunned down, along with two of their teachers, in Uvalde, Texas.

My heart bleeds for their families. I send my sincere condolences to all those who are grieving.

The saddest part of all this is that you’d think that massacre after massacre would bring about gun control. But nothing ever happens. The outrage will last only a few weeks, and everything will calm down until some other group of people dies. There have been at least 27 school shootings in the U.S. this year — and it’s only May. Hopefully, this time, government officials will listen to our cries for help. I hope the deaths of these innocent kids bring positive change to our society.

Stories from Anjali Darji, Jeremiah Griffith, Radiah Jamil, Pragnya Kaginele, and Meleena Salgado were told to Gabrielle Birkner.

If you are interested in speaking to Chalkbeat about how gun violence impacts your life and education, please reach out to us at community@chalkbeat.org.

Most NYC school safety agents are now wearing bulletproof vests. The change is unsettling for some.

2024-02-14T19:30:13+00:00

Most of the school safety agents working in New York City schools have quietly added a new item to their uniforms: bulletproof vests.

A NYPD spokesperson confirmed that about 3,000 of the roughly 4,100 school safety agents across the city are now wearing “bullet resistant” vests since the department began distributing them this school year, with the rest on the way.

The police department is rolling out the vests citywide as a safety measure for the agents amid elevated levels of neighborhood youth gun violence and a spike in guns turning up at city schools in recent years. School safety agents don’t carry guns.

But the arrival of the vests has often come with little warning or explanation to school communities, stirring mixed reactions from families, educators, and school safety agents themselves.

Alex Estes, the president of the Parent Teacher Association at the Neighborhood School in the East Village, was caught off guard when he noticed the safety agent at his son’s school wearing a vest last month.

“You’re not going to find a better-informed parent,” he said of his level of involvement, yet he had no idea about the change.

He worried about how the children at the elementary school where his son is in first grade might respond — or whether the youngest children might understand the change, hear things from older kids about the vests, or even be able to articulate their concerns. The children feel like the school is their home, and many hug their school safety agent, Estes said.

“They see her. They hug her. They care about her. Then all of a sudden … this hug has a bulletproof vest,” he said. “Five-year-olds, 7-year-olds, 8-year-olds aren’t fantastic about reporting what it is that’s making them uncomfortable, and the way this is rolling out is not taking that into account at all.”

An NYPD spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about what the department has done to prepare schools, aside from saying, “NYC Public Schools … have been notified.”

An Education Department spokesperson referred questions to the NYPD.

One Manhattan principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the school was given “zero warning” that safety agents would be showing up in vests, even though administrators had met with school safety agents just days earlier.

“The first people we see are school safety … to walk in and be greeted by bulletproof vests is alarming for students and staff,” the principal said. “Your immediate thought is, ‘What happened?’”

Some school safety agents feel conflicted about their new apparel

One Manhattan high school safety agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she appreciated the extra layer of protection, but worried about the “message” it communicated to students.

“I think we should have had a whole conversation with the schools first to prepare them,” the agent said. Though she believes that “kids can adapt” to the changes, some concerned parents asked whether there was a threat they should know about, the agent said. She feared that wearing a vest made it seem like safety agents weren’t succeeding at their jobs of keeping schools safe.

The plan to outfit school safety agents with vests, first reported last summer by the New York Daily News, follows a pilot program last year, and multiple years of lobbying from the union representing school safety agents. NYPD officials said the pilot program “aided in the safety of our School Safety Agents,” but didn’t provide further details, including where the pilot took place or how they determined its success.

The terms “bulletproof” and “bullet resistant” are often used interchangeably for vests, but some experts have said the former is a misnomer because vests aren’t impervious to all bullets.

No guns have been fired in city schools in decades, but multiple shootings have occurred right outside schools around dismissal time, including one in Williamsburg last February that injured two students and a security guard.

More than 20 guns were confiscated from students at city schools during the 2021-22 school year, a marked increase since before the pandemic. So far this school year, seven guns have been seized at schools, compared to nine during the same period last school year, according to the NYPD.

The distribution of the vests is one of several changes school and police officials have made in response to the concerns about gun violence. Last school year, the NYPD changed the frequency of school safety agents’ radios to connect them more directly to NYPD precincts, and city schools are rolling out door locking and camera systems at all elementary schools this year.

Officials previously indicated that the door locking upgrades would cost around $78 million total. An NYPD spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about the cost of the vests.

One Brooklyn elementary school principal said he appreciated some of those recent safety upgrades. But the transition to bulletproof vests for school safety agents felt extreme.

“I would want her [the School Safety Agent] to be safe in all situations, but it seems like it’s going from zero to a hundred given that the door wasn’t even secured three months ago,” said the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The agent has complained the vest is bulky and uncomfortable to wear all day, and “she doesn’t feel like there’s an active threat to her safety that [the vest] would protect her from.”

Bulletproof vests not supposed to be visible to students

The new vests are supposed to fly under the radar. An NYPD spokesperson said in a statement they are supposed to be “worn underneath the uniform shirt and may never be the outer most garment.”

But school safety agents who spoke to Chalkbeat said that their uniform shirts aren’t tailored to fit over the vests, and that they still haven’t received new shirts. They were wearing their vests outside their uniform shirts, though one was covering it with a sweater, and others wore their uniform-issued jackets over the vests.

The vests, which NYPD officials said are “durable and lightweight,” are supposed to be worn at all times when safety agents are on duty, including when they’re staffing “safe corridors” outside of schools to help students on their commutes.

Many families and educators still haven’t noticed the vests. For those who have, they’ve often come as a surprise.

Some schools are making their own efforts to inform their communities and answer any questions.

After their safety agent got her vest, the Neighborhood School administrators sent a note to families letting them know they would be paying attention to whether children bring up the issue, and they asked parents to encourage their children to talk to trusted adults at the school if they needed to.

Estes, the PTA president, feels frustrated overall with various moves to “harden” schools, believing the focus instead should be on reforming gun laws.

“We want to keep the security officers safe,” Estes said, “but the other problem I have with this is that every time we’re talking about school security measures, we are taking up the slack of the gun laws.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed to this story.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee budgets $144 million for statewide school vouchers

2024-02-06T02:39:16+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Gov. Bill Lee renewed his call for private school vouchers for any student across Tennessee on Monday, and he also set aside $144 million in his proposed state budget to pay for the new program for up to 20,000 students in its first year.

For traditional public schools, the Republican governor asked the legislature to raise the annual base pay for teachers from $42,000 to $44,500, in keeping with his pledge last year to get the profession’s minimum salary to $50,000 by the 2027-28 school year. (Raising the base pay has a domino effect and increases the pay of more experienced teachers, too.)

Lee also wants to invest $200 million to grow state parks and natural areas while simultaneously cutting corporate taxes amid a downturn in state revenues. But he maintained that Tennessee has “a very strong economy” to pay for all the changes.

The governor outlined his list of wants Monday evening during his 2024 address before the General Assembly, which will take up Lee’s voucher proposal and the budget in the months ahead.

He opened his remarks by calling Tennessee a “model for economic prosperity” and reminding lawmakers that state revenues are still 40% higher than three years ago.

However, after years of being flush with cash, the state faces a $610 million budget shortfall this year, and many lawmakers are leery of approving a universal school voucher program that Lee wants to be available to any K-12 student in 2025-26. Currently, Tennessee offers vouchers to about 3,000 low-income families in three urban counties, but his Education Freedom Scholarship Act would open them up to families in all 95 counties, eventually with no family income restrictions.

Gov. Bill Lee

“2024 is the year to make school choice a reality for every Tennessee family,” he said, drawing a standing ovation from many legislators — but not everyone in the GOP-controlled legislature — as well as frequent jeers from some spectators in the gallery.

“There are thousands of parents in this state who know their student would thrive in a different setting, but the financial barrier is simply too high,” Lee continued. “It’s time that we change that. It’s time that parents get to decide — and not the government — where their child goes to school and what they learn.”

Lee, a Williamson County businessman who graduated from public schools in Franklin, near Nashville, touted more than $1.8 billion in new investments in public education since he became governor in 2019.

“We can give parents choice and support public schools at the same time,” he said. “You’ll hear me say that over and over again. These two ideas are not in conflict.”

The governor also released his $52.6 billion state government spending plan to begin July 1. The total was down from Tennessee’s $62.5 billion budget for the current fiscal year because of flattening revenues and expiring federal funds appropriated during the pandemic.

He proposed $8 million to hire 114 more school-based behavioral health specialists amid record reports of students experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.

Other recurring funding recommendations include $30 million to pay for summer learning programs; $3.2 million to expand access to advanced placement courses for high school students; and $2.5 million to pay for a universal reading screener as part of the state’s literacy initiative, all to offset federal funding that is drying up.

Lee is asking for $15 million in one time funding to help charter schools with facility costs.

The governor also announced that his administration will bring the legislature a bill designed to help parents oversee their child’s social media activity.

“It will require social media companies to get parental consent for minors to create their own accounts in Tennessee,” Lee said.

Such legislation would widen the state’s push against social media giants.

Last fall, Tennessee joined a coalition of states suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which is accused of violating consumer protection laws and deceptively marketing its platforms to adolescents to the detriment of their mental health.

And some Tennessee school districts have joined a growing list of school systems nationwide that are suing major social media companies like TikTok and YouTube over a crisis in student mental health.

But in the wake of last year’s shooting at a private Nashville school — where three children, three staff members, and the shooter died — the governor offered no new initiatives aimed at improving school safety or decreasing gun violence, other than funding to hire 60 more state troopers.

Last year, after the March 27 tragedy, the legislature approved $140 million in grants to place an armed law enforcement officer in every Tennessee public school. But the legislature rebuffed the governor’s call for a law to help keep guns out of the hands of people deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others.

Remarks about Lee’s universal voucher plan, announced in November, drew quick responses from the leaders of the state’s two largest teacher organizations.

“The concept of universal vouchers would be costly to the state, and we urge the Tennessee General Assembly to move slowly,” said JC Bowman, executive director of the Professional Educators of Tennessee.

“In particular, we have concerns over the lack of income-eligibility requirements and accountability,” he continued. “Our state must avoid any program viewed as a tax subsidy for existing private school families or a tax bailout for struggling private schools.”

Tanya T. Coats, president of the Tennessee Education Association, said Lee’s plan shows that vouchers have never been about helping economically disadvantaged families, as the governor first characterized it in 2019.

“The goal has always been to privatize public education and use public dollars to fund private school education, which goes against our Tennessee values,” Coats said.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

5 students arrested, 25 ticketed by SROs in Denver schools in first semester, report shows

2024-01-26T00:41:11+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

Police officers have returned to Denver high schools after a years-long hiatus, but new data suggests they are arresting and ticketing students less frequently than before.

In the first semester of this school year, school resource officers — or SROs — stationed at 13 Denver high schools arrested five students and ticketed 25, according to district data that Chalkbeat obtained through an open records request.

In 2019-20, the last full school year that SROs were stationed in Denver schools, there were 30 student arrests and 160 tickets issued on those same 13 campuses, according to data from the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.

It’s not clear from the 2019-20 data how many of those actions took place in the first semester, but it seems that the pace of ticketing and arrests has slowed this school year.

A similar slowdown occurred in the final two months of last school year, when SROs were temporarily reintroduced following a shooting inside East High School, which set off a heated debate about safety in Denver schools.

Though tickets and arrests are down, Black students are still disproportionately policed. A third of the students who were arrested or ticketed in the first semester of this school year, from August through December, were Black. But only 13% of Denver Public Schools students are Black.

Meanwhile, only 6% of the students ticketed or arrested in the first semester of this school year were white. A quarter of all DPS students are white.

About half of the tickets and arrests involved Hispanic or Latino students, who make up about 50% of DPS.

The data shows that two of the five student arrests were for motor vehicle theft. The other three arrests were for possession of a handgun, first degree assault, and robbery.

Eight of the 30 tickets were issued to students for public fighting. Seven tickets were for assault. One ticket was issued for unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon, which could be a firearm or a knife, and another was issued for possession of a handgun.

It does not appear that the student who was arrested for a handgun and the student who was ticketed for a handgun were the same student. The student arrested was a 14-year-old male and the student ticketed was a 16-year-old male. The report doesn’t explain why one student was arrested and the other was ticketed.

Police officers were phased out of Denver schools in 2020 and 2021 because of concerns about the over-policing of Black students. The Denver school board voted to remove SROs following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

The East High shooting in March sparked a push to bring SROs back. When the Denver school board voted in June to permanently return police to schools, board members asked DPS to monitor tickets and arrests and “notify the Board if the district is aware of a disproportionate number of citations and arrests across marginalized identities.”

Board President Carrie Olson said the board got its first monitoring report on Dec. 31. SROs returned to Denver schools in August, and the monitoring reports were supposed to be quarterly. But because DPS did not finalize an agreement about the SROs with the Denver Police Department until late September, the reporting timeline was pushed back.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Suspensions and bullying plunged as many students learned remotely, national data shows

2023-11-15T21:52:14+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.

The number of students who were suspended or arrested at school fell dramatically during the first full school year of the pandemic, new federal data released Wednesday show.

And though disparities in who got suspended or arrested at school persisted along lines of race and disability, in some cases, those gaps narrowed considerably, especially for Black students.

The data for the 2020-21 school year, released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, echoes earlier reports from some school districts and states. But it’s the first to fully capture what discipline looked like across America’s schools early in the pandemic, when large shares of students were learning remotely.

“Some of these data are not easy to look at,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told reporters Wednesday. “These data are a reminder that we have a lot of work to do.”

The data come as many schools wrestle with how discipline should look in the wake of a pandemic that left many students with greater social and emotional needs. Some states have considered laws that would give schools broader latitude to suspend students, and some districts have brought back school police following concerns over student behavior and safety.

The report reflects a time when 88% of schools provided a combination of in-person and remote instruction, federal data show, while another 5% offered only remote instruction. The following year, when most students returned to fully in-person learning, many schools reported an uptick in behavioral issues, and some districts suspended a larger-than-usual share of students.

Suspensions and expulsions had been falling for years even before COVID hit, as many schools took steps to curb disciplinary practices that removed students from the classroom. But the declines during the 2020-21 school year were much steeper.

The drops likely reflect a combination of fewer students learning in person and a reticence among educators to remove students from the classroom at a time when many kids craved in-person contact with their teachers and peers. But the data does not capture some of the new or informal disciplinary practices that cropped up during the pandemic, such as removals from a Zoom classroom or requiring a student to learn remotely as a form of punishment.

Around 639,000 K-12 students were suspended from school at least once during the first full year of the pandemic, down from 2.5 million students during the 2017-18 school year, the last period with comparable data.

That represents a staggering 75% decline. (For comparison, suspensions dropped around 11% from the 2013-14 school year to 2017-18 school year.)

Similarly, the number of students who experienced an in-school suspension fell by 70%. The number of students who were referred to law enforcement dropped by 73%. And the number of students who were arrested at school plummeted 84% to around 8,900.

Education department officials cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from an anomalous school year filled with disruptions for both students and the staff who collect this data.

Public school enrollment dropped by 1.7 million students, or 3%, between the 2017-18 and 2020-21 school years. And schools were not required to report whether students who were disciplined were learning in person or remotely. To address that, federal officials are collecting the same data for the 2021-22 school year — the first-ever back-to-back effort.

Still, it’s notable that Black boys and students with disabilities continued to receive a disproportionate share of suspensions from school. Black boys made up 8% of the nation’s K-12 enrollment during the 2020-21 school year, but they received 18% of suspensions from school. Similarly, students with disabilities made up 17% of the nation’s enrollment, but they received 29% of suspensions.

That disparity for Black boys shrank 7 percentage points from the last time this data was collected, but the gap for students with disabilities didn’t budge.

A new disparity, meanwhile, arose regarding white boys. During the 2017-18 school year, white boys were suspended from school at a rate nearly equal to their share of enrollment. But in the first full year of the pandemic, they made up 24% of the nation’s enrollment, and received 36% of suspensions from school — a gap larger than the one for Black boys.

A top education department official said while the cause of that trend is unclear, it represents a notable departure from past data collections that merits investigation.

Black, Hispanic, and Asian students were much more likely to learn remotely during the 2020-21 school year, while white students were more likely to learn in person.

Black students and students with disabilities, meanwhile, continued to be arrested at school at higher rates than their peers, though those disparities did narrow. The gap shrank notably for Black students, who made up 15% of K-12 enrollment, but received 22% of arrests at school.

Three years ago, they made up the same share of enrollment, and experienced 32% of arrests at school.

Still, a top department official said the frequency with which students were arrested at school was deeply concerning.

Reports of bullying and harassment related to a student’s race, sex, or disability also fell notably by 64% — echoing other research that found a drop in online searches related to school bullying during that time. However, Black students were still more than twice as likely as their peers to experience race-based bullying or harassment.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

‘Stop the shooting’: Inside the effort to protect students from neighborhood gun violence

2022-09-13T11:00:00+00:00

Cars streaked past Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele last month as he stood at the corner of a busy intersection across from a high school, baking under the midday sun.

Then he stepped off the curb and faced the oncoming traffic.

Desperation drove Akinyele to join the street protest, as it had many times before. A veteran teacher in Newark, New Jersey, Akinyele can name well over 40 former students who have been killed by guns. “One day you have a kid in your class,” he said, “and the next day he’s gone.”

Akinyele realized long ago that the only way to protect his students is to stop the shootings where they occur — not in his school, but in the neighborhoods around it. So he started attending rallies like the one in August, calling for an end to the shootings and the conditions that cause them.

“I have to do something outside of the classroom,” Akinyele recalled thinking. “I was losing too many students to the violence in the city.”

Over the course of his career, Newark teacher Bashir Muhammad Akinyele has lost over 40 students to gun violence.

At the start of this new school year, classrooms across the country were dotted with empty desks, a silent testament to summer gun violence. From June through the end of August, more than 600 fatal shootings were reported nationwide involving children under age 18 as either victims or suspects, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which relies on public records and news reports.

Almost all the shootings occurred away from schools, in homes and neighborhoods. And yet community violence is rarely seen as an education issue. Instead, voters and policymakers tend to focus disproportionately on school shootings, endorsing measures to “harden” schools with armed guards and metal detectors and turning school security into a $3 billion industry.

But out of the spotlight and with far less money, communities across the country are finding innovative ways to combat neighborhood violence.

From Oakland to Chicago and Philadelphia, city agencies and local nonprofits are partnering with the police to both prevent and respond to shootings. Often called community violence intervention, much of this work centers around young people, helping them process trauma and settle conflicts peacefully. Congress and the Biden administration recently expanded funding for such efforts, which are backed by a growing body of evidence.

With the new school year underway, this violence reduction work in communities — where shootings are far more common than in schools — will arguably do as much to protect students as ramped up school security, according to advocates and experts.

Akinyele understood this when he stood in the intersection last month disrupting traffic. He was joined by a crew of community members — parents, recent high school graduates, former gang members — who are paid to prevent violence in the neighborhoods where Akinyele’s students live, play, and go to school.

“Stop the shooting,” Akinyele said over a loudspeaker, the non-violence workers echoing his words. “Stop the killing.”

Most shootings happen outside schools, but learning still suffers

The nation’s epidemic of gun violence is especially lethal for young people.

After shootings surged at the start of the pandemic, 2020 became the first year in which gun violence was the leading cause of death for children and teens. Young Black men run the greatest risk of being fatally shot.

Even with the sharp rise in school shootings, the vast majority of gunfire erupts off campus. According to federal data from 1992 to 2019, less than 3% of youth homicides occurred on school grounds.

But while most shootings happen in communities, they reverberate inside schools. Exposure to violence is closely associated with trauma symptoms, including anxiety, disrupted sleep, and difficulty concentrating, and it can lead to lower grades and more absences.

“It literally gets under their skin and makes children more biologically stressed,” said Daniel Semenza, who directs research on interpersonal violence at Rutgers University’s New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.

One study found that students performed worse on reading tests after a murder occurred in their neighborhood, even if they didn’t witness it.

“No way somebody is going to be able to pull off the same level of cognitive performance,” Semenza added, “if they have that running through their minds.”

Starr Whiteside, a Newark 12th-grader, is constantly on alert for gunfire in her neighborhood.

Starr Whiteside has seen how the constant threat of gunfire can warp your world, shaping where you go, what you feel, and how you act.

“Young people my age, it makes us feel like we always got to be on guard,” said Whiteside, a 12th grader in Newark. “Even going to the corner store, we have to watch our back.”

She’s also watched violence in the community seep into schools. Last year, her school went into lockdown after a student brought a loaded gun into the building, apparently because he had been jumped outside of school.

“It’s like there’s no escape,” she said.

How Newark’s grassroots groups keep students safe

Newark has emerged as a national model of community violence intervention, thanks partly to pressure by advocates like Akinyele and the support of the city’s mayor, Ras Baraka.

A tight-knit network of local groups leads the anti-violence work, in partnership with the city. They help protect young people in two main ways: by addressing the underlying causes of violent behavior, and shielding students from violent acts.

A member of the Newark Community Street Team, Malachi Muhammad keeps watch over students outside of school.

The Newark Community Street Team does the latter through its Safe Passage program, which hires community members to patrol the routes students take to and from school. Trained in de-escalation, the staffers help defuse tensions between students while watching for external threats.

Last November, a Safe Passage worker was speaking with two students outside a Newark high school when a gunman exited a car and fired nearly a dozen rounds their way. The worker, Malachi Muhammad, a graduate of the high school, rushed the students to safety.

“I’m responsible for them,” he said last year.

The incident illustrates why such groups are essential to student safety: Violence in the community often follows students to school, and school conflicts often spill out into the community. In fact, the impetus for the Safe Passage program came partly from a Newark health department analysis that found neighborhood conflicts frequently originate in schools, said Aqeela Sherrills, who co-founded the Street Team.

“Schools are an extension of the community,” he said. “They’re not these siloed institutions.”

The small number of young people who commit violence usually have been victims themselves, so healing their wounds can help stop the cycle of harm.

To that end, the Street Team offers counseling and life-skills training to young people at risk of violence, while The HUBB Arts & Trauma Center, another Newark nonprofit, provides art therapy and mentoring. Newark’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery sends social workers into some high schools, and the city is paying for 40 students who have been affected by violence to attend college.

The efforts reflect the public health approach that is central to community violence intervention, with education, counseling, and support services used to treat rather than punish perpetrators.

“If you look at it as a sickness,” Baraka said, “then these people are obviously infected and we have to give them treatment.”

The HUBB specializes in such treatment, helping young people address the trauma that is both a symptom and source of violence. One of those young people is Tah’gee.

This spring, the 16-year-old left his Newark charter school after a disciplinary issue, was arrested, and spent a brief time in jail. Not long after, his cousin was gunned down.

The police referred Tah’gee to the HUBB, where Denisah Williamson took up his case. Williamson is what experts call a “credible messenger,” a mentor to troubled youth who has experienced many of the same challenges they have.

As a teenager growing up in Newark, she was sexually assaulted and expelled from school. Later she was arrested and stabbed.

Despite the violence she endured and the discrimination she faced as a Black woman growing up in a low-income community, she pressed on, eventually earning a master’s degree in social work.

“I had a bad childhood, but it didn’t define me,” said Williamson, who directs programs, data, and community relations at the HUBB and mentors students. “There’s no judgment here.”

Williamson convinced Tah’gee to start showing up at the HUBB’s community center, where young people study photography and video production, create podcasts, and record songs in a state-of-the-art studio. They also participate in a youth-led forum called My Thoughts Out Loud, freely discussing relationships, drugs, and whatever else is on their minds.

Tah’gee credits the HUBB for guiding him towards a new path in life.

During a workshop this summer meant to build trust between Newark residents and police and address collective trauma, Tah’gee shared a harrowing story. He said that he was walking with a friend when a crew of 10 or so young men approached and put a gun to his head, then attacked him after he fled.

“Yes, it should never have happened and it’s not normal,” he said, talking about the “crazy stuff” he’s experienced. “But to me it was normal.”

Over time, Williamson watched Tah’gee evolve. He learned to manage his emotions and check his impulses. He signed up for the violence prevention office’s summer work program and applied to Newark Street Academy, a city program that helps out-of-school youth earn GEDs.

Today, Tah’gee credits the HUBB with putting him on a new path.

“It messed up my life,” he said, “in a good way.”

The anti-violence movement gains momentum

Groups like the HUBB curb violence person by person, but evidence of their impact is more than anecdotal.

A number of studies have found that local anti-violence groups play a significant role in reducing shootings and improving public safety.

The Becoming a Man program, which offers weekly group counseling to young men in more than 140 schools nationwide, has been found to decrease arrests and increase graduation rates. Groups like Cure Violence and Advance Peace, which intervene in conflicts and support high-risk individuals, have been associated with fewer shootings. And Safe Passage programs have been shown to reduce crime along students’ routes to school.

The evidence base for such interventions “is now extremely strong,” said Patrick Sharkey, a sociology and public affairs professor at Princeton University, who found that local nonprofits contributed to the historic decline in violent crime that began in the 1990s.

“These organizations have tremendous capacity to create safe communities,” he said. “We just haven’t given them the commitment and the resources that we devote to institutions like law enforcement.”

That is beginning to change.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed into law this June, includes $250 million for community violence intervention. Biden has also urged local governments to use some of their federal stimulus money for violence prevention, and over $2 billion has already been earmarked for anti-violence groups, substance-abuse treatment, and mental health services, according to the White House.

The White House also convened 16 counties and cities, including Newark, to share their experiences with community violence intervention. Backed with philanthropic funding, the collaborative is also providing technical assistance to more than 50 grassroots anti-violence groups.

“We’re spreading this model to cities across the country,” said Sherrills, the former Newark Community Street Team leader whose new organization is training other groups through the White House initiative.

Newark is using stimulus funds and other sources to invest $19 million in violence intervention programs. The city’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery also ran a work program this summer that paid students — many of whom had been arrested or struggled in school — to intern at city agencies and nonprofits and take classes on conflict resolution, financial literacy, and other life skills.

“We’re teaching them how to integrate and be a part of something,” said Lakeesha Eure, the office’s director. “We’re teaching them how to belong to the city.”

Lakeesha Eure is the director for the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery in Newark.

Now that school is back in session, the city’s small army of anti-violence workers will continue doing what they can to keep students safe. They will keep a watchful eye as children walk to school, step in before teenage taunts escalate into shots fired, and help young people like Tah’gee envision a future — graduation, college, a good job — that does not involve violence.

Akinyele, the Newark teacher and peace activist, knows there will be setbacks.

Last month, he learned that another former student, 20-year-old Yasir Manley, had been fatally shot. Yet when Newark held its annual 24 Hours of Peace festival the weekend before school started, Akinyele still showed up.

He stood on stage facing a crowd of parents and teens, police officers and outreach workers. Knowing he needs their help to protect his students, he began his call-and-response.

“Stop the shooting,” he said, and the crowd repeated it back to him. “Stop the shooting.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

‘Unsafe, unwelcoming’: LGBTQ students report facing hostility at school

2022-10-25T11:00:00+00:00

Patricia Reeves and her husband have tried to make school safe for their child.

They pushed administrators at one school to stop students from bullying Milo, who is nonbinary, and withdrew Milo from a different school after a teacher refused to use the correct pronouns. Inside their West Texas home, the parents do their best to replenish their child’s self esteem and resilience — to “build up our little soldier,” as Reeves put it.

But try as they might, they can’t completely shield Milo from the difficulty, even the danger, of being different at school.

“As long as you’re a fierce mom, you can get out in front of it,” Reeves said. “But the damage is already done.”

The damage is extensive: Most LGBTQ students feel unsafe at school and struggle with mental health, according to two new reports based on large-scale student surveys.

Reported rates of depression, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts were far higher among LGBTQ students than their peers last school year, and highest among transgender and nonbinary youth, according to a survey of students in 20 states by the nonprofit YouthTruth. Released Monday, the survey also found that girls’ mental health is worse than boys’.

Another recent report helps explain LGBTQ students’ distress: The vast majority experienced harassment or assault during in-person school, and many heard school employees use homophobic language, according to a national survey of LGBTQ students conducted in 2021 and released this month by GLSEN, a group that promotes safe and inclusive schools.

“Most LGBTQ students are going to schools that are unsafe, unwelcoming, and not affirming,” said Caitlin Clark, a senior research associate at GLSEN who co-authored the report.

The reports highlight how the youth mental health crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic, has ravaged marginalized groups more than others. They also suggest that the national campaign to bolster young people’s mental health could fail LGBTQ students if it ignores the sources of their pain, including mistreatment at school and social stigmatization made worse, advocates say, by the recent surge in anti-LGBTQ laws.

In her support group for parents of gender-nonconforming children, Reeves hears about what happens when vulnerable young people are subjected to such hostility.

“Every single one of our little ones has some sort of mental health challenge,” she said, “because of not being fully accepted.”

Worse mental health outcomes for girls and LGBTQ students

Already on the decline for at least a decade, young people’s mental health spiraled downward during the pandemic so rapidly that medical groups declared a “national emergency.”

But warnings of a widespread crisis can obscure a consistent trend in the data: LGBTQ students and girls are struggling more than their peers.

More than 80% of high school students who identify as transgender or nonbinary and nearly 70% of girls cited depression, stress, or anxiety as obstacles to learning last school year, compared with 40% of boys who reported such struggles, according to the YouthTruth survey, which was taken by more than 220,000 students during the 2021-22 school year but is not nationally representative. And from elementary to high school, boys were more likely than girls and nonbinary students to report feeling happy.

The survey also showed that roughly a third of LGBTQ high school students had seriously considered attempting suicide over the past year — four times the share of non-LGBTQ students who said they had considered it.

Similar trends have emerged in surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the pandemic and over the preceding decade: High school students who are female or LGBTQ are the most likely to report poor mental health and suicidal thinking.

Those students “all were doing worse prior to the pandemic,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, which conducted a nationally representative student survey in 2021. “What we saw in this data was really a continuation of that.”

LGBTQ students find limited support at school

Tati Martínez Alvarez wishes their school had a club for LGBTQ students, “a place where we could come together without fearing judgment.”

But despite students’ demands for such a club, their small public high school in South Texas does not offer one, said Tati, who is in the 11th grade. Even though many students identify as LGBTQ, Tati said the school does little to acknowledge their community, much less embrace it.

“I don’t see that happening,” they said. “Maybe in like 20 years.”

Tati’s experience is the norm nationwide, according to the GLSEN survey, which polled more than 22,000 students in grades 6-12 who identify as LGBTQ. The students are based in all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C. and several U.S. territories.

Just 35% of respondents said their school had an active Gay Straight Alliance or similar club during the 2020-21 academic year. Less than 30% said their classes include any LGBTQ-related topics, and only 8% said their schools had policies supporting transgender and nonbinary students.

Instead of support, many LGBTQ students face hostility at school, according to the survey.

More than 80% of respondents who attended in-person school at some point in 2020-21 experienced harassment or assault based on personal characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender expression, or race or ethnicity. Nearly 60% of students reported hearing teachers or other school staff make homophobic remarks, and more than 70% heard staff make negative comments about gender expression.

Such intolerance is sadly common in schools, said Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, a pediatrician in Alabama who provides gender-affirming care to transgender young people.

“While some have faced bullying from students (which most don’t report for fear of reprisal or not being taken seriously), many experience intimidation and even straight up bullying from the adults in their school,” she wrote in an email, adding that the constant threat of mistreatment can lead to “anxiety, depression and academic underachievement.”

LGBTQ students who are victimized at school are more likely than their peers to be absent, earn low grades, and suffer from low self-esteem and depression, the GLSEN survey found.

“When you don’t see yourself represented” at school, Tati said, you “can feel very confused, very anxious, very depressed, because there’s nowhere to turn.”

Anti-LGBTQ laws add to anxiety

In many states, LGBTQ students cannot turn to elected officials for support.

Instead, some Republican politicians have sought to restrict the rights of LGBTQ students and prohibit school practices designed to support those students.

At least 18 states have passed laws barring transgender students from sports teams or school bathrooms that match their gender identity. Last month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration proposed new restrictions on transgender students, including a requirement that teachers use the pronouns associated with students’ sex assigned at birth rather than their preferred pronouns.

Other states have sought to limit classroom discussions about gender and sexuality, which is the focus of a new national bill that Congressional Republicans introduced last week. Meanwhile, some school districts have quietly removed books with LGBTQ content and ordered teachers to take down LGBTQ pride flags.

The new policies are making life harder for many students, advocates say.

In Alabama, which passed several anti-LGBTQ laws this year, Dr. Ladinsky said some of her transgender patients have stopped using the restroom during the school day because of restrictions on which facilities they can use. She also heard from teachers who disbanded their LGBTQ clubs, presumably due to pressure from administrators. (In April, Dr. Ladinsky joined a legal challenge against a new Alabama law that would criminalize gender-affirming medical care for minors. A judge has temporarily stopped the law from taking effect.)

Some students see efforts to restrict LGBTQ rights as a personal attack, said Tati, the Texas high schooler.

“It just spreads the message that they genuinely don’t see you as a person,” they said. “They just see you as something that they need to get rid of.”

Protecting LGBTQ students

The new reports show the urgent need to make schools safer for LGBTQ students, advocates said.

Schools can establish LGBTQ clubs, enforce anti-bullying policies that explicitly protect LGBTQ students, provide staff training on inclusive practices, and give transgender students access to facilities that match their gender identity, experts said, though laws in some states might restrict such policies.

Kathleen Ethier, the CDC official, said policies that make schools more welcoming for LGBTQ students have been shown to also benefit their peers.

“Something about creating an inclusive school” and removing “anti-LGBTQ toxicity,” she said, “makes the school better for everyone.”

There are many ways to make schools safer and improve students’ mental health, said Tati, who has championed the issue as a youth advisor to the Intercultural Development Research Association, a Texas-based nonprofit that promotes educational equity. The challenge is convincing adults to take action.

“People don’t realize that the culture isn’t going to change,” Tati said, “unless everyone makes an effort.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

Vouchers, school safety, retention: Key education issues to watch as Tennessee lawmakers return

2024-01-08T11:00:00+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free Tennessee newsletter to keep up with state education policy and the Shelby County public school system.

Five years after a bruising legislative battle opened the door to private school vouchers in parts of Tennessee, lawmakers are preparing to take up a controversial bill to create a similar program statewide.

Gov. Bill Lee’s universal voucher proposal, which eventually would make all K-12 students eligible to use public funding to attend a private or home school, is expected to dominate debate after the 113th General Assembly reconvenes on Tuesday.

But other issues affecting students and educators are sure to emerge in a state where education reform has been front and center since 2010, when Tennessee won $500 million in the federal Race to the Top competition to jumpstart changes.

And if the last few years are any indication, a few surprises may surface in the months ahead. Politics and tragedy have shaken up the education priorities of several recent sessions, from an 11th-hour Republican drive in 2021 to restrict classroom discussions about racism and bias to last year’s deadly Nashville school shooting that led to new investments in campus safety and dramatic protests over Tennessee’s lax gun laws.

With the GOP supermajority setting the agenda again this year, here’s a look at some big issues to watch as the opening gavel falls.

School vouchers: Lee’s expansion plan renews long-running debate

In November, the governor said he’ll introduce a new Education Freedom Scholarship Act to offer $7,075 in taxpayer money for each of up to 20,000 students statewide next school year to attend a private or home school, with eligibility restrictions for half of them. In 2025, eligibility would open up to all students, regardless of their family’s income.

The proposal would mark a massive expansion of Tennessee’s voucher program, which is now limited to three urban counties and still under-enrolled. But more than a month after Lee’s announcement, few details have been released.

“I have yet to understand where the financing is coming from,” said Sen. Page Walley, a Republican whose district includes eight rural counties in West Tennessee.

“If we jump to statewide vouchers, I don’t see how we fund it without robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he added.

School safety: Renewed discussion, but no gun laws (it’s an election year)

Tennesseans were unnerved when an armed intruder shot and killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on March 27, in the middle of last year’s legislative session. And the growing impact of gun violence on kids across the state is undeniable.

But Republican lawmakers’ response last year was to further harden schools rather than entertain any proposals to restrict gun access — not even for people who are deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others, as the Nashville shooter had been.

“We’ll be back in January,” parents wanting stricter gun laws vowed in August after a special session on public safety yielded little action on guns.

Spectators watch the Tennessee Senate doing business at the State Capitol during a special legislative session on public safety in August 2023. Lawmakers were called back by Gov. Bill Lee after a mass school shooting in Nashville in March.

Some of them have organized news conferences and rallies at the Capitol this week for students, educators, and others to voice their concerns. Meanwhile, a group of parents from The Covenant School in Nashville, where the tragedy took place, say they’ll continue to advocate for changes to “ensure responsible firearm ownership, safe schools, and accessible adequate mental health care for all individuals across Tennessee.”

GOP leaders anticipate the legislature will revisit many of the proposals left on the table.

They include several measures to let certain citizens or school employees carry handguns in schools, and a bill to require all public and private schools to create alarm policies that differentiate emergencies for fire, weather, or an active shooter.

A new bill, from Republican Sen. Mark Pody of Lebanon and Rep. Susan Lynn of Mount Juliet, would let schools purchase lanyards equipped with emergency alert buttons for school staff to wear around their necks.

But don’t expect the legislature to look seriously at bills to restrict gun access in an election year, according to several key Republicans.

“I do not believe there’s an appetite or pathway to success for any legislation that might be introduced that is going to infringe on constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, of Franklin.

With the latest State of the Child report ranking Tennessee near the bottom nationally for access to mental health resources, Johnson sees more room for discussion on that topic.

“I think a big conversation in the coming session will be how we strengthen our mental health safety net,” Johnson said, “as well as general access to mental health treatment in Tennessee.”

Third-grade reading law: Lawmakers may revisit retention provision — again

Last year, the legislature widened the criteria, beginning this school year, for determining which third graders are at risk of being held back if they aren’t deemed proficient readers under a 2021 law targeting pandemic learning lag.

Now under the same law, the state may have to retain thousands of fourth graders who test poorly this spring.

“I think we have to look into it,” said Rep. Mark White of Memphis, who chairs a House education committee. “We’ve probably got a lot of fourth graders who have already done summer school and tutoring but still won’t pass that test. It’s never a bad thing to have off-ramps and waivers.”

He added: “I want us to continue looking closer at kindergarten, first, and second grades so we’re not waiting until the third and fourth grades to address these challenges.”

But Sen. Jon Lundberg, who chairs his chamber’s education panel, is less inclined to make more changes in the 2021 law.

“We’ve set the standard for proficiency and for showing adequate growth, and I don’t want to move those,” he said.

Federal education funding: Talk about rejecting it looks like just talk, for now

House Speaker Cameron Sexton surprised many in his own party last year when he floated the idea of Tennessee rejecting more than a billion dollars in federal funding for students, which he said could be offset with state tax revenues.

In November, a task force appointed by Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally held hearings to explore the possibility. But Lundberg, the panel’s co-chairman, told Chalkbeat afterward that he didn’t expect the state to reject federal funds, even if it can find a way.

Legislative leaders polled by Chalkbeat last week said they haven’t heard of any legislation coming out of the hearings.

“It doesn’t hurt to know where our funding is coming from and how it’s being spent,” said White, the House’s education leader, said of the task force’s discussions, “but I don’t see that conversation going anywhere in the short term.”

Teacher shortages: Vacancies could lead to creative thinking

With Sexton declaring that Tennessee has enough state revenues to cover more than $1 billion in federal funding, plenty of public school advocates asked why the state wouldn’t use that excess instead to accelerate the governor’s plan to raise the minimum salary for teachers to $50,000 by 2027. (This year, the base is $42,000.)

Districts struggled to fill nearly 4,000 vacancies statewide last school year, especially in the middle grades, English as a second language, world languages, and special education, according to one report. And shortages of school bus drivers are a nationwide problem.

Lee told reporters that, while state revenues have flattened in recent months, Tennessee’s economy remains strong.

Gov. Bill Lee speaks with reporters on Thursday after a tour of a Nashville ministry. “We should probably look at our investments in public school funding and investments in teacher pay every year,” he said when asked about the prospect of accelerating pay increases.

“We should probably look at our investments in public school funding and investments in teacher pay every year,” he said when asked about the prospect of accelerating pay increases.

But with the teaching profession facing a post-pandemic crisis in Tennessee and nationally, the legislature could also pursue other avenues to elevate the profession.

Currently, the state covers less than half of health insurance premiums for its teachers, while state employees get 100% of their premiums covered. Moving teachers to the state employee plan could be a boost to both teachers and the local districts that employ them.

Professional Educators of Tennessee has also called on the legislature to develop policies to address child care access and affordability for teachers, more than 80% of whom are female.

“If you want to keep good teachers,” said Executive Director JC Bowman, “ease their burdens so they can focus on their work in school to educate and nurture our future generation.”

To follow this year’s legislative business, visit the General Assembly’s website for calendars, committees, legislation, and livestreams.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Los estudiantes de Denver buscan soluciones a la violencia con armas de fuego

2023-03-21T20:00:00+00:00

Una semana después de que cientos de estudiantes de la secundaria East High School de Denver marcharan hasta el Capitolio del Estado en protesta por la muerte a tiros de su compañero de clase, un grupo más pequeño asistió a una cumbre organizada por estudiantes para pedirles soluciones a la violencia con armas de fuego a los funcionarios locales.

“No deberíamos tener que estar aquí”, le dijo a la multitud la estudiante de décimo grado Gracie Taub, miembro del club East Students Demand Action. “Luis debería estar aquí”.

Luis García, jugador de fútbol de 16 años y estudiante de la secundaria East High, fue balaceado a las puertas de la escuela el 13 de febrero y murió a consecuencia de las heridas dos semanas y media después. El Superintendente de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, Alex Marrero, dijo en la cumbre que el incidente no fue el primer caso de violencia con armas de fuego en y alrededor de las escuelas de Denver este año escolar, y tampoco el último.

“No ocurre porque nuestros pasillos son amenazantes”, dijo Marrero. “No ocurre porque nuestros maestros son monstruos. No está ocurriendo en nuestras escuelas. Es lo que está ocurriendo en nuestra comunidad”.

Los 14 panelistas, entre los que también se encontraban dos miembros del consejo de la Ciudad de Denver, dos legisladores estatales, tres médicos, tres expertos en prevención de la violencia, la directora de la secundaria East High, Terita Walker, y el jefe de policía de Denver, Ron Thomas, coincidieron en que limitar el acceso de los adolescentes a las armas debe ser parte de la solución. Los padres y familiares deben mantener las armas bajo llave en casa, dijeron.

El senador estatal Chris Hansen y el representante estatal Alex Valdez, ambos Demócratas de Denver, se refirieron a otros proyectos de ley que los legisladores de Colorado están considerando este año, los cuales incluyen uno para requerir un período de espera de tres días para comprar un arma de fuego, otro para aumentar la edad para comprar un arma de 18 a 21 años, y otro para añadir a los maestros a la lista de personas que pueden pedir que a alguien se les prohíba ser dueño de un arma de fuego.

Pero los panelistas también coincidieron en que se necesitará algo más que leyes para frenar la violencia con armas de fuego entre los niños y adolescentes.

“La violencia siempre va a existir”, dijo Felicia Rodríguez, gerente del programa de prevención de la violencia juvenil de la Oficina de Asuntos de la Infancia de la ciudad. “Creo que lo más importante que todos han estado expresando aquí esta tarde es la importancia de establecer relaciones sanas y positivas con los niños y adolescentes. Ese es el impacto, desde el punto de vista de los adultos, en el que tenemos que enfocarnos”.

Johnathan McMillan, director de la Oficina de Prevención de la Violencia con Armas de Fuego de Colorado, dijo que los niños y adolescentes que cuentan con un adulto de confianza en su vida, “ya sea un oficial de la ley, un maestro, un consejero, un director, un miembro de la comunidad”, tienen menos probabilidades de verse afectados por la violencia.

La Junta Escolar de Denver votó en 2020 para eliminar a los oficiales de policía de las escuelas de Denver. La secundaria East High era una de las 18 escuelas que tenían un oficial armado en ese momento. Cuando se les preguntó si la policía debería volver a tener una mayor presencia en las escuelas de Denver, tanto el Superintendente como el Jefe de Policía dijeron que la respuesta la deben dar los estudiantes.

“Si los niños y adolescentes que van a estas escuelas y sus padres sienten que la solución para tener escuelas más seguras es tener oficiales en esas escuelas, entonces ciertamente eso es algo que cumpliré, y claro, con la dirección de la Junta Escolar”, dijo el Jefe Thomas.

“Pero no creo que la policía sea la única solución”.

El Dr. Joseph Simonetti, médico e investigador de la Universidad de Colorado que se dedica a la prevención de lesiones por armas de fuego, dijo que la presencia de la policía en el campus puede provocar un aumento de las detenciones y multas a estudiantes. Antes de eliminar los policías de las escuelas, conocidos como school resource officers (o SRO), los datos mostraban que los estudiantes negros en Denver eran desproporcionadamente multados y arrestados. Desde que se retiraron los SRO de las escuelas, los datos muestran que menos estudiantes de Denver han sido referidos a la policía.

Los panelistas también pidieron más inversión en servicios de salud mental para los niños y adolescentes. El Dr. Steven Federico, pediatra que trabaja como jefe de asuntos gubernamentales y comunitarios de Denver Health, dijo que, aunque el número de clínicas de Denver Health dentro de las escuelas ha crecido con los años, la necesidad de servicios de salud mental es “insaciable.”

“Es el servicio que más piden nuestros equipos clínicos”, dijo. “Hay que financiarlo mejor. Y necesita más personal”.

No importa cuáles sean las soluciones, la directora Walker dijo que se necesitan lo antes posible.

“Lo que yo sueño es que los niños que estoy viendo ahora y los que están haciendo este trabajo vean respuesta inmediata para que puedan beneficiarse y sentir los efectos del trabajo que están haciendo”, dijo. “No queremos que otro niño se vea afectado”

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Más escuelas tienen el medicamento para revertir sobredosis, pero otras se preocupan por el estigma

2023-10-03T22:41:16+00:00

Read in English.

El año pasado, una estudiante se desmayó al salir de uno de los baños de Central High School en Pueblo, Colorado. Cuando Jessica Foster, la enfermera supervisora del distrito escolar, oyó a los angustiados amigos de la joven mencionar drogas, supo que tenía que actuar con rapidez.

Los socorristas estaban a solo cuatro minutos de distancia. “Pero aún así, cuatro minutos, si no están respirando en absoluto, son cuatro minutos demasiado largos”, dijo Foster.

Foster contó que consiguió una dosis de naloxona, un medicamento que puede revertir rápidamente una sobredosis de opioides, y se la administró a la estudiante. La niña revivió.

A 45 millas de distancia, en Colorado Springs, los funcionarios de Mitchell High School no tenían naloxona a mano cuando un estudiante de 15 años sufrió una sobredosis en clase, en diciembre de 2021, tras inhalar una pastilla de fentanilo en un baño de la escuela. Ese estudiante murió.

Desde entonces, el distrito escolar de Colorado Springs se ha unido a Pueblo y a docenas de otros distritos en el estado para suministrar a las escuelas intermedias y secundarias la medicación que salva vidas, a menudo conocida como Narcan, uno de sus nombres comerciales. Desde la promulgación de una ley estatal en 2019, Colorado cuenta con un programa que permite a las escuelas obtener el medicamento, normalmente en forma de aerosol nasal, de forma gratuita o a un costo reducido.

Sin embargo, no todas las escuelas están de acuerdo con esta idea. Aunque más distritos se han unido desde el año pasado, sólo alrededor de un tercio de los distritos de Colorado se habían inscrito en el programa de distribución estatal al inicio de este año escolar. Y en la docena de condados con las tasas de mortalidad por sobredosis de drogas más altas del estado, muchos distritos escolares no se habían inscrito debido al persistente estigma en torno a la necesidad de tener una medicación para revertir sobredosis.

La Administración de Salud Mental y Abuso de Sustancias federal (SAMHSA, por sus siglas en inglés) recomienda que las escuelas, incluidas las primarias, tengan naloxona disponible, ante el aumento de las sobredosis mortales de opioides, especialmente de la potente droga fentanilo. Y 33 estados tienen leyes que permiten expresamente a los centros escolares o a sus empleados llevar, almacenar o administrar naloxona, según Jon Woodruff, abogado director de la Legislative Analysis and public Policy Association (LAPPA), que realiza un seguimiento de las políticas sobre naloxona en todo el país.

Entre ellos, alrededor de nueve requieren que al menos algunos centros de enseñanza primaria y secundaria, de kinder a doceavo grado (K-12) almacenen naloxona en el lugar, incluido Illinois, cuya norma entrará en vigencia en enero. Algunos estados, como Maine, también requieren que las escuelas públicas ofrezcan formación a los estudiantes sobre cómo administrar naloxona en forma de aerosol nasal.

Rhode Island exige que todos los centros K-12, tanto públicos como privados, dispongan de naloxona. Joseph Wendelken, vocero del Departamento de Salud de Rhode Island, dijo que en los últimos cuatro años se administró naloxona nueve veces a jóvenes de 10 a 18 años en establecimientos educativos.

A principios de septiembre, el medicamento también empezó a venderse sin receta en todo el país, aunque el precio de $45 por envase de dos dosis preocupa a algunos especialistas en adicciones, que temen que esté fuera del alcance de quienes más lo necesitan.

Pero el medicamento todavía no está tan generalizado públicamente como los desfibriladores externos automáticos o los extintores de incendios. Kate King, presidenta de la National Associaction of School Nurses, afirmó que la reticencia a tenerlo en las escuelas puede deberse a que los funcionarios se resisten a prestar un servicio médico, o al costo que supone reabastecerse de naloxona y formar al personal para que la utilice. Pero el principal obstáculo que ha escuchado es que los centros temen ser estigmatizados como una “mala escuela” que tiene un problema de drogas, o como una escuela que tolera las malas decisiones.

“Los distritos escolares son muy cuidadosos con su imagen”, señaló Yunuen Cisneros, directora de inclusión y alcance comunitario de la Public Education & Business Coalition, que sirve a la mayoría de los distritos escolares del estado. “Muchos de ellos no quieren sumarse a este programa, porque aceptarlo es aceptar un problema de drogadicción”.

Esa es la forma equivocada de verlo, dijo King. “Hay que equipararlo a nuestro stock de albuterol para los ataques de asma, o a nuestro stock de epinefrina para el shock anafiláctico (reacción alérgica grave)”, apuntó.

Enfermera supervisora, Jessica Foster, del Distrito Escolar 60 en Pueblo, muestra paquetes de Narcan y Klaxxado. Foster ha presionado para que almacenar Narcan en todas las escuelas del distrito.

Funcionarios de salud de Colorado no pudieron precisar con qué frecuencia se había utilizado la naloxona en los centros escolares del estado. En lo que va de año, al menos 15 jóvenes de entre 10 y 18 años han muerto por sobredosis de fentanilo, pero no necesariamente en las escuelas. Y en 2022 murieron 34 en ese grupo de edad, según el Departamento de Salud Pública y Medio Ambiente del estado. Una de las víctimas fue José Hernández, de 13 años, quien murió en su casa, en agosto de 2022, por una sobredosis de fentanilo, pocos días después de comenzar el octavo grado en Aurora Hills Middle School. Su abuela encontró su cuerpo una madrugada, sobre el lavabo del baño.

Con la llegada de este nuevo año escolar, más escuelas de Colorado tienen suministros de naloxona disponibles para los estudiantes. El año pasado, los legisladores estatales asignaron $19,7 millones en ayuda federal al Naloxone Bulk Purchase Fund, un fondo al que pueden acceder, entre otros, distritos escolares, cárceles, socorristas y organizaciones de servicios comunitarios.

“Es la mayor cantidad que hemos tenido”, señaló Andrés Guerrero, gerente del programa de prevención de sobredosis del departamento de salud del estado.

Según datos facilitados por el departamento de salud de Colorado, 65 distritos escolares estaban inscritos en el programa estatal para recibir naloxona a bajo precio o gratis al inicio del curso escolar. Otros 16 se habían puesto en contacto con el estado para solicitar información, pero a mediados de agosto aún no habían finalizado los pedidos. Los 97 distritos escolares restantes no disponían de naloxona en sus centros o la habían adquirido en otros lugares.

Guerrero explicó que los distritos deciden a quién capacitar para administrar el medicamento. “En algunos casos, son sólo las enfermeras escolares. En otros, son las enfermeras escolares y los profesores”, dijo. “Y, a veces, también los estudiantes”.

En Durango High School, la muerte en 2021 de un estudiante de secundaria impulsó a los alumnos a reclamar el derecho a llevar naloxona al colegio con permiso de los padres —y a administrarla en caso necesario— sin temor a ser castigados.

Hizo falta organizar una protesta durante una reunión del consejo escolar para conseguir el permiso, contó Hays Stritikus, que se graduó esta primavera de Durango. Ahora participa en la redacción de una ley que permitiría expresamente a los estudiantes de todo el estado llevar y distribuir Narcan en los centros escolares.

“El objetivo es un mundo en el que el Narcan no sea necesario”, comentó. “Pero lamentablemente no es en donde vivimos”.

Algunos expertos en salud no están de acuerdo en que todas las escuelas deban almacenar naloxona. Lauren Cipriano, economista de la salud de la Western University en Canadá, ha estudiado la efectividad de la naloxona en los centros de secundaria de ese país. Aunque se han producido intoxicaciones por opioides en escuelas, dijo, las secundarias suelen ser entornos de muy bajo riesgo.

En 2021, un estudiante de Mitchell High School en Colorado Springs, Colorado, sufrió una sobredosis en clase luego de inhalar una pastilla de fentanilo en un baño de la escuela.

Las estrategias más eficaces para combatir la epidemia de opioides son los centros de intercambio de agujas, los lugares de consumo supervisado de drogas y el tratamiento asistido con medicación que reduce el síndrome de abstinencia o atenúa el “viaje”, agregó Cipriano. Pero estos métodos pueden resultar caros en comparación con la distribución de naloxona.

“Cuando el estado crea un gran programa gratuito como éste, parece que está haciendo algo respecto a la epidemia de opioides”, señaló. “Es barato y parece que estás haciendo algo, y eso es oro en política”.

Las escuelas públicas de Denver, el mayor distrito escolar de Colorado, comenzaron a almacenar naloxona en 2022, indicó Jade Williamson, gerente del programa de escuelas saludables del distrito.

“Sabemos que algunos de los estudiantes están a la vanguardia de estos temas antes que las generaciones mayores”, afirmó Williamson. “Saber dónde encontrarlo, y acceder al medicamento cuando sea necesario a través de estos adultos que se han preparado, ya sea una enfermera de la escuela o un administrador, creo que les proporciona una cierta sensación de alivio”.

Los siete distritos más grandes del estado, con más de 25,000 estudiantes cada uno, participan en el programa estatal. En cambio, según un análisis de KFF Health News, sólo el 21% de los distritos con hasta 1,200 alumnos se han inscrito en el programa, a pesar que muchos de esos pequeños distritos se encuentran en zonas con tasas de mortalidad por sobredosis de drogas superiores al promedio estatal.

Algunos distritos escolares han encontrado una forma de obtener naloxona al margen del programa estatal. Esto incluye el Distrito Escolar 60 de Pueblo, donde la enfermera supervisora Foster administró naloxona a una estudiante el año pasado.

El distrito escolar de Pueblo obtiene la naloxona gratis de una organización local sin fines de lucro llamada Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association. Foster dijo que intentó inscribirse en el programa estatal, pero encontró dificultades. Así que decidió seguir con lo que ya funcionaba.

Jessica Foster, enfermera supervisora para el Distrito Escolar de Pueblo, en Colorado, posa en Central High School. El año pasado, Foster administró Narcan a una estudiante que se desmayó fuera de uno de los baños de la escuela.

El distrito escolar RE-1 del condado de Moffat, en Craig, Colorado, obtiene la naloxona de un centro local de tratamiento de adicciones, según Myranda Lyons, enfermera del distrito. Lyons contó que capacita al personal de la escuela sobre cómo administrarla cuando les enseña RCP (reanimación cardiopulmonar).

Christopher deKay, superintendente del Distrito Escolar Ignacio 11Jt, dijo que su personal de recursos escolares ya llevan naloxona, pero que el distrito también se inscribió en el programa estatal, para que las escuelas puedan almacenar el medicamento en la enfermería en caso de que el personal de recursos no se encuentre cerca.

“Es como todo, como capacitar en seguridad contra incendios. Nunca sabes lo que va a pasar en tu escuela”, señaló deKay. “Si ocurre lo impensable, queremos ser capaces de responder de la mejor manera posible”.

Esta historia se produjo con la colaboración de El Comercio de Colorado.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Thousands of NYC school staffers aren’t enrolled in a pension. A new law could change that.

2023-12-13T21:35:58+00:00

A quirk in New York City’s pension system has for years kept tens of thousands of the city’s lowest-paid employees from reaping the benefits of a city-subsidized retirement, according to pension fund and union officials.

New York City’s Board of Education Retirement System, or BERS, which covers school crossing guards, cafeteria workers, aides, parent coordinators, and other non-teaching school staff, stands alone among the city’s five pension funds in not automatically enrolling eligible members in a pension plan.

Many workers don’t know they have the option of signing up for a pension, or simply assume they were automatically enrolled, said Sanford Rich, the executive director of BERS. As a result, roughly 35,000 employees eligible for a pension are not enrolled, according to BERS data.

But new legislation signed over the weekend by Gov. Kathy Hochul is poised to change that system.

The law, sponsored by Queens Assemblywoman Stacy Pfeffer Amato, D-Queens, and Sen. Robert Jackson, D-Manhattan, will make enrollment in the BERS pension system “opt-out,” rather than “opt-in,” for the first time.

“I personally believe this corrects an injustice in the city,” Rich said.

Rich said he’s had to break the news to city workers who retired after decades of service and thought they were on track to receive pension benefits that “‘you never joined, you don’t have a retirement package, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’”

One woman was so distraught that he had to sit with her for hours so she could work up the courage to go home and tell her husband, he said.

But starting July 1 of next year, under the new law, all of the eligible but unenrolled members will be signed up automatically for a pension plan. They’ll have 90 days to opt out. If they hadn’t previously been paying into the pension, they have the option of purchasing previous years of service by paying greater installments.

Officials at DC37 Local 372, the union representing the affected workers, have pushed for years for state legislation to make enrollment in the Board of Education Retirement System automatic and bring it in line with the city’s other pension funds. But previous legislative efforts were met with vetoes from the governor, including one from Hochul in 2022.

A tragedy this year that sparked a new wave of advocacy may have helped turn the tide.

In October, Krystyna Naprawa, a beloved elementary school crossing guard, was struck and killed by a truck while on the job in Queens. The tragedy drew the attention of officials across the city, including Mayor Eric Adams, who called Naprawa “the best of us,” and delivered a eulogy at her funeral.

After Naprawa’s death, her son Tomasz Naprawa, a Port Authority police officer, went to collect the pension he assumed she’d been paying into, only to discover she wasn’t enrolled.

Tomasz Naprawa said it’s extremely unlikely his mom would have knowingly opted out of a pension, especially since she was planning to retire in her native Poland.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy,’” he recalled of the discovery that she wasn’t enrolled. “I honestly thought it was automatic.”

Tomasz Naprawa worked with officials at DC37 to bring renewed attention to the pension loophole and legislation to close it.

At Krystyna Naprawa’s funeral, Adams publicly committed to “sit down with the leaders of the Senate and Assembly to see how we can resolve” the pension issue.

But the battle didn’t end there. According to union officials, Adams administration officials initially objected to the bill on financial grounds. City officials say they’re facing a grim fiscal situation and have enacted cuts across all agencies – cuts DC37 recently filed a lawsuit to try to halt. An Adams spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The city will likely have to chip in between $17 million and $22 million extra a year in employer contributions for the new enrollees, according to an analysis by the chief actuary of the city’s pension funds.

When the legislation stalled in the governor’s office, Tomasz Naprawa and union officials renewed their push. Naprawa penned a Nov. 15 letter to Adams urging him to follow through on his commitment and support the bill.

The years of advocacy finally paid off last weekend. Adams administration officials rescinded their objection, and Hochul signed the bill on Dec. 8, union officials said.

“This was long overdue,” said DC37 Local 372 President Shaun Francois in a statement. “Persistence” overcame the “resistance,” he added.

The change is too late to benefit Tomasz Naprawa, but he thinks his mom would’ve been happy to know the advocacy she helped inspire will improve the lives of her colleagues.

“Me and my sister are getting none of these benefits … but going forward it’s nice to know if there’s another tragedy five,10,15 years from now that family will reap all the benefits they’re entitled to,” he said. “I think she’s looking down on us and she’s happy.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Denver partnership aims to expand mental health services, address youth violence

2023-07-06T23:09:55+00:00

To address youth violence, eight Denver schools would get an additional staffer focused on student behavior next school year, under a proposed city council ordinance.

The proposed pilot program also would add a mobile team going from school to school, addressing mental health needs, supporting behavioral health and providing referrals.

Denver has seen high rates of youth violence over the last five years.

A plan published in 2020 noted measures that the community could take to reduce violence. But with the onset of the COVID pandemic, no action resulted.

Meanwhile, campus closures eroded many of the routines that helped teenagers stay on track. Educators report that students still are missing more school and are less engaged even when they are in class.

Earlier this year, the city produced a new plan. Among other things, it recommended improving access to mental health support in the community, including in schools.

If the city council passes the ordinance this month, the program would launch next month. The health specialist positions also are intended to serve as a career pathway for people in marginalized communities to enter the behavioral health workforce.

The bill proposes to fund the school positions and mobile services with about $860,000 in federal COVID relief funds. The idea is to shift from responding to violence and instead preventing it, said June Marcel, a Denver Public Schools strategy officer.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we could prevent the tragedies from happening in the first place?” she said.

In designing and offering the program, the city will collaborate with Denver Public Schools and community organizations.

School officials said they chose three campuses with two programs each, one a comprehensive high school and the other focusing on careers or serving older students. They are North High School and the North Engagement Center, Abraham Lincoln High School and Respect Academy, and George Washington High School and DELTA High School. They also chose two middle schools, West and Lake.

The new behavioral staffers, dubbed “community navigators,” are intended to help encourage attendance, assess students’ needs, and connect families with city and community resources. The pandemic compounded many problems like chronic absenteeism, disengagement, academic struggle and financial insecurity.

Navigators may work both on campus and in the community. Officials hope to fill those jobs with people interested in behavioral health who may have a shared cultural experience with students and are bilingual.

Schools already have counselors, and some have attendance specialists, but none have health staff specifically tasked with preventing youth violence, Marcel said.

The pilot project is intended to meet some of the needs identified in the Behavioral Health Needs Assessment that the city conducted last year and this year’s youth violence prevention plan.

Last year’s survey found that many people who need behavioral health services have a hard time finding help, with cost, transportation, and lack of convenient appointments all playing a role. Teenagers reported having an especially hard time getting in-person therapy — one of the problems the new partnership aims to address.

“One of the factors (of an increase in youth violence) is mental health and feelings of wellness related to the students, youth and family. If we can get a better handle on what’s underneath the behavior, what’s driving the behavior, if we can connect with the students in a way that feels right to them, we’re more likely to get a more accurate understanding of what’s going on to help,” said Nachshon Zohari, program manager for community engagement at the city’s department of public health and environment.

The mobile units would provide more mental and behavioral health services and resources at community events and when and where there might be a need. The fleet includes smaller versions of the city’s “Wellness Winnie” housed in a large RV. The so-called Mini Winnies will rotate on a schedule among schools.

With the pilot program, school officials said they will be able to identify the resources and needs of schools if the program is funded beyond the first year.

The pilot program will run from Aug. 1 to July 31, 2024.

Sara Martin is an intern with Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Sara at smartin@chalkbeat.org

Detroit district fires Moses Field principal accused of covering up abuse allegations

2023-11-15T23:35:18+00:00

The Detroit school board fired the principal of Moses Field Center after the district found that he failed to properly investigate and report incidents of alleged abuse at the school for students with special education needs.

Derrick Graves, a longtime Detroit Public Schools Community District employee, lied about his failure to report the incidents to authorities and provided contradictory statements about when he learned of the abuse allegations, according to a district investigation report.

Graves was one of three district employees fired during Tuesday’s school board meeting. The only board member to oppose his termination was Sherry Gay-Dagnogo.

The others fired were a Thurgood Marshall Elementary-Middle School paraprofessional, identified in board documents by the initials “DC,” who allegedly brought a loaded gun onto district grounds; and Northwestern High School security guard Antar Otis, who was accused of assaulting a student.

A seventh-grade teacher at Ronald Brown Academy, identified only by the initials “RL,” accused of being verbally and physically abusive to students, was suspended for 30 days without pay.

Graves is the second Moses Field employee fired by the district over the abuse allegations, which surfaced earlier this year and have led to a lawsuit against the district.

Felicia Perkins, a paraprofessional, was fired in June and arraigned in Wayne County Court in May on charges of fourth-degree child abuse, and assault and battery. She is accused of leading a 12-year-old boy “by his neck to the main office,” where she “swatted” him and “snatched an item from his hand,” according to a district report.

Days later, the report said, she swatted another student, “aggressively pulling the arm and chair (of the student) in response to him holding a shoe in her direction.”

Another Moses Field paraprofessional was also investigated for alleged abuse, but a review by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office found insufficient evidence to bring charges in that case.

Dash Sadiku, a Detroit Federation of Teachers building representative and physical education teacher at Moses Field, spoke in support of Graves at the board meeting, with five staff members surrounding her. She asked that Graves be reinstated, saying he is an exceptional leader who has served the district for 27 years. Sadiku mentioned the Moses Field parents who have filed a lawsuit against DPSCD alleging that it covered up acts of child abuse.

“They have not only tarnished the reputation of our staff and the legacy of our school, but are now threatening our careers and our livelihoods,” Sadiku said. “We, the collective staff at Moses Field, have sought support from the senior DPSCD administration on numerous occasions throughout the year, pleading for intervention and resolution to the accusations and threats we faced. Instead of protecting us from harassment, today we find ourselves without our trusted leader, Mr. Graves, who has been unfairly targeted.”

Ronald Brown Academy teacher admitted assaulting student

The school board suspended teacher “RL” at Ronald Brown Academy after Principal Deanna Hunt and Dean of Culture LaMar Tyler received complaints from his students in February, saying that the teacher was fat-shaming them and making comments about their genitalia. In addition, 45 students submitted written statements alleging RL made inappropriate comments like, “Your (expletive) is too big to be doing certain things,” the class is “ugly and won’t be nothing,” and that the class was “slow.”

In March, DPSCD claims a physical incident occurred, with RL grabbing, hitting, and pushing a student.

Three parents, including the parent of the child who was allegedly hit, submitted written complaints, saying RL was rude, immature, and disrespectful in meetings they had with him to discuss their children.

During RL’s investigatory interview, he admitted to grabbing and hitting the male student, saying that was the only student he assaulted. The teacher also admitted that he regularly used inappropriate language when engaging with students, although he denied that he called the class stupid. After the investigatory interview, RL provided a written statement apologizing for his conduct, saying he “made a mistake” and it “would not happen again.”

Thurgood Marshall educator brought weapon on district property

According to the district report, “DC” from Thurgood Marshall admitted to having a loaded firearm on district property. The firearm had 15 rounds, including one round in the chamber, as well as an additional magazine loaded with 12 live rounds. DC said she was carrying the gun unknowingly and brought it on district property by accident. She also failed to report the incident to the school administration before it was discovered.

Confrontation escalated at Northwestern

The action against Otis, the security guard, involved an Oct. 4 confrontation with a 17-year-old Northwestern student that escalated in the hallway. In a video of the incident, the student is seen struggling as Otis pinned him to the floor.

During a news conference last month, the student, who asked to not be identified, said he had a brief confrontation with the security guard in September over wearing a hoodie in school. He said that he believed the situation was resolved after a fist bump, but that it escalated after the guard made threatening comments.

According to the district report, Otis had his arm around the back of the teen’s neck and his arm in a hold, even when Dean of Culture Eric Gaston attempted to break up the fight. Otis said that he did this to avoid being assaulted further. The guard also told investigators that two other students were attempting to punch him while he was pinning down the 17-year-old, but security footage shows them trying to pull Otis off of the student.

The guard bent the teen’s arm and wrist backward three times before standing up and releasing him. The student said he sustained injuries to his mouth, arm, and wrist.

His family filed a $15 million lawsuit against DPSCD, accusing the district of negligence, assault, and emotional distress. The security guard was “immediately removed and placed on administrative leave” following the incident, according to a statement from DPSCD spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson.

“The district does not tolerate abuse of students and will take necessary disciplinary action, including termination after its investigation is complete and all of the facts regarding the incident are determined,” Wilson said.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit, where she covers arts, culture, and education. Contact Micah at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Police still struggling to fill crossing guard vacancies

2023-09-15T10:30:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

D’Renna Johnson stood at the intersection of Lyons Avenue and Aldine Street while cars, trucks, and motorcycles whizzed by on Monday afternoon — just as George Washington Carver, a K-8 school, dismissed its students for the day and hundreds of kids streamed out of the building.

All the while, the sky fluctuated between a drizzle and blazing heat. Johnson left her post only to put away her rain jacket or to put it back on. But her eyes remained fixed on the street no matter the weather.

“That was very dangerous!” yelled Johnson to a teenaged boy who ran across Lyons seconds before a bus passed fast enough to spray rain water several feet in the air.

“Sorry ma’am,” he said, as Johnson reminded the young girl trailing behind him to tie her shoe.

For the past year, Johnson has stood guard at various intersections around the city as kids commute between home and school. But she’s not a school crossing guard. She’s the director of the Newark Community Street Team, an outreach organization that tackles violence prevention, offers victim services, and runs Safe Passage, a program working to ensure students get to and from school safely.

For the last three years, Newark Community Street Team and other advocacy groups have been requesting that more crossing guards be stationed throughout Newark.

At the heart of the push is student safety.

According to New Jersey’s 2021 Highway Safety Plan, 22% of pedestrian-involved crashes from 2014-2018 happened between 3 p.m. and 5:59 p.m. — the height of school dismissal and student travel time. Almost 12% of those accidents involved children 15 and younger.

One of the New Jersey Department of Transportation school zone design guides also notes that the “proper placement of well-trained crossing guards is one of the most effective methods” in improving student safety.

But this school year, 87 crossing guard positions in Newark remain unfilled, according to the Newark Police Department. And, since 2021, the number of guards has fallen from 137 to 84.

In Newark, all school crossing guards must be hired by the police department, so Johnson is limited in the duties she’s legally allowed to perform.

“I’m not able to help them actually cross the street because I’m not a crossing guard, but at least I can make sure the little ones are safe,” said Johnson.

On Monday, Johnson estimated that 40 members of the Newark Community Street Team were stationed at high-risk posts throughout Newark. While they aren’t able to act as crossing guards, they can keep an eye on students as they commute.

D’Renna Johnson stands in front of George Washington Carver elementary and middle school.

Pointing down the street, Johnson rattled off the names of seven schools in the area: Weequahic. George Washington Carver. Chancellor Avenue. Chancellor Annex. Eagle Academy. NJ Regional Day School. Bruce Street School for the Deaf.

“But,” she noted, “there’s only one guard around here.”

In a statement to Chalkbeat, Newark Deputy Director of Police Operations Sharonda Morris said the Newark Police Division is actively recruiting school crossing guards and setting up informational tables at senior citizen buildings, precinct community meetings, and community service events.

Newark Community Street Team has continuously proposed solutions to the Newark Police Department and the state legislature since 2020.

Elizabeth Ruebman, managing director and co-founder of Newark Community Street Team, says a New Jersey statute that requires crossing guards be “of good moral character” and not have “been convicted of any criminal offense involving moral turpitude” acts as a barrier.

“Moral turpitude is extremely subjective,” said Ruebman. “We have had many people say to us, ‘I’ve applied and I’m not eligible.’”

Ruebman also noted that other states allow crossing guard hiring to be handled outside of city police departments. In Los Angeles, for example, these positions are managed by the city’s Department of Transportation.

Last year, progress was made when Newark Community Street Team partnered with State Sen. Teresa Ruiz to draft a bill that would make more people eligible to apply. However, Ruebman says she hasn’t heard from Ruiz since March 2022.

Ruiz’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

In January 2022, Ruiz joined Newark Community Street Team’s biweekly roundtable to hear the organization’s suggestions. But at this week’s meeting on Tuesday, which Newark police representatives attended, the same problem was rehashed again: There aren’t enough guards, and the hiring process is obstructing change.

“When I get my granddaughter at Rahway, there’s a crossing guard at every corner,” said Sharon Redding, an activist and Newark Community Street Team member. “Let the [Newark Police Department] director know, tell him, that our children are more important than money.”

And Toby Sanders, Newark Community Street Team’s director of education, said “I’m not begging y’all to start accepting the viability of the formerly incarcerated … I’m saying it’s a must that we do that, because that is where the hope is.”

The organization has worked closely with Parents Educating Parents, a group founded by Yolanda Johnson, a Newark parent, to improve communication between schools and families.

“If I want to see change, I need to step in myself,” said Yolanda Johnson. “Yesterday, I finished orientation to become a crossing guard.”

She was struck by the intensity of the application process.

“It feels like applying to become a police officer,” she said. “They ask if you have even a juvenile record, and you have to provide an explanation with documentation.”

The application asked questions such as: “Have you ever had a record expunged or been accepted into pretrial intervention or Conditional Discharge Program?” and “Have you ever been apprehended by any law enforcement officer as a juvenile?”

Yolanda Johnson was also surprised to find that the application required information about her husband, such as his address and the location and date of their marriage.

“I have a hard time with this issue because my grandma relied on crossing guards to get me to school when I was growing up. She could only walk as far as the porch,” she said. “I know how important crossing guards are.”

At the end of Tuesday’s roundtable, Ruebman concluded “We will always bring this up with great passion because we love the children. This will not go away.”

Newark Community Street Team’s next public safety roundtable will take place on Sept. 28 at 10 a.m.

Samantha Lauten is a fall reporting intern for Chalkbeat Newark covering public education in the city. Get in touch with Samantha at slauten@chalkbeat.org or reach the bureau newsroom at newark.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Denver Public Schools bars administrator over McAuliffe from district facilities amid investigation

2023-11-15T02:16:52+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

As part of the ongoing fallout from an investigation into the use of a seclusion room at Denver’s McAuliffe International School, the school district has barred an administrator responsible for overseeing the school from all district facilities and information systems.

The administrator is Colleen O’Brien, the executive director of the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone. She oversees three semi-autonomous Denver schools, including McAuliffe, a popular middle school that has been involved in several high-profile controversies this year.

Families and educators at McAuliffe have been on edge for months and staged a “walk in” Tuesday morning to protest what they see as Denver Public Schools’ attempts to dismantle their school. Principal Kurt Dennis was fired in July after he spoke up about gun violence and safety concerns, and the district opened an investigation into the improper use of seclusion rooms at McAuliffe in August. McAuliffe’s innovation status — which allows the school extra flexibility in scheduling and programming — is also up in the air right now.

The actions against O’Brien appear to be further fallout from the seclusion room investigation.

“After a thorough and careful review of the outcomes from the ongoing investigation, it has become clear that the actions and oversight under Dr. Colleen O’Brien have been in direct conflict with district policy and the values and standards we uphold in Denver Public Schools,” the district said in a statement Tuesday.

O’Brien did not respond Tuesday to phone calls and messages seeking comment.

Anne Rowe, the chairperson of the innovation zone’s board and a former president of the DPS school board, said in an interview that a district administrator informed O’Brien of the ban at a DPS school board meeting Monday. O’Brien was at the meeting to give public comment.

“What they’ve done has made it impossible for Colleen to do the work that she does really well to support our schools, our educators, and our kids,” Rowe said, “and we’re working really hard as a board to ensure that support continues until we find a resolution to this.”

It’s not clear which policies were the basis for the district’s action against O’Brien. O’Brien is an employee of the zone, not of DPS. Even if the district concludes that she violated DPS policy, she would not be subject to firing the same way as Dennis, the former principal.

“However,” the district said in its statement, “the schools within NDIZ are filled with DPS employees and students. Given the gravity of these findings, it was necessary to take appropriate action to limit Dr. O’Brien’s access to students and staff, as well as student information.”

Last year, DPS banned vocal district critic and school founder Brandon Pryor from DPS property, but a federal judge overturned that ban in January.

At the school board meeting Monday, O’Brien expressed concerns that McAuliffe educators were worried, wondering when the internal investigation would end. She also asked that DPS hire a third party instead to conduct an investigation.

Rowe said the zone board wants the same thing and “is in the process of engaging with an independent investigator” to look into the use of the seclusion rooms.

Rowe said DPS recently gave her and another zone board member a 2½-page summary of the investigation, which DPS says is ongoing. The summary said that the use of the seclusion rooms had violated district policy, Rowe said. She said it was clear that DPS wanted the zone board to take action regarding O’Brien based on the summary.

“We said, ‘Well, as a governing board, we would like to see the evidence and the facts that underlie this summary of findings from your internal investigation,’” Rowe said.

But ultimately, Rowe said DPS denied that request.

In its statement, DPS said its ban of O’Brien “does not reflect DPS’ view of (the zone) as a whole, but is a direct response to the actions and decisions of the individual in question.

“We remain committed to the principles of innovation and excellence in education and believe that this decision is a step towards upholding these ideals,” the statement said. “We look forward to future collaborations that align with our shared goals for educational excellence.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

After Oxford shooting report, a call for stricter safety training requirements falters

2023-11-14T20:42:23+00:00

Michigan’s State Board of Education on Tuesday dismissed a school safety proposal calling for stricter training requirements for public school staff to help prevent gun violence, along with greater accountability for school employees and administrators for safety lapses.

But members who opposed the resolution signaled that they’re still committed to taking steps to improve school safety and are open to taking up the proposal later.

The proposal came from Republican board member Nikki Snyder in response to the release last month of an independent report on the 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School, where a 15-year-old killed four students and injured seven others. The report found multiple failures by school officials to take steps to prevent the killings.

Snyder’s proposed resolution called for state laws requiring all school administrators and educators to receive behavioral threat assessment and management training, with the Michigan Department of Education enforcing compliance. It also called for MDE to check current student codes of conduct to make sure they align with the federal policies on notifying school resource officers of students who may pose a threat of violence.

Snyder’s proposal also called for removing any liability shield for school personnel and administrators who failed to report potential threats.

“We need to lead now in making sure this is what we expect,” Snyder said during the board meeting.

The board voted 5-3 against adding the resolution to its agenda. Republican member Tom McMillan, and board President Pamela Pugh, a Democrat, voted with Snyder.

Other members of the board agreed with Snyder that school safety is an urgent priority for the board but said they believed the proposal needed more research and input from officials before the board could consider it.

“We definitely are not voting this down and saying we don’t want to do anything with it,” said board member Tiffany Tilley, a Democrat. “We are saying we need more time. We need to make sure there is capacity to get the program, as well as MDE’s capacity to audit.”

Tilley said she would also like to work with MDE to pass additional proactive resolutions on school safety.

“There is no question that school safety is extremely important, and you’re absolutely right that this is the time to lead,” Democratic board member Judy Pritchett told Snyder. “I believe this board has been doing that.”

She cited the board’s October 2022 Resolution on Safer School Environments, which urged lawmakers to adopt Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s request for funding to support school safety and children’s mental health, as well as stronger gun safety laws.

That resolution did not recommend any new requirements in state law.

Snyder and McMillan said they voted against that resolution because it fell short of needed action.

The latest resolution “is about the requirement of that training — not the suggestion that it’s a fancy thought or a good idea,” Synder said.

Snyder added she would support amending the previously passed resolution with what she proposed.

She called the board’s choice to not take up the resolution on Tuesday “disgusting.”

“What we could do today is discuss this resolution, we could come to an agreement, and we could make a statement and lead,” she said. “And then we could work together on building the capacity to make sure students are safe and schools are safe. But you’re choosing not to do that.”

Pugh said she agrees there was room for the board to consider the resolution, but disputed the idea that it has not addressed the gun violence issue urgently enough.

“We’ve acted, and we will continue to provide guidance and support through MDE to our schools,” Pugh said.

“There are those of us who, for a long time, have been acting in urgency,” she said. “So, this resolution falls short of that urgency. We had an opportunity to give that input — and have — a year ago and have continued to work for the safety and healthy environment of children.”

Hannah Dellinger is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 education. Contact Hannah at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

KIPP Legacy High School student fatally shot near school identified

2023-11-06T21:01:40+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

The KIPP Legacy High School student shot and killed near the school on Friday afternoon has been identified as 15-year-old Devin Gilbert III, according to the Marion County coroner’s office.

Gilbert was shot as he was walking home from school just before 1 p.m., the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the school said Friday. Police said the shooting was a targeted incident and no other people were injured.

IMPD homicide detectives announced on Friday night the arrest of a 15-year-old for his alleged role in the shooting, but did not release the name of the suspect. The Marion County prosecutor’s office will make the final charging decision, police said.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said charges will have to be filed in juvenile court due to the age of the suspect.

Since Gilbert’s death Friday, at least two more teenagers were shot and killed in the city over the weekend, according to the Indianapolis Star.

Legacy High School planned to have on-site support available for students and staff on Monday to help them process the tragedy, the school said in a statement on Friday.

Police urge anyone with information about the incident to call Detective Larry Craciunoiu at the IMPD Homicide Office at 317-327-3475 or send an email to Larry.Craciunoiu@indy.gov. People who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Student shot and killed outside KIPP Legacy High School

2023-11-03T22:27:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

A teenage student at KIPP Legacy High School was shot and killed Friday in a community center parking lot next to the school in what police say was a targeted shooting.

The student, who has not yet been identified, was walking home when he was shot just before 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the Edna Martin Christian Center’s Leadership and Legacy Center, both the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the school said Friday afternoon.

Police have detained a teenage male suspect who they said is not a Legacy student.

KIPP Legacy has a close relationship with the center, and uses space for extracurricular programming there. The community center also reserves parking spaces in its lot for KIPP staff. Both are fixtures of the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood.

“We are in ongoing communication with the student’s family, and will continue to offer support during this extremely difficult time,” the school said in a Friday afternoon statement. “On Monday, we will have on-site supports available for students and staff as our school community processes this tragedy.”

Police said there was a disturbance at the school earlier in the day, which is being investigated, but did not elaborate further. But they said there is not enough information to conclude whether the two incidents were connected. No one else was injured in the shooting.

The homicide marks at least the fourth fatal shooting of a school-aged youth in less than two weeks in Indianapolis. One 15-year-old boy was found fatally shot on Oct. 21, and a 16-year-old girl was killed eight days later. Another 15-year-old girl was found fatally shot on Wednesday.

“It’s unacceptable that as a community, we’ve had conversations about youth violence all week, and this is how our week ends,” said IMPD Commander Matt Thomas. “It’s unacceptable that we have families hurting.”

Mayor Joe Hogsett has responded to such shootings with concerns about the accessibility of guns.

“This afternoon’s shooting of an Indianapolis teen is another example of the horrific combination of access to firearms and a failure of conflict resolution,” Hogsett said in a Friday statement. “No young person should have to worry about gun violence, let alone near a school.”

KIPP Legacy High School is a charter school within the Indianapolis Public Schools’ Innovation Network, and celebrated its first graduating class last spring.

Police urge witnesses or others with information to call the IMPD homicide office at 317-327-3475 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477 to remain anonymous.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

NYPD plans to launch a school hotline for safety and mental health issues. Advocates are wary.

2023-10-26T20:40:52+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City’s Police Department is launching a tip line that would allow all members of school communities to report concerns about safety and mental health, though the idea has raised concerns about how law enforcement officials will use the information.

In addition to reports of potential threats against schools or other safety issues, the tip line “will also help support mental health concerns, bullying, cyberbullying, and self-harm concerns” said Inspector Kevin Taylor, head of the Police Department’s school safety division, during a City Council hearing Wednesday.

Police officials previously indicated plans to roll out the tip line this fall. A department spokesperson did not offer a more specific timeline for when it will go live.

Taylor said anyone connected to school communities, or members of the general public, will be able to report campus safety concerns 24 hours a day for any public school, including charters. Tips will be collected by phone, text message, or through an app called SaferWatch.

The move comes as concerns about school safety and mental health have intensified. Even as violent crime has trended down, the number of shooting victims under age 18 has spiked. The number of weapons confiscated on school grounds also ticked up about 9% last school year, and suspensions also trended up, though data for the full year is not yet available. Meanwhile, the number of school safety agents remains far below pre-pandemic levels.

One Bronx school administrator said she would welcome an anonymous school safety tip line. In one instance, she said a student resorted to creating a fake social media account to discreetly alert her about a screenshot that showed students with weapons in the building.

“Having a way they could report anonymously and feel comfortable would be so good,” she wrote.

But multiple advocates raised concerns about the Police Department soliciting information related to bullying and students’ mental health, and state law indicates discipline issues should be handled by school staff rather than law enforcement.

“The police should not deal with students’ mental health or behavioral issues at all, including bullying,” said Andrea Ortiz, the membership and campaign director at the Dignity in Schools Campaign New York, a group that advocates against punitive discipline. “Police are not equipped to help them in that process, so why would they be the ones to collect that information except to use it in criminalizing ways?”

A police spokesperson declined to elaborate on how information collected through the tip line will be used or why the department would gather information on bullying given that there is an existing process for reporting those issues.

Meanwhile, the union that represents school safety agents was not enthusiastic about the new reporting tools and pressed the city to hire more agents instead. “Other ideas and initiatives to stem well documented school related violence cannot substitute for more dedicated school safety agents,” Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for Teamsters Local 237, wrote in a text message.

Separately, Taylor said that the city is piloting an app called SaferWatch that could function as a “panic button” that allows school safety agents to more quickly report emergencies, including shootings near or on school grounds.

He indicated using the technology was inspired by a visit to Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and staff were killed in a 2018 school shooting. In response, New York passed a law encouraging schools to adopt silent panic alarm systems.

Eventually, the app will be available to students and parents and may notify them about “serious situations that are happening in school,” Taylor said.

The app is currently being piloted at five schools: Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Hillcrest High School in Queens, Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, and P.S. 78 on Staten Island. Taylor said the city plans to expand the app citywide, but didn’t offer a timeline.

Students and staff at Stuyvesant and Bronx Science said they hadn’t heard much about the new app and weren’t sure how it was being used on campus.

Vanessa Chen, a senior at Stuyvesant, said being able to quickly report an incident through a smartphone app could be helpful, but she also wondered if it could lead to lots of false alarms. “A lot of these threats that come to our school aren’t real,” she said. “I think there comes a question of whether there’s any secondary fact-check.”

During the hearing on Wednesday, City Councilperson Jennifer Gutiérrez also raised questions how students would use it in an emergency since some schools require that students turn in their phones during the day.

“I’ve seen this administration move forward with a number of …these new apps, and there’s a lot of holes missing,” Gutiérrez said.

Taylor indicated the priority would be to install the app on school safety agents’ phones, but hoped it could be adopted more widely among families and staff.

A police spokesperson didn’t respond to a question about how the app would enable a faster emergency response compared with school safety agents radioing for help or dialing 911. They also declined to say how much the new initiatives would cost.

Given that every school has police department safety agents stationed in them, some advocates said there was little reason to invest in additional technologies that they worry could further expand the police department’s role in schools, especially as City Hall is ordering city agencies to cut their budgets.

“We’re taking more resources from schools while the NYPD is announcing ways they can get more involved in schools,” said Johanna Miller, director of the education policy center at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “That’s absolutely the wrong direction.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

PODCAST: Instagram, cyberbullying, and free speech at a Queens school

2023-10-17T16:30:00+00:00

This episode is part of a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, an audio journalism program for New York City students. It also aired on The Bell’s Miseducation podcast on Oct. 17.

The threat came in an e-mailed letter from the principal to the entire student body: Stop following the anonymous Instagram accounts, or face suspension.

When Principal David Marmor of Francis Lewis High School in Queens discovered two accounts — one which posted fight videos and the other which included vulgar content that in some cases targeted specific students — he didn’t hesitate to act.

In addition to threatening suspension, he promised to cancel all “celebratory events” such as pep rallies until the accounts were deleted or lost all their followers — a dramatic step that raised questions about the line between students’ free speech online and punishable behavior.

First reported by Chalkbeat, the case immediately caught the attention of students in the Bell’s New York City high school audio journalism program. Social media’s impact on the lives as teens can’t be overstated. Anonymous Instagram pages that share confessions, photos, and videos about school communities have become increasingly common. Sometimes the content is harmless. Other times, it feeds into vicious bullying.

The Bell’s Shoaa Khan (left) and Jose Santana (right).

The Bell’s Shoaa Khan and Jose Santana called up Chalkbeat’s Alex Zimmerman to break down what happened at Francis Lewis and discuss the broader implications of Marmor’s actions. Should schools be allowed to regulate students’ social media use? If so, did this principal go too far?

This episode was hosted by Shoaa Khan, a high school senior from Manhattan, and Jose Santana, a high school senior from the Bronx.

Students’ mental health needs are growing. Here’s how one district is asking taxpayers to help.

2023-10-17T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Marion County’s public and charter schools and statewide education news.

After nine guns were found at Fort Wayne schools during the 2022-23 school year, a group of community members approached district leadership with an urgent request: Make schools safer.

Together with the district, a new safety committee made up of law enforcement, mental health professionals, and teachers compiled a list of recommendations to do so. Campuses needed technology updates and more school resource officers. But the group also recommended hiring additional staff to support students’ well-being.

Now, they’re asking voters to support the efforts by approving a property tax increase earmarked for school safety in the November election. At a rate of $0.10 per $100 of assessed value, the safety referendum would generate up to $12 million annually for eight years toward mental health staff and school resource officers, security improvements, and a program that teaches students nonviolence.

If passed, the referendum would create dozens of new positions at Fort Wayne schools working in tandem to address two major safety concerns schools are facing nationwide: An increase in gun violence and the number of weapons found at schools, as well ongoing strains on students’ mental health as a result of the pandemic.

Indiana schools have long relied on property tax increases to fund operations and construction. But in 2019, lawmakers also made it possible for districts to improve safety and security using tax dollars.

Only two districts have asked voters to approve safety referendums since 2019, and just one — Carmel schools — has been successful. Schools generally asked voters for fewer tax increases in the immediate aftermath of COVID, but the number has slowly risen since.

A tax referendum was a logical avenue to secure the funding needed for the committee’s recommendations, said Matt Schiebel, the district’s executive director of safety and community partnerships.

“Technology and security measures are important, but the well-being of students is as much or even more important to improving safety,” Schiebel said.

Referendum funding focuses on mental health staff

Fort Wayne schools, along with Bluffton Harrison schools in Wells County, are seeking to pass safety referendums this year in Indiana.

Bluffton Harrison schools intends to spend just over half of its estimated $445,000 in annual revenue from its referendum on additional school resource officers, and another one-quarter on student mental health supports.

Fort Wayne plans to use two-thirds of its total proposed funding for student mental health supports, like therapists, third-party counseling services, and positions known as student advocates, according to its spending plan.

Another one-quarter of the funding is planned for technology, including over $1 million next year for a weapons detection system. And the remainder is earmarked for more security personnel, including 12 additional school resource officers.

The average Fort Wayne taxpayer would pay a maximum of $76 more annually, though the bill would be less next year as the district intends to use only around $7 million of the available funds, Schiebel said.

Schiebel said the district has already leveraged other funding sources for safety, like its facilities referendum for building improvements, emergency funding for student mental health positions, as well as $100,000 from the state-funded Indiana Secured School Safety grant for a school resource officer. It also partners with the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office to place school resource officers in its middle schools.

But a safety referendum would offer more.

“Safety has always been a priority and we have always used any means necessary to do all we can,” Schiebel said.

The largest proposed expenditure — over $4 million — would go to hiring student advocates, adults who monitor hallways, parking lots, and bathrooms. They also may be responsible for de-escalating situations, but not disciplining students.

Their most important task is building positive relationships with students by serving as another adult to turn to when conflict arises, Schiebel said.

The district has already piloted the role at South Side High School through the use of federal emergency funding, which is now coming to an end, Schiebel said. Through referendum funds, the district hopes to sustainably expand the program and place two student advocates in each of its high schools, as well as one in each elementary and middle school, or 56 total.

They would join other new staff, including 18 new mental health therapists slated to serve middle and high schools.

Data indicates that students need these mental health supports more than ever, with nearly half of all Indiana students reporting feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021.

“Being in-person gives students the opportunity to learn social skills, to cope with people with varying viewpoints,” Schiebel said. “Our kids were isolated for 18 months. When students came back, we had to re-learn those skills.”

Expanding a student-led nonviolence program

The advocates and therapists would also work alongside students through a program known as the Peacemaker Academy, which trains high schoolers in the principles of nonviolence espoused by Martin Luther King Jr.

The district hopes to use a share of the referendum funds to expand the program, which is operated by the faith-based nonprofit Alive Fort Wayne. The pilot program has focused on South Side High School students, but the additional funding would allow the nonprofit to place coordinators in each of the five schools as well as hire a director.

Angelo Mante, executive director of Alive Fort Wayne, said the goal of the program is to teach students King’s principles of nonviolence to help them identify and address issues at their schools.

One project involved students beautifying the campus to improve school culture. Another student initiative keeps a “Peace Count” — tallying the number of days that the school has gone without seeing a fight between students. For every 10 days without a fight, students earn an extra minute for their passing period between classes.

Mante said that the combined efforts at South Side High School — of the Peacemakers, student advocates, and other security measures — have already led to a 40% reduction in violent incidents compared to this time last year, as well as more collective awareness of violence.

Students have earned their extra passing period minute twice this year compared to just once by October of last year.

“It’s highly beneficial to have all of these pieces working together,” Mante said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s what the SRO agreement between Denver Public Schools and the police department says

2023-10-13T19:23:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news in Denver and around the state.

Nearly six months after police were stationed on some Denver high school campuses, the school district and the city police department signed an agreement that outlines what the officers should and should not do, according to a copy of the agreement.

For instance, the agreement says the officers should “differentiate between disciplinary issues and crime problems and respond appropriately,” and should not store guns inside schools.

The agreement — which is sometimes referred to as a memorandum of understanding, or MOU — was quietly signed last month. The lack of an agreement has been a sore spot for some parent groups and a political talking point for school board candidates.

The agreement is “a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to create a safe and supportive educational environment for all students and staff,” Denver Public Schools said in a statement.

“It is important to note that this arrangement underscores the importance of minimizing law enforcement involvement in routine school disciplinary matters and places a strong emphasis on considering alternative approaches before requesting (police) intervention.”

Police officers known as school resource officers, or SROs, temporarily returned to 13 DPS high schools in April after a March shooting inside East High School. The school board had removed SROs in 2020 over concerns about the overpolicing of Black students.

In June, a majority of board members voted to keep SROs in schools going forward. The Denver Police Department is footing the bill for 14 officers this school year. Before SROs were removed in 2020, the police department and school district split the cost.

Here’s a closer look inside the agreement. It says that:

DPS and the police department should work together to select the schools that will have an SRO. “To the extent possible, SROs should reflect the students at the school and come from the school’s community,” the agreement says.
DPS can “promptly remove” an SRO who does not follow district policies and can further request removal “for any reasonable cause DPS provides in writing” to the police department “after other attempts to correct the problem have been explored.”
Note: At least one SRO has already been removed this school year. But it was the Denver Police Department’s decision, not the decision of DPS, according to spokespeople for both agencies. The police department replaced an SRO at East High “due to a concern about involvement in a school discipline matter, which is outside the scope of work for our SROs,” department spokesperson Jay Casillas wrote in an email.
The police department will ensure that SROs are certified by the National Association of School Resource Officers, or NASRO. The topics covered in that training may include adolescent development, cultural competence, restorative justice, accommodations for students with disabilities, and the creation of safe spaces for LGBTQ students.
DPS educators will “make every effort possible to handle routine discipline … without involving the SRO in an enforcement capacity.”
DPS educators will notify SROs if a student needs accommodations because of a disability, and will notify parents as soon as possible if a student is ticketed or arrested.
DPS will monitor tickets and arrests and “take corrective action and notify the (school) Board if the district is aware of a disproportionate number of citations and arrests across marginalized identities at the district and school levels.”
DPS will cooperate with police investigations “without hindering or interfering with the Police Department’s or the assigned SRO’s official duties. This cooperation does not obligate the District to make students or staff available for interviews or interrogation.”
DPS will provide the police department with limited access to Infinite Campus, a software program that stores student information. The access “will be limited to accomplish purposes related to school safety.” Police officers will not be able to use Infinite Campus for law enforcement purposes, “including but not limited to investigation of crimes unrelated to campus safety.” DPS will audit the police department’s use.
The agreement is effective for one year, with an expiration date of July 31.

Read the full agreement below:

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board may modify expulsion policy to support more students staying in their home schools

2023-10-06T02:29:01+00:00

The Denver school board is considering modifying its policy on expulsion, which has been a topic of debate ever since a formerly expelled student shot two deans inside East High School in March. The proposal would require Denver Public Schools to offer students an alternative to expulsion that would allow the students to remain in their home schools.

There are caveats. The proposal, officially known as Executive Limitation 10.12, would only allow alternatives to expulsion “in accordance with law and whenever possible,” according to a draft of the policy discussed by the school board Thursday.

Since the shooting at East, DPS officials have held firm to their approach of using expulsion as a last resort — a stance that has mobilized some parents to push for stricter discipline. The district’s position is that even a student facing serious criminal charges can remain in their home school as long as a judge has decided the student can be out in the community.

State law says a student who brings a gun to school should be expelled for a year. But the law gives superintendents the discretion to “modify this requirement for a student on a case-by-case basis.” DPS’ policy takes advantage of that discretion. The district’s discipline matrix says bringing a gun to school results in a mandatory expulsion hearing, but not a mandatory expulsion.

DPS has expelled students for bringing weapons to school; in the 2021-22 school year, state data shows it expelled 10 students for that reason. But the district recently denied an expulsion request for a middle school student accused of attempted murder, allowing the student to stay in his home school. The alleged crime happened off campus.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson wrote the expulsion policy proposal. Both he and Superintendent Alex Marrero said it would not change district practice, but rather codify it.

“In my opinion, we already do this, and it’s just putting it into board policy,” Anderson said at Thursday’s school board meeting.

The board ultimately voted 6 to 1 to move the proposal forward for further consideration. Board member Scott Baldermann was the sole no vote.

Earlier in the meeting, Baldermann offered an amendment that would have guaranteed students at risk of expulsion a seat at “an appropriate pathways school that aligns with the supports necessary” for the student. DPS has 22 pathways schools, which are middle and high schools that offer students who are off track to graduate a different pathway to do so.

Only one pathways school, PREP Academy, was specifically designed to serve students who have been expelled from other DPS schools. Other pathways schools can accept expelled students, but most enroll at PREP Academy, a district spokesperson said.

The board did not vote up or down on Baldermann’s amendment. It did not vote to adopt Anderson’s proposal either. A final vote likely won’t happen until November.

Three school board seats are up for election on Nov. 7, and Anderson is not seeking a second term. The board is scheduled to meet Nov. 16, meaning the current board could vote on the policy after Denver voters elect new board members but before those members take office.

Several board members said they still have questions about the proposal.

“I don’t know what ‘alternative to expulsion’ means,” board member Charmaine Lindsay said.

Anderson said in an interview that rhetoric from parent groups formed in the wake of the East shooting pushed him to propose the policy. He named two groups in particular: Parents-Safety Advocacy Group, known as P-SAG, and Resign DPS Board.

“We’ve seen individual groups that have tried to weaponize our discipline system against students who have learning differences or have challenging days that need extra love and care from our system,” Anderson said. “We have parent groups that have formed — and they don’t want these kids to attend our traditional schools. That’s not who Denver Public Schools is.”

Parents involved in founding those two groups said they oppose Anderson’s proposal.

“It’s going in the wrong direction,” said Steve Katsaros, a P-SAG founder. “These are kids that are crying out for help from really troubled environments, and they don’t need to be pushed into comprehensive school environments where they’re expected to all of a sudden learn.”

Heather Lamm, a founder of Resign DPS Board, which is focused on ousting the two board incumbents running for re-election in November, expressed similar sentiments.

“What’s amazing to me is that this board has decided, instead of a focus on educating kids, it is going to spend its time and resources on protecting a select few from the consequences of criminal activity,” Lamm said. “I think that’s outrageous.

“These kids deserve an education,” she said. “To say that the best way to do that for these kids or anybody else is to keep them in their home school, I would very, very much challenge that.”

In the 2021-22 school year, DPS expelled just 21 students. The neighboring suburban Cherry Creek School District, which is smaller than DPS, expelled nearly seven times as many.

Anderson said that while he trusts the current board and administration to treat expulsion as a last resort, he wants to ensure that approach is enshrined in policy before he leaves the board.

“I don’t want us to be like Cherry Creek schools,” Anderson said at the meeting.

This story has been updated to clarify the state law on expulsions.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

More Colorado schools stock drug overdose reversal meds, but others worry about stigma

2023-10-03T22:40:41+00:00

Leer en español.

Last year, a student fell unconscious after walking out of a bathroom at Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado. When Jessica Foster, the school district’s lead nurse, heard the girl’s distraught friends mention drugs, she knew she had to act fast.

Emergency responders were just four minutes away. “But still four minutes — if they are completely not breathing — it’s four minutes too long,” Foster said.

Foster said she got a dose of naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, and gave it to the student. The girl revived.

Forty-five miles away in Colorado Springs, Mitchell High School officials didn’t have naloxone on hand when a 15-year-old student overdosed in class in December 2021 after snorting a fentanyl-laced pill in a school bathroom. That student died.

Colorado Springs’ school district has since joined Pueblo and dozens of other districts in the state in supplying middle and high schools with the lifesaving medication, often known by one of its brand names, Narcan. Since passage of a 2019 state law, Colorado has had a program that allows schools to obtain the medicine, typically in nasal spray form, free or at a reduced cost.

Not all schools are on board with the idea, though. Though more districts have signed on since last year, only about a third of Colorado districts had enrolled in the state’s giveaway program at the start of this school year. And within the dozen counties with the highest drug overdose death rates in the state, many school districts had not signed up in the face of ongoing stigma around the need for the overdose reversal medication.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recommends that schools, including elementary schools, keep naloxone on hand as fatal opioid overdoses rise, particularly from the potent drug fentanyl. And 33 states have laws that expressly allow schools or school employees to carry, store, or administer naloxone, according to Jon Woodruff, managing attorney at the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, which tracks naloxone policies across the country.

Among those, about nine states require at least some K-12 schools to store naloxone on site, including Illinois, whose requirement goes into effect in January. Some states, such as Maine, also require that public schools offer training to students in how to administer naloxone in nasal spray form.

Rhode Island requires all K-12 schools, both public and private, to stock naloxone. Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Health, said that in the past four years, naloxone was administered nine times to people ages 10 to 18 in educational settings.

In early September, the medication also became available over the counter nationally, though the $45 price tag per two-dose package has some addiction specialists worried it will be out of reach for those who need it most.

But the medicine still isn’t as publicly widespread as automated external defibrillators or fire extinguishers. Kate King, president of the National Association of School Nurses, said reluctance to stock it in schools can stem from officials being afraid to provide a medical service or the ongoing cost of resupplying the naloxone and training people to use it. But the main hang-up she’s heard is that schools are afraid they’ll be stigmatized as a “bad school” that has a drug problem or as a school that condones bad choices.

“School districts are very careful regarding their image,” said Yunuen Cisneros, community outreach and inclusion manager at the Public Education & Business Coalition, which serves most of the state’s school districts. “Many of them don’t want to accept this program, because to accept it is to accept a drug addiction problem.”

That’s the wrong way to think about it, King said. “We really equate it to our stock albuterol for asthma attacks, our stock epinephrine for anaphylactic reactions,” she said.

Jessica Foster, Pueblo School District 60’s nurse supervisor, holds packets of Narcan and Kloxxado. Foster has pushed to get Narcan in all the district’s schools.

Colorado health officials could not say how often naloxone had been used on school grounds in the state. So far this year, at least 15 children ages 10 to 18 have died of fentanyl overdoses but not necessarily in schools. And in 2022, 34 children in that age group died, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment. That included 13-year-old José Hernández, who died in August 2022 from a fentanyl overdose at home just days after starting eighth grade at Aurora Hills Middle School. His grandmother found his body over the bathroom sink in the early morning.

With the arrival of this new school year, supplies of naloxone are on hand for kids in more Colorado schools. Last year, state lawmakers appropriated $19.7 million in federal aid to the Naloxone Bulk Purchase Fund, which is accessible to school districts, jails, first responders, and community service organizations, among others.

“It’s the most we’ve ever had,” said Andrés Guerrero, manager of the state health department’s overdose prevention program.

According to data provided by Colorado’s health department, 65 school districts were enrolled in the state program to receive naloxone at low or no cost at the start of the school year. Another 16 had reached out to the state for information but hadn’t finalized orders as of mid-August. The remaining 97 school districts either didn’t stock naloxone at their schools or sourced it from elsewhere.

Guerrero said the districts decide whom to train to administer the medicine. “In some cases, it’s just the school nurses. In some cases, it’s school nurses and the teachers,” he said. “And in some cases, we have the students as well.”

In Durango, the 2021 death of a high schooler galvanized students to push for the right to carry naloxone with them to school with parental permission — and to administer it if need be — without fear of punishment.

It took picketing outside a school board meeting to get permission, said Hays Stritikus, who graduated this spring from Durango High School. He’s now involved in drafting legislation that would expressly allow students across the state to carry and distribute Narcan on school grounds.

“The ultimate goal is a world where Narcan is not necessary,” he said. “But that’s just not where we live.”

Some health experts disagree that all schools should stock naloxone. Lauren Cipriano, a health economist at Western University in Canada, has studied the cost-effectiveness of naloxone in secondary schools there. While opioid poisonings have occurred on school grounds, she said, high schools tend to be really low-risk settings.

In 2021, a student at Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, overdosed in class after snorting a fentanyl-laced pill in a school bathroom.

More effective strategies for combating the opioid epidemic are needle exchange sites, supervised drug consumption sites, and medication-assisted treatment that reduces cravings or mutes highs, Cipriano said. But those approaches can be expensive compared with naloxone distribution.

“When the state makes a big, free program like this, it looks like they’re doing something about the opioid epidemic,” she said. “It’s cheap and it looks like you’re doing something, and that’s, like, political gold.”

Denver Public Schools, the largest school district in Colorado, started stocking naloxone in 2022, said Jade Williamson, manager of the district’s healthy schools program.

“We know some of the students are on the forefront of these things before older generations,” Williamson said. “To know where to find it, and to access it when needed through these adults who’ve trained, whether that’s a school nurse or a school administrator, I think it brings them some sense of relief.”

The state’s seven largest districts, with more than 25,000 students each, all participate in the state program. By contrast, a KFF Health News analysis found, only 21% of districts with up to 1,200 students have signed up for it — even though many of those small districts are in areas with drug overdose death rates higher than the state average.

Some school districts figured out a path to getting naloxone outside of the state program. That includes Pueblo School District 60, where lead nurse Foster gave naloxone to a student last year.

The Pueblo school district gets naloxone at no cost from a local nonprofit called the Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association. Foster said she tried signing up for the state program but encountered difficulties. So she decided to stick with what was already working.

Jessica Foster, pictured at Pueblo’s Central High School, is the nurse supervisor for Pueblo School District 60. Last year, Foster administered Narcan to a student who had fallen unconscious in the hallway outside a school bathroom.

Moffat County School District RE-1 in Craig, Colorado, gets its naloxone from a local addiction treatment center, according to district nurse Myranda Lyons. She said she trains school staffers on how to administer it when she teaches them CPR.

Christopher deKay, superintendent of Ignacio School District 11Jt, said its school resource officers already carry naloxone, but that the district enrolled in the state program, too, so that schools could stock the medication in the nursing office in case a resource officer isn’t around.

“It’s like everything — like training for fire safety. You don’t know what’s going to happen in your school,” said deKay. “If the unthinkable happens, we want to be able to respond in the best way possible.”

This story was produced with reporting assistance from El Comercio de Colorado.

‘We can do better’: NYC schools chief acknowledges flawed communication in response to flooding

2023-10-03T19:42:51+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City botched its communication to schools in response to last week’s record rainfall, Chancellor David Banks acknowledged on Tuesday. He vowed to conduct a review of what went wrong.

Hours after the school day began last Friday, Mayor Eric Adams and Banks said during a press conference about the storm that schools should shelter in place, which typically means that no one is allowed to enter or exit campuses. The Education Department issued the same directive soon after on social media.

But that order was never directly communicated to school principals, Chalkbeat reported on Monday. The communication breakdown created confusion about which procedures campus leaders should have been following in the middle of an emergency.

Banks issued a mea culpa during a Tuesday press conference when asked about the lack of communication.

“This incident does suggest to us that we needed to have a clearer level of communication all the way through,” he said, adding that schools ultimately kept children safe during the storm. “We can do better, and I think we will certainly be working to do better next time.”

The chancellor also suggested that the Education Department never intended to issue a typical shelter-in-place order in the first place. “What we’re trying to say to everybody was: ‘Stay where you are. Don’t send kids out to the streets.’”

A shelter-in-place order was the “closest thing our policies have for taking refuge in buildings,” but that approach is “ill-fitting to last week’s circumstances,” Banks said in a written statement after the press conference.

Ten school administrators told Chalkbeat that they did not enforce the shelter-in-place order largely because they weren’t aware it existed. The first official communication about it came in a 1:56 p.m. email that day to school leaders notifying them that the order had been lifted.

With many parents rushing to schools to pick up their children before the school day was over, enforcing a systemwide shelter-in-place order would have created “a level of chaos” because parents would not have been allowed to do so, Banks told reporters.

The Education Department is conducting a review of what happened “to identify policies and protocols that must be updated to account for increasingly frequent events like Friday’s rain or the air quality emergency this summer,” according to Banks’ statement.

A department spokesperson did not respond to questions about the timeline for completing that review or whether it will be made public.

The chancellor’s comments represented a departure from the Education Department’s position just a day earlier.

On Monday evening, a department spokesperson did not acknowledge any errors in communication and pointed to the mayor’s Friday press conference and subsequent social media posts as sufficient notice to schools about the shelter-in-place order.

Adams has faced intense criticism for not directly addressing the public about the storm until after some neighborhoods had already flooded, though he has largely avoided any acknowledgement that the city’s response was inadequate. Adams also deflected blame for the unclear communication to schools, implying that he hadn’t used the words “shelter in place” on Friday — even though he was the first official to publicly use the phrase. He also said that “the chancellor made a determination of what should be done.”

One Queens assistant principal said they were glad the chancellor acknowledged the miscommunication.

“I appreciate [Banks] taking the responsibility,” said the assistant principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The school leader said the city should resist the urge to make blanket directives during similar emergencies in the future, as some campuses experienced significant flooding and others were largely untouched.

“There’s no citywide guidance and directive that they should have made other than: ‘Be safe and please be in touch with your borough offices,’” the administrator said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams ordered NYC schools to shelter in place due to flooding. No one told principals.

2023-10-02T23:40:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

As flood waters rose Friday in many parts of New York City, the message seemed clear cut.

“If you are at work or school, shelter in place for now,” said Mayor Eric Adams during a press conference about the storm just before noon that day. Schools Chancellor David Banks repeated that language later in the briefing, explaining “our protocol is in fact to shelter in place.” A social media post at 12:16 p.m. from the Education Department said the same.

Sheltering in place refers to a specific Education Department safety protocol that requires schools to shut their front doors, barring anyone from coming in or out. The procedure is meant to keep schools safe when there’s a danger outside the building.

At 1:56 p.m., a top Education Department official alerted principals that the “shelter in place has been lifted,” according to a copy of the email obtained by Chalkbeat.

There was just one problem: No one directly told schools about the order in the first place.

The email was the first Education Department communication that appeared in principals inboxes all day.

That was when Anna Nelson, an assistant principal at Bronx Latin, learned of the shelter-in-place directive.

But enforcing it would have been complicated. Many parents at her 6-12 school showed up early asking to pick up their children, fearing their commutes would be even harder later in the day due to the record rainfall. That would not have been allowed under a typical shelter-in-place order.

“Parents would have been really upset,” Nelson said. “It would have been wild.”

During previous shelter-in-place situations involving many schools, such as one for several Brooklyn schools after the subway shooting in Sunset Park last year, orders came from the NYPD and borough safety offices contacting schools.

But no such directives arrived Friday, 10 school administrators told Chalkbeat.

Flooding causes chaos in many schools

Many school leaders were dealing with immediate crises. They were helping kids dry off and scrounging up extra clothes for kids who were soaked through, while moving some children out of water-logged classrooms. They were ensuring floors weren’t dangerously slippery and figuring out if they had enough teachers to cover classes. They were communicating with concerned families about pickup and figuring out alternative exit plans for dismissal.

Many were unable to tune into the mayor’s press conference or monitor Education Department messages on X (formerly known as Twitter) during the middle of the school day — and may not even have known to watch for information through these channels.

As a result, none of the administrators who spoke with Chalkbeat actually implemented a shelter-in-place. Many were left on their own to figure out if and how to dismiss students early or let parents come and retrieve kids, with mixed messages swirling from higher-ups.

“It was very confusing honestly,” said one Brooklyn school administrator who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. “I was watching the press conference live and then I heard him say it, but I was like ‘I don’t think he really means we’re going to shelter in, because that’s crazy.’”

Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer reiterated Monday that “guidance during inclement weather events is to take refuge in the school building.” When asked how the Education Department communicated that guidance, he pointed to the mayoral press conference and social media.

The idea of a blanket citywide shelter-in-place order seemed especially confusing to administrators because those directives are usually targeted at specific schools or neighborhoods, administrators said. While some schools with significant flooding outside may have benefited from such an order, it would have been a problem for other schools that needed to let students out early for safety reasons, they said.

Pointing to the need for a shelter in place, Styer said that some schools called parents and guardians to pick up children from school during Friday’s travel warnings, “which put even more members of our community in harm’s way.”

The end-of-day email to principals also suggested that schools should make sure students and staff are familiar with alternate evacuation routes, ensure children have a way to get home given disruptions to public transit, and keep a stock of supplies on hand including flashlights and blankets.

There was scarcely any time to do those things as the official guidance came less than an hour before dismissal, said Nelson, the Bronx administrator.

Though she said her school was largely spared from flooding and most of her students don’t commute long distances to the campus, she remained concerned about the lack of planning from the city.

“It is clear to me that we will have more flood issues like this in the future and the DOE doesn’t have any flood plans in place,” Nelson added.

Flooding near the Lafayette Educational Complex in Gravesend Brooklyn on Fri., Sept. 29, 2023 in New York.

At the Lafayette Educational Complex in Gravesend, Brooklyn, which is in a flood zone, students and staff had to wade through thigh-high waters to get to the schools housed there, said teacher Elizabeth Fortune. The building’s basement and cafeteria flooded, just as they did during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and she worried the building would face flooding in the future.

“We gave away all our school logo pjs to students and some were stuck in wet clothes or barefoot at school,” Fortune wrote in an email. “Once the waters began to recede, many older students wished to leave, but we were required to hold them until a parent could pick them up. Parents themselves were stranded without any ability to get to the school.”

Communication breakdown sows confusion

A total of 336 city public schools required cleanup over the weekend due to flooding, Styer said. On Friday, city officials said 150 schools were affected.

One school, P.S. 312 in Bergen Beach (originally reported by the Education Department as P.S. 132), had to be evacuated because of a smoking boiler. That school reopened Monday, and the “vast majority” of water issues across city schools were “minor, requiring only mopping,” he said.

To some educators, the botched communication over the shelter-in-place order felt emblematic of larger failures to give schools clear and timely guidance during a crisis. If top city officials misspoke about the shelter-in order, they should have clarified that immediately, said one Manhattan school administrator.

“The lack of communication is what creates people making up their own stories,” said the administrator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If this isn’t the policy, and someone made a mistake, just own that and keep it pushing.”

Instead, school leaders were left largely on their own to figure out the protocol — and the confusion trickled down to teachers and parents.

Some schools let students out early. Anxious parents showed up to retrieve kids, and some students feared longer-than-normal commutes on public transit.

“A lot of our kids travel an hour each way on a good day,” said the Brooklyn administrator. “We don’t want kids traveling on buses they don’t normally take in the dark.”

Brooklyn dad Geoff Sanoff, who has two children in two different high schools, recounted the widely varied response from his children’s schools.

At Brooklyn Tech, where one son attends, the school emailed families about what they were doing, where families should go to meet their teens, and options for kids to stay in the building as they waited to get picked up. At the smaller Brooklyn high school his other son attends, there was “radio silence,” Sanoff said.

Brooklyn Tech is walkable to their Park Slope home, so the commute home for that son was doable. The other school, however, is accessible by the G train, which was not running. Sanoff’s son at that school, a freshman, wasn’t sure what to do, or where to wait to be picked up since he was not allowed to stay inside the building.

“With no subway, getting home from school turned into a three-hour round trip in a grandparent’s car to pick him up,” Sanoff said, adding that his son waited outside for more than an hour.

Sanoff understands that Brooklyn Tech — which is the nation’s largest high school with nearly 6,000 students — has kids from across the city and needs to be on top of coordinating its communications. His other son’s school, which may serve more kids who live locally, may not have realized that new students who travel further may have needed more help and may not have known who to ask for help, he said.

“It kind of baffles me that nobody said anything to him,” Sanoff said. “I am not angry with them, just frustrated at this situation. At the end of the day, the real question to me is, ‘How is it that each school has been left to fend for itself in a situation like this? Has there been no guidance from on high?’ No thought for school buses to be set aside, nothing from the DOE to help parents and schools know where to go, what to do, or who to reach out to for help.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Is Chicago’s shift to restorative justice and fewer school police working? Some say yes.

2023-09-28T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and statewide education policy.

Youth organizer Maria Paula Degillo used to protest in downtown Chicago against the high rates of suspensions and expulsions for students of color.

Now, she collaborates with Chicago Public Schools to create safe school environments without harsh discipline and over policing.

Today, Degillo, with the group Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, is joining the district’s Chief of Safety and Security Jadine Chou at a City Club of Chicago event to highlight the partnership forged between the district and community organizations over the course of the last decade to improve school safety.

The event comes as Chicago says it has made significant progress disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Suspensions have plummeted from nearly 50,000 in 2013-14 to less than 10,000 in 2021-22. And the number of police officers on campus has been more than cut in half.

What’s more, new research released by the University of Chicago Education Lab earlier this month found student arrests dropped at schools where restorative practices were implemented and students said they felt a stronger sense of safety and belonging.

Degillo, Chou, and others who have been working on this issue for more than a decade say Chicago’s approach to school safety could be a blueprint for other schools across the country.

“When we talk about safety in schools,” Degillo said, “it’s about young people and their parents being able to be at the decision making table so that they can decide what they feel makes them safe.”

Chicago makes slow shift to restorative discipline

Chicago’s work to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline started years before national debates around school safety and the presence of police in schools heated up in 2020.

When Chou took the job as safety and security chief 12 years ago, she said she was the first person not from the police department to fill the role.

“It was not easy at first,” she said. “I think a lot of people were stuck in that same paradigm that, you know, if we go to restorative practices, bad things will happen.”

Early in her tenure, the school board approved several changes to the student code of conduct that activists, such as Degillo, pushed: limiting the use of automatic suspensions and redefining what behaviors deserved out-of-school punishment. And the state of Illinois passed legislation, at the urging of groups like VOYCE, to limit the use of suspensions and expulsions in public schools.

During the 2013-14 school year, 22 Chicago high schools and 34 elementary schools began implementing restorative practices focused on building relationships and conflict resolution.

Researchers at the University of Chicago Education Lab studied what happened in the years that followed. In a report issued earlier this month, they found that suspensions declined at schools that implemented restorative justice, student arrests in-school fell by 35%, and out-of-school arrests dropped by 15%.

Anjali Adukia, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and one of the report’s authors, said changing how schools approach student discipline doesn’t happen overnight.

She recalled talking to a teacher who saw restorative practices as “fluffy duffy stuff” that was going to take up too much time. But after trying some of the strategies, the approach made their job easier. That teacher is now a restorative practices coach, Adukia said.

Chou, with CPS, said the research confirmed what she felt she already knew: This was actually working. It also “refutes the myth” that restorative practices lead to “no consequences” and everything being “out of control.”

“The research actually shows that you do good both by keeping children in the classroom through these restorative practices,” Chou said. “And in fact, the climate is calmer.”

Removing police from schools is just one piece of the puzzle

In addition to its work to reduce suspensions and expulsions, Degillo’s organization Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, or VOYCE, was on the forefront of the movement to remove police officers from schools.

This was before a 2019 federal consent decree over the city’s police department pushed the district to rethink the role of police in schools and before the racial unrest in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd.

Around that time, the district began to collaborate with community organizations, including VOYCE, on an effort known as Whole School Safety. The approach also gave local school councils the ability to vote on whether or not to keep school-based police officers, commonly referred to as SROs.

An initial wave of schools removed police in 2020, but the momentum has slowed more recently, with just two schools voting to remove officers last school year.

In June, the school board approved a $10.3 million contract with the police department to station 57 officers at roughly 40 high schools that have voted to keep them. It’s a fraction of the 140 stationed at district-run high schools in 2019, which cost roughly $33 million that year.

Chicago initially faced some criticism for pushing the decision about whether to keep police in schools down to local communities. But the ground-up approach may prove to be more sustainable, Chou said, noting other districts who removed police in 2020 only to return them more recently.

That was the case in Denver, where the school board voted in 2020 to phase out police from schools only to reverse that decision in a divided vote this past June after a shooting in March at one of the district’s high schools.

Although Degillo said VOYCE would still like to see police removed from schools altogether, she said allowing communities to decide is just as important.

“The goal is to create a process in which people are not relying on knee-jerk reactions to safety, “ Degillo said. “There’s so much more to school safety. The goal is to create that safe, healthy, equitable learning environment.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Roxborough High remembers Nicolas Elizalde, killed one year ago

2023-09-27T21:47:01+00:00

On a strip of ragged grass adjoining the front steps of Roxborough High School, students planted crocuses.

The bulbs, assistant principal Julian Saavedra explained to them, are perennials, meaning they die out but come back every year, bursting out in vibrant colors on patches of ground still waking up from the cold of winter.

The planting happened Wednesday, on the first anniversary of one of the most devastating events in the history of Roxborough High: a brutal shooting mere steps from the school that took the life of 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde as he walked home from a football scrimmage at the field nearby.

Nicolas was actually a student at nearby Saul High School of Agricultural Science, which shares a football team with Roxborough.

To cope and remember, the 600-student school observed a Day of Peace on the anniversary, seeking to bring additional support to a community that is still traumatized. To start the day, students held a moment of silence. Over the past year, they helped paint a mural on the wall of the school closest to where the shooting occurred. The mural depicts, among other symbols, a football helmet filled with flowers and a large rendering of Nicolas’ jersey number, 62.

“We’re getting through it as a team,” said assistant football coach Marc Skinner. “We stand by each other, we talk to each other. … We put our focus on the field and the game and making sure we do the right thing, and not be a part of any situation that would have us in this type of tragedy again.”

Since the incident, Roxborough has partnered with organizations including Healing Hurt People to work with students and others affected. Police in the 14th District have stepped up patrols. The school has more security guards and many programs addressing students’ emotional needs.

But the pain is still raw.

“We continue to support our children with trauma-informed best practices. We share resources with our teachers, and all of our staff,” said Principal Kristin Williams-Smalley. “And we all have a schoolwide social emotional learning program that we have implemented. … It’s an ongoing issue that our children are dealing with.”

Roxborough High principal Kristin Williams-Smalley speaks to reporters

She said that Roxborough lost another student to gun violence in May.

During the last school year, 199 city students were shot, and 33 of those died, district officials said. Less than three weeks into this school year, five students have been shot, and one died. Philadelphia’s efforts to restrict gun ownership have been blocked by the courts and a state law that bars municipalities from enacting their own gun control measures.

Shortly before the shooting, Mayor Jim Kenney had signed a law that restricted gun possession at public spaces in the city, including parks, recreation centers, and pools, but it was overturned in a court challenge.

When Nicolas was killed, four other teens were wounded by the bullets flying out of an SUV that had been lying in wait near Roxborough High.

Police don’t believe Nicolas was the intended target. One of the shooters jumped out of the car and chased another, older boy down the street, firing at close range before his gun jammed.

Police have arrested four suspects in the killing and are still seeking a fifth person they believe was the main shooter.

This week, Nicolas’ mother, Meredith Elizalde, called on state lawmakers to enact gun reform. Nicolas was her only child, and he died in her arms.

“I want them to get on the front lines and fight for gun sense, because if you’re not, you’re just part of the problem,” Meredith Elizalde said.

Asked about the chances of gun reform, Williams-Smalley sounded weary.

“I’m tired to go to funerals. I’m tired of visiting my colleagues at their schools when something happens to be a support for them. We are all, my colleagues across the city, we are all tired of the violence that is pervasive.”

As the students dispersed after planting the crocuses, Saavedra called after them.

“We’ll water them later on,” he said.

A mural on one wall of Roxborough High in memory of Nicolas Elizalde features Nicolas’ football jersey number, 62.

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Althea Greene remains Memphis-Shelby County Schools board chair for second year

2023-09-27T02:41:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Althea Greene will remain chair of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board for a second year as the district continues its search for a permanent superintendent, despite criticism of how she handled the initial search.

Greene received seven votes from the nine-member board. Board member Frank Johnson, who is recovering from a stroke, was not at Tuesday’s meeting. Newly appointed member Mauricio Calvo voted “present.”

“I pray that my colleagues, that we will lead together,” Greene said Tuesday. “We will march together. We will disagree, but disagree together.”

Greene was first appointed to the board in 2019 and ran unopposed in 2020. She has been part of the leadership for most of her time on the board, serving two terms as vice chair alongside Michelle McKissack in 2021-22 and Miska Clay Bibbs the previous year. Her District 2 seat will be up for election next fall.

Joyce Dorse-Coleman, who is halfway through her second term as a board member, will remain the vice chair for another year.

“The work that I’ve done speaks for itself,” Dorse-Coleman said before the final vote. “That’s what I’m going to say. I’ve been dedicated.”

The vice chair election divided the board, which has strived to present a united front while it seeks a new district leader and develops a plan for its aging school buildings. Dorse-Coleman prevailed over the other nominee, Amber Huett-Garcia, after three rounds of voting. McKissack ultimately switched her vote to provide Dorse-Coleman the needed majority.

Greene’s reelection as chair signals that most board members still trust her leadership, despite some wavering last spring and calls for a change.

The board elected Greene “to finish a job that I know that she’s very focused on and seeing to completion,” McKissack said.

Explaining his “present” vote to Chalkbeat, Calvo said, “I read the news, and I know that the community and the public wants a different direction for the board.”

“We don’t have a great reputation,” he later added.

Greene oversaw the start of the district’s superintendent search in late 2022, along with search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates. But after Hazard Young presented three finalists for the role at a meeting in April, Greene abruptly paused the search amid rancor over the selection process. Several top candidates withdrew their names from consideration.

Dorse-Coleman and another board member, Stephanie Love, took over for Greene as the search coordinators, and the board ended up rebooting the search in June, with a looser set of job requirements. Interim Superintendent Toni Williams, initially chosen as a finalist to take the post on a permanent basis, agreed not to pursue the post anymore.

New cleaning plan approved, but timing of transition is unclear

MSCS board members unanimously voted to move forward with a new custodial services plan, which will distribute the work among four cleaning vendors, and revamp the way those vendors are evaluated to include more regular input from school staff.

But the timing of the transition to the new plan, most recently set for December, is up in the air.

Board member Kevin Woods suggested a delay due to the disruption of business to the sole current vendor, Service Master Clean, which would share the work under the new plan. Three company leaders and an employee addressed the board in public comments Tuesday.

District officials will review their procurement procedures and consult with the vendors to see whether that’s appropriate, but it means the transition could be as late as July 1, 2024.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

New MSCS custodial contracts would give school staff more input

2023-09-21T22:20:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is poised to switch to new custodial-service contracts that would give school staff greater say in the cleanliness of their buildings and change the way vendors are evaluated.

Under the proposal, which the school board will consider next week, the district would contract with four cleaning companies: Fresh Start Facility Services Inc., HES Facilities Maintenance, ParCou, and ServiceMaster Clean. Each vendor would be assigned a zone, or a set of schools to clean, and the transition would begin in December.

At a $31.6 million annual cost, custodial service represents one of the district’s largest contracts, and is often contentious among board members because of persistent concerns about school cleanliness and worker wages.

The new proposal marks a reversal of the district’s controversial decision in June 2022 to consolidate custodial services for all of its buildings under a four-year contract with a single provider, ServiceMaster Clean. The district signaled this year that it may terminate that contract early, and the board directed the district to solicit new bids in June.

At the time, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said the district had withheld several million dollars of payments to ServiceMaster for not completing deep-cleaning to pandemic-level standards.

Since then, district officials have reevaluated their rubric for scoring school cleanliness, Williams told the board at a meeting Tuesday. The district also investigated and resolved unnamed “potential conflicts of interest” with the process.

“No matter what direction we go, we know that that performance evaluation process is flawed, and we need to improve it,” Williams said.

Under the current system, cleaning vendors are assessed by a district employee who visits a school once a month for a review. That process isn’t comprehensive enough, Williams said. It becomes “subjective and inconsistent,” she said, and doesn’t reflect the experiences of school-based staff.

Williams said the district has suggested that the new process incorporate feedback from principals and teachers who work in the schools, and that the vendors be scored on a compilation of daily reviews.

Contract violations could come with stricter consequences than the $25 fines ServiceMaster faced last year, Williams said. The district will now have methods for ensuring that each vendor can appropriately staff its assigned school sites.

The vendors would still be required to pay custodians at least $15 an hour.

The district set the new wage floor last summer when awarding the contract to ServiceMaster, arguing that increased wages would solve staffing issues that led to dirty school buildings.

ServiceMaster has been a custodial contractor for the district in several of the years since cleaning services were outsourced following the merger between Shelby County Schools and Memphis City Schools a decade ago. Before last year’s contract, it shared the duties with SKB Facilities & Maintenance, and, before that, with Aramark.

SKB was among five vendors evaluated for the current bidding process and earned the lowest score. Three other applicants were not evaluated because of compliance issues with the bid specifications.

Williams said MSCS has staff to manage the transition to the new vendors and enough funds to ensure that custodial employees can make the switch without losing pay.

MSCS board members are expected to vote on the proposal at the next board meeting scheduled for Sept. 26 at 5:30 p.m.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Instagram accounts shut down after NYC principal threatens to suspend student followers

2023-09-20T00:40:41+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

After a Queens principal threatened to suspend students who followed Instagram accounts with anonymous posts about their classmates — igniting a fierce debate about how to respond to students’ online behavior — the social media pages were removed.

One student was behind the two Instagram accounts, Francis Lewis High School Principal David Marmor said Tuesday afternoon during a meeting of the School Leadership Team.

He said the school was in the process of suspending the student. Marmor and an education department spokesperson declined to say if any of the Instagram account followers faced disciplinary action.

“Over the past few days the entire school community came together to condemn the online bullying and hate found on the two previously highlighted Instagram accounts,” Marmor wrote in a letter posted on the school’s website on Monday. “I am very proud to announce that the account owners have been identified, and BOTH ACCOUNTS ARE GONE!”

A range of “celebratory extracurricular activities” that had been canceled in response to the Instagram accounts — including a senior trip, prom, and an upcoming pep rally — would be allowed to resume, the principal wrote.

Francis Lewis High School is not alone in struggling to manage students’ online behavior, including social media accounts that allow kids to publicly post messages without identifying themselves.

But Marmor’s threat last week to suspend any student who followed two specific Instagram accounts — and withhold recommendation letters for college or work — represented a striking crackdown against students regardless of whether they had posted any harmful or bullying content. The move prompted criticism from civil rights groups and legal experts who said such discipline would violate students’ constitutional right to free speech.

The city’s Education Department stood by the policy, however, signaling to other school leaders that aggressive measures to curb students’ online posts may be tolerated on other campuses. The threat of harsh discipline also won backing from some members of the school community, including Shirley Aubin, president of the school’s parent association, who said the school has long wrestled with social media accounts that serve as platforms for bullying.

“This is not the first time that this situation arose, and I expect more to come, but the way he handled it met our expectations,” she said.

Principal dangles future discipline threats for other Instagram accounts

In his letter last week to the school’s more than 4,000 students, Marmor explicitly named two Instagram accounts that he characterized as “horrifying” and including “graphic and direct threats to specific children with bullying comments.”

One of them included videos of student fights that took place on and off campus, according to school officials and students who viewed them. That account was shut down by Instagram after students complained, according to an Education Department spokesperson.

The second account circulated anonymous posts that included gossip, criticism of the school’s bell schedule, and students revealing their crushes.

But it also amplified more troubling material. Some posts repeatedly bullied specific students. Others included racist language. One identified a student who allegedly had a sexually transmitted infection. A small number of posts targeted Marmor in vulgar or offensive ways.

Francis Lewis High School Principal David Marmor updated the School Leadership Team about the school’s response to the Instagram accounts on Tuesday.

The student responsible for the account voluntarily shut it down after getting caught, a department spokesperson said. The two accounts each had over 1,000 followers, school officials said.

Marmor indicated that several similar social media accounts were still active, but had far fewer followers. He warned that if they gained traction, he might once again cancel student activities — and he said the school might still discipline students who followed them.

Preston Green, a professor of educational leadership and law at the University of Connecticut, said schools can punish students for speech that disrupts the school’s learning environment or for conduct that occurs on school grounds. But he said suspending kids for following certain Instagram accounts would likely violate their First Amendment rights.

“Mere ‘following’ can’t be sufficient,” he said. “That’s going too far.”

Letter prompts swift action from students

As students streamed out of the campus on Tuesday afternoon, several said they thought the principal had overreacted. Although they acknowledged some of the Instagram posts may have been hurtful or offensive to some of their peers, they said the accounts didn’t seem to be causing major disruptions to the community.

“I don’t think anyone was talking about it that much,” said one sophomore. “Since he sent those emails to everyone, it became more of a well-known thing.” (Chalkbeat is withholding student names because of the threat of discipline.)

The sophomore acknowledged that the principal’s threat was effective. But “just because a problem was fixed doesn’t mean it was a good fix.” Punishing students who had nothing to do with the more hurtful posts by canceling student activities seemed unfair, he said.

Another student said she’d followed the two Instagram accounts and noted that the vast majority of posts weren’t geared toward bullying or naming specific students.

“They were just posting like weird content … weird fantasy stuff,” she said. “I just don’t feel like it was that serious.”

But after Marmor’s letter last week, she said she swiftly unfollowed them.

Another 10th grader also said he unfollowed the accounts after Marmor’s letter last week, partly at the urging of his mother who worried about him losing a recommendation letter for college.

This student thought that his peers should have the right to follow Instagram accounts without fear of reprisal, but the risk didn’t seem worth it. “I don’t really know too much about laws and what [the principal] can do legally,” he said.

A smaller number of students said they were glad the principal responded to the accounts. One said a lot of her peers were angry about canceling student activities. But if students are being bullied online or embarrassed by the posts “then I feel like he has to take some kind of action.” A stricter response, she said, is preferable to no response.

During the School Leadership Team meeting on Tuesday, Marmor acknowledged that most of the posts on the anonymous Instagram page did not name specific students or constitute bullying. But he emphasized that even a small number of posts can have an outsized effect, especially for the students who are targets.

“If you go to the random page and start pursuing it might take a little while to find them,” he said. “But if it’s about you, you know where it is.”

He noted that some of the accounts focus more directly on him — “I’ve got memes of me all over the internet doing horrifying things” — but he insisted that that wasn’t a motivation for the harsh response.

“I don’t care what anybody thinks about what I’m doing,” he said. “In the end, the only thing I care about is the safety and security of the kids in the building.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC principal threatens to suspend students who follow specific Instagram accounts

2023-09-15T21:37:31+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

A New York City principal issued an unusual threat this week: All students who follow anonymous social media accounts connected to the school community could face suspension and lose out on a recommendation letter for college or work.

In a Wednesday letter to more than 4,000 students at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, Principal David Marmor identified the handles of two Instagram accounts he said are posting “horrifying content” including “graphic and direct threats to specific children with bullying comments,” according to a copy obtained by Chalkbeat.

Beginning Sept. 18, “any student still following either of the two sites or any other [similar] ‘confession’ type site, will be disciplined,” he wrote. “This will likely include suspension.”

He added: “The ability to use social media anonymously is the most destructive and dangerous challenge that society has faced, possibly ever, in my opinion.”

The threat of disciplinary action immediately drew fierce criticism from civil rights advocates who say punishing students based on the social media accounts they follow is a violation of their free speech rights.

“It’s unconstitutional in a number of ways,” said Justin Harrison, a senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The right to speak anonymously and the right to receive information anonymously — without having to identify yourself to the government — is one of the oldest First Amendment protections there is.”

Plus, there are a number of logistical complications in disciplining students for following specific accounts. It’s unclear how the school could prove the identities of all the students who follow the Instagram accounts and then discipline them in a consistent way, since many students don’t use their real names on Instagram.

Marmor also vowed to cancel a range of “celebratory extracurricular activities” until the accounts are shut down or lose all of their followers, including a senior trip, prom, and an upcoming pep rally. Any students with information about who runs the Instagram accounts will “receive an appropriate award,” the letter notes.

Education department spokesperson Chyann Tull defended Marmor’s threat to suspend students. She noted the department’s policy allows for disciplining students who access or post hateful, discriminatory, harassing, or inflammatory material while on school premises or using school resources, such as WiFi.

“Our school leaders are empowered to take action against matters that threaten [the] wellbeing of the school community, and the principal’s actions are in line with the New York city Public Schools’ Internet Acceptable Use Policy and Discipline Code,” she wrote in an email. “We encourage our students to be upstanders and not bystanders, which includes upholding the values of their school communities.”

Marmor did not respond to an interview request.

One of the Instagram accounts identified in the letter had already been shut down by Friday, and Marmor indicated that the other site had already lost hundreds of followers in a note to school staff.

Chalkbeat reviewed hundreds of posts connected to one of the Instagram accounts Marmor cited. It solicits anonymous comments that are then republished. Many of the posts include musings, gossip, and crushes. “I lowkey miss my ex,” one post reads. “Being special Ed is embarrassing I hate it,” another said. One post links to a petition to change the school’s bell schedule.

Still, many others are sexually explicit, single out specific students, or include racist language. One post declares: “I dont like black people” and is signed with a first name. Another names a student who allegedly had a sexually transmitted infection. A handful of posts mention Marmor in vulgar or offensive ways.

Harrison noted that the school may be within its rights to discipline students who specifically target other students or school officials, though the anonymous nature of the messages makes that challenging.

“I’m not unsympathetic to the principal’s situation here,” he said. “The better responses are positive ones. You can’t threaten your way into a good school climate.”

One student at the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the principal’s reaction seemed extreme given that the Instagram accounts didn’t appear to be causing major disruptions.

“I haven’t heard much about the account at all,” the student said. “I think the big deal he’s making of it actually made it more popular.” Canceling events, the student added, made students angrier with the principal than whomever is behind the Instagram accounts.

The student said it’s not the first time the school has grappled with anonymous social media accounts, noting that school administrators have raised concerns about them in the past.

Shirley Aubin, president of the school’s parent association, said she supports the principal’s crackdown on students who follow the social media accounts.

“He can’t prevent them from following [the accounts] but he can create deterrents,” Aubin said. “It is a reasonable response,” she added. “The reality is there are consequences for your actions.”

Still, Marmor hinted in his letter that some members of the community may perceive the new disciplinary measures as draconian and he invited those with concerns to set up an appointment to speak with him.

“I am aware that the above steps are serious and dramatic,” he wrote. “The problem warrants it; this is a matter of life and death to me.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis’ Peabody Elementary closes for mold cleanup, forcing hundreds of students to relocate

2023-09-13T02:02:03+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Students at Peabody Elementary School will attend class at two other buildings while the school district works to eliminate mold from the 114-year-old structure.

According to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Peabody’s K-5 students and staff will move to the first floor of Middle College High School, at 750 E. Parkway, beginning Thursday. The school is about a mile away from Peabody.

Its pre-kindergarten students will attend W.H. Brewster Elementary, at 2605 Sam Cooper Blvd., about 3 miles from Peabody.

Peabody closed Sept. 8 after mold was discovered in the ductwork and grates on the school’s first floor. District officials said they will update parents during fall break, Oct. 9-13, on when they plan to move Peabody’s 323 students back into the building.

“Significant progress has been made” in removing the mold, MSCS said in a notice to parents. “However, the complexity of the job has exceeded our initial expectations due to the historical nature of the structure.”

This is the second time in the past two school years that MSCS students and staff have had to change schools because of issues linked to aging buildings.

In August 2022, students at Cummings K-8 Optional School had to relocate after the school’s library ceiling partially collapsed just days into the new school year. The structure that houses the library was built in 1930.

Old buildings like Peabody Elementary are more susceptible to mold because they’ve been exposed to weather and excessive moisture longer than newer structures.

Inhaling mold can trigger allergies and asthma. In Memphis, asthma is the cause of more than 3,500 visits to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital each year, and is the most common diagnosis, according to the hospital’s website.

More than 33 of MSCS’ schools were constructed before 1950, meaning the buildings are 70 or more years old.

District officials will introduce a new facilities plan this school year that will propose ways to deal with a growing backlog of costly maintenance issues. A mix of construction projects, closures, and consolidations will likely affect thousands of students, forcing more students to relocate to different buildings, at least temporarily.

MSCS said it will provide crossing guards, security officers, and additional support staff to ease the transition at Peabody. Regular bus routes will continue for bus riders.

For those who walk or who require additional transportation, an extra bus will arrive at Peabody at 7:15 a.m. and 7:50 a.m., and will return to Peabody for dismissal at 3:30 daily.

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Reach her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.

Fired McAuliffe principal Kurt Dennis sues Denver Public Schools, alleging retaliation

2023-09-05T21:36:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news in Denver and around the state.

Kurt Dennis, who was fired in July from his job as principal of McAuliffe International School, sued Denver Public Schools, Superintendent Alex Marrero, and six of the seven Denver school board members in federal court Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed on Dennis’ behalf by civil rights attorney David Lane, alleges that DPS fired Dennis in retaliation for a televised interview he gave to 9News in March. In the interview, Dennis expressed concerns about a district practice that required McAuliffe staff to pat down a student charged with attempted murder to check for weapons.

Dennis gave the interview just days after a different student at Denver’s East High School, who was subject to the same type of weapons searches, shot and injured two school deans.

“Ultimately, Defendants are retaliating against Mr. Dennis, who exercised his right to free speech when he publicly criticized DPS and its unsafe policies in an effort to protect his students and staff from the horrifying specter of gun violence,” the lawsuit says.

A DPS spokesperson said Tuesday that the district could not comment on the allegations because “the lawsuit has not been served to DPS.”

“The allegations made in any complaint are not facts,” the district said in a statement. “We believe the preponderance of the evidence, some of which has already been released, will support our case and we look forward to responding fully in court.”

But district officials have commented before, and some of those comments are now cited in Dennis’ lawsuit.

Dennis’ initial safety concerns, his firing, rallies calling for him to be reinstated, and a subsequent district investigation into the improper use of a seclusion room at McAuliffe have been extensively covered by the local media for months.

In that time, DPS school board members made multiple public statements about Dennis, including at press conferences before and after the seclusion investigation was complete, and at meetings, such as when the board voted 6-1 last month to uphold his firing. Dennis is not suing Scott Baldermann, the one board member who voted no.

The lawsuit claims those statements were defamatory and “publicly advanced numerous pretextual reasons for the termination.” It claims board members tied Dennis to white supremacy and made statements “smearing him in public as a racist” by claiming that the seclusion room was used only for students of color, which Dennis disputes.

A district investigation found that Dennis placed students — or directed other staff to place students — in two seclusion rooms last year without proper supervision and then locked the door. But it did not find that Dennis disproportionately placed students of color in the rooms.

The lawsuit alleges DPS has not provided Dennis with an opportunity to clear his name, which has made it impossible for him to find a principal job in another school district.

In firing Dennis, DPS said he had improperly “divulged confidential student and legal records” in the 9News interview, put DPS at legal risk, caused the McAuliffe student who was being searched to be ostracized, and “repeatedly attempted to remove a young student of color” from the school, according to a document obtained by Chalkbeat.

The district also cited “a pattern of administrative actions” at McAuliffe that had a negative impact on students with disabilities and students of color, including the “overuse of out-of-school suspensions” for students of color, the document says.

The lawsuit doesn’t address the allegation about out-of-school suspensions. But it does claim that students of color achieved high academic results at McAuliffe, the district’s largest middle school. On average, McAuliffe students of color outperformed 88% of their peers statewide on state standardized tests in the 2021-22 school year, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also disputes that Dennis divulged confidential student records or caused the student who was being searched to be ostracized. The records Dennis provided to the press were redacted to remove personal information about the student, the lawsuit says.

Students who are subject to daily weapons searches “are already known by most everyone at the school, including fellow students, as ‘dangerous,’” the lawsuit says.

The student in this case was accused of shooting a liquor store clerk during a robbery attempt, the lawsuit says. The student wore a visible ankle bracelet as a condition of their bond and was escorted by a staff member at all times under a safety plan that deemed the student a threat, according to the lawsuit.

“Through no fault of Mr. Dennis, the identity of these students is, and always has been, widely known by other students and faculty throughout the school,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also claims that Dennis was within his legal rights to request that the student be transferred to an online education program or expelled. DPS denied both requests, the lawsuit says.

In the wake of the East shooting, district leaders have defended a policy that allows students facing criminal charges to attend their regular schools while on bond.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee’s special session on public safety ends with little action on guns

2023-08-30T01:56:49+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Parents who lobbied for curtailing access to guns after a horrific school shooting in Nashville blasted the Tennessee legislature’s special session on public safety, which ended Tuesday without the passage of a single bill targeting the state’s lax gun laws.

In their six days of work, lawmakers approved three bills designed to speed up background checks, provide free gun locks to Tennessee residents, and require an annual state report on human trafficking.

Another approved measure, which appropriates money to cover the estimated $340,000 cost of the session, also includes extra funding for school safety officers, mental health resources and workers, and an advertising campaign encouraging gun owners to lock up their weapons.

But none of the bills that passed specifically address concerns about easy access to guns that were raised by the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, where a 28-year-old intruder used legally purchased guns to shoot through glass doors and kill three students and three adults. Authorities said the shooter, who died after being shot by police, was under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disorder.”

The disconnect — after days of protests, prayers, and pleas for meaningful reforms — left parents, students, and gun control activists angry.

“We’re talking about life and death, and this legislature has basically done nothing,” said Sierra Barnett, a mother of two preschoolers in Mt. Juliet, near Nashville.

Barnett was among the throng of mostly female demonstrators who showed up daily during the session to urge lawmakers to pass a bill letting judges order the removal of firearms from people at risk of hurting themselves and others.

“I’m devastated, and I hope people are paying attention,” she said tearfully in the Capitol Rotunda after lawmakers had exited. “I’m praying there’s an uproar across the state of Tennessee.”

Governor calls extra funding a victory

Gov. Bill Lee, who was largely absent during the gun debate after lawmakers convened on Aug. 21, framed the session’s output as “important, difficult, and hopeful.”

“We made progress and elevated a conversation about public safety that will continue into the future,” he told reporters.

In his remarks, Lee cited the legislature’s appropriation of more than $100 million in additional one-time funding as a victory, including:

$50 million to bolster community mental health agencies;
$30 million for safety upgrades at higher education education institutions;
$10 million in K-12 safety grants to provide school resource officers for charter schools or school safety officers for schools that can’t immediately hire an SRO due to a shortage of law enforcement officers;
$12 million for sign-on and retention bonuses for mental health workers in the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services;
$4 million for behavioral health safety net grants;
$3 million for a scholarship program for people wanting to work in the mental health field;
$1.6 million to provide free gun locks to Tennessee residents and to pay for an ad campaign on gun safety through the state Department of Safety

Gov. Bill Lee speaks with reporters about the results of Tennessee’s special legislative session on public safety that adjourned on Aug. 29, 2023.

“Our state is safer today as a result of this session,” said Lee, noting that the legislature also invested $230 million more in school safety earlier this year.

But outnumbered Democrats slammed the governor and GOP leadership for results that they called “fluff” and “solution-less.”

“It’s been a complete waste of time,” said House Minority Leader Karen Camper, of Memphis. “The people wanted more and expected more.”

“No one should leave this building saying we made Tennessee safer,” said Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, also of Memphis, where 115 children have been injured or killed in gun violence since January.

“People made a lot of promises. When we come back in January” for the regular legislative session, Akbari added, “we sure as hell better do something.”

Lee’s proclamation put gun control proposals out of reach

More than a hundred bills were filed based on Lee’s official proclamation, which called lawmakers back to the Capitol and identified 18 potential topics, from school safety to juvenile justice to mental health. But the governor backed off of his early proposal for a law to keep guns out of the hands of people having a mental health crisis.

Democrats complained that parameters set by Lee left little room for meaningful gun reforms in one of the most gun-friendly states in America. For instance, Lee said lawmakers could pass measures that encourage safe storage of firearms, but not enact penalties for failing to do so.

A gun control advocate holds up a sign outside the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville on August 21, 2023, the first day of the legislature’s special session on public safety.

Lee’s proclamation opened the door, however, to proposals that could put more guns in schools — several of which advanced out of House committees but ultimately stalled.

One proposal to let citizens with enhanced permits carry handguns in schools narrowly failed in the House Education Committee after clearing two earlier panels, while Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville pulled his bill to arm teachers who meet certain requirements. Williams said the legislature can take up his bill next year in regular session.

The House sought to pass more than a dozen bills, including ones requiring all public and private schools to create alarm policies that differentiate emergencies for fire, weather, or an active shooter; expand handgun carry policies at private schools to include pre-K; enact harsher penalties for juvenile offenders; and increase penalties for stalking.

But the Senate worked to limit the number of bills debated. On the session’s third day, its education committee met for less than a minute and tabled all 21 items on its agenda.

Ultimately, the Senate’s refusal to negotiate differences with the House led to an abrupt adjournment of both chambers.

“You’ve done nothing!” “Do your job!” “Vote them out!” chanted spectators as Republican leaders gaveled out their daily sessions.

Legislative process unraveled amid political infighting

Democratic Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis speak with supporters and reporters after adjournment.

The session in Nashville was frequently chaotic, with issues about school and public safety often overshadowed by political infighting, the expulsion of protesters, GOP efforts to limit public access to the Capitol, a lawsuit over new House rules prohibiting spectators from holding up paper signs, and several incidents of representatives shoving each other on the floor of the House in the tense minutes after adjournment.

“Things got hot,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said about brief physical interactions that involved him, Republican Reps. Justin Lafferty of Knoxville and Scott Cepicky of Culleoka, and Democratic Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis.

“We’re moving forward from it,” Sexton said when asked if he would pursue disciplinary action against those involved. “At this point, I think everybody needs to figure out how to calm down.”

Parents of several students at The Covenant School, who actively lobbied for several bills to bolster school safety and mental health, said they had hoped for more out of their elected officials. Several were in tears at various points throughout the week as they tried to advocate for legislation on behalf of their children and the victims killed at their private Christian school: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9; custodian Mike Hill and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, both 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school.

Sarah Shoop Neumann, joined by other parents at The Covenant School, speaks during a press conference on the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol on August 21, 2023.

“Today is a difficult day,” said David Teague, a father of two children at Covenant. “A tremendous opportunity to make our children safer and create brighter tomorrow’s has been missed. And I am saddened for all Tennesseans.”

Sarah Shoop Neumann, another Covenant parent, called for respectful, thoughtful, bipartisan debate going forward to work to diminish gun violence.

“Those who are not of this mindset do not deserve a seat in the House or the Senate,” Neumann said, “and we will work toward ensuring every one of those seats is replaced by someone who has a true desire to listen to their constituents over firearm association lobbyists.”

“We will be back in January.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board upholds firing of McAuliffe Principal Kurt Dennis

2023-08-25T03:11:31+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

In a 6-1 vote Thursday, the Denver school board approved the firing of McAuliffe International School Principal Kurt Dennis, backing a decision by the superintendent that sparked both fierce backlash from Dennis’ supporters and a new set of accusations against him.

The discussion was heated, with board members condemning both the existence of a seclusion room at McAuliffe in which students were locked inside alone and a televised news interview in which Dennis shared redacted documents about a student who’d been charged with a crime.

Board member Scott Baldermann was the sole no vote. He argued that the board didn’t follow its own policies. He especially took issue with a press conference at which other board members spoke about the seclusion room before a district investigation was complete.

Scott Esserman, one of the board members at the press conference, said Baldermann’s take was “troubling.” While Esserman denied that board members violated policy, he also said, “I happen to have a higher moral purpose that’s more important than any particular self-imposed piece of policy governance. And that’s to engage in ensuring our children are safe.”

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson read a poem he’d written that denounced the use of the seclusion room, which he and others have said was used with Black students.

“It pains my heart to know a child was in a cage,” he said, “viewed as a spectacle, fury, and rage.”

Dennis was the founding principal at McAuliffe International, a popular and high-performing middle school. He was fired in July in the aftermath of a televised March interview he did with local news station 9News expressing concerns about gun violence and student safety.

Dennis told 9News that the staff at McAuliffe was having to do weapons searches on a student accused of attempted murder. The searches were the same type that staff at East High School had been doing with a student who shot and injured two deans in March.

In firing Dennis, DPS said he had improperly “divulged confidential student and legal records” in the 9News interview in violation of district policy, put DPS at legal risk, and caused the student who was being searched to be ostracized, according to a document obtained by Chalkbeat.

The district also cited “a pattern of administrative actions” at McAuliffe that had a negative impact on students with disabilities and students of color. An investigator found the school’s “overuse of out-of-school suspensions … was having a disparate impact on students of color.”

Racial disparities in discipline did exist at McAuliffe last year, district data shows. While 14% of McAuliffe students were Black, 30% of suspensions were issued to Black students — a disparity that exists at several other district middle schools as well.

Dennis retained civil rights attorney David Lane, who has alleged the district retaliated against Dennis for the 9News interview in violation of his First Amendment rights. The Denver School Leaders Association, the union that represents DPS principals, filed a grievance on behalf of Dennis in July. The status of that grievance was not immediately available Thursday night. Lane expects to sue the district on Dennis’ behalf after the grievance process plays out.

In the meantime, school board members said an anonymous whistleblower who works at the school told them about a seclusion room in which students experiencing behavioral issues were locked inside alone. DPS opened an investigation, and Anderson, who got the initial tip, reported it to the Denver police.

DPS calls such rooms “de-escalation rooms” — and district policy states the door must be left open and an adult must accompany a student inside. The room at McAuliffe “was clearly not in compliance with DPS’ stated guidelines,” the district said in a media release last month, which also said the McAuliffe room was “identified as an incarceration room.”

In an interview with the Denver Post, Dennis acknowledged that he had a lock put on the door to the room but said it was removed after a week or two. He denied that students were left alone in the room because he said staff monitored them through a window in the door.

Pam Bisceglia, the executive director of Advocacy Denver, an organization that advocates for students with disabilities and their families, said she has filed more state and federal complaints on behalf of or involving students at McAuliffe than at any other school in the district.

Since Dennis’ firing in July, many McAuliffe parents and students have rallied to his defense. That continued at a school board public comment session Monday.

“I think you should put Kurt back in his place because he’s made McAuliffe into the best school,” said sixth grader Ella Rustici. Standardized test scores at McAuliffe are high, she said, “and he got fired and that’s not fair.”

Parents and students rally in support of Kurt Dennis outside McAuliffe International School in July.

“I hope from the bottom of my heart that the board of education rethinks this terrible decision,” said Chloe Vause, a freshman at Northfield High School who went to McAuliffe in middle school.

But the support for Dennis is not universal. Board member Charmaine Lindsay noted that the “majority of all people we saw speaking out on behalf of Kurt were white.”

Three of Deronn Turner’s children have attended McAuliffe. Turner, who is Black, said her two older children reported “stark differences in the way Black students were treated and white students were treated. Black students were punished much more harshly than the white students.”

Turner said that when she, as an involved parent volunteer, tried to suggest an essay writing contest for Black History Month, some McAuliffe staff members told her, “Oh, these kids can’t write.” The staff members were referring to Black students, Turner said.

Turner said she supports Dennis’ termination.

“I’m not celebrating anyone’s demise,” she said. “But I won’t promote someone that has been known to do some things as it pertains to children of color that just are not right.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Bills to let Tennessee teachers and citizens carry guns in schools advance in legislature

2023-08-23T01:00:37+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Two bills that would let some teachers and citizens carry handguns in Tennessee public schools cleared a House subcommittee Tuesday, but Senate leaders signaled they’ll work to stymie the proposals in their chamber.

Meanwhile, House Republican leaders continued to crack down on behaviors from gun control advocates deemed as disruptive during the second day of a special legislative session on public safety.

The developments reflected mounting tensions in Tennessee’s splintering gun debate after Gov. Bill Lee called lawmakers back to the Capitol in response to a Nashville school shooting that left six people and the shooter dead — and prompted mass demonstrations from gun control advocates during the legislature’s regular session.

While GOP leaders want to focus this week on juvenile justice and mental health issues, polls show that most Tennessee voters want them to tighten the state’s lax gun laws. However, because of the limited scope of the governor’s proclamation, the legislature won’t take up gun control measures during its special session.

And Lee, whose wife knew two of the adult victims at The Covenant School, where the shooting occurred on March 27, appears to have abandoned his proposal for keeping firearms out of the hands of people having a mental health crisis. Since issuing his proclamation for the special session two weeks ago, he’s had no visible presence at the Capitol and made few public appearances.

A day after the House’s GOP supermajority passed rules that will limit debate, ban signs, and allow fewer members of the public inside the Capitol, state troopers escorted several women holding up paper signs with anti-gun messages from a legislative hearing room. Minutes later, troopers cleared the packed room of everyone but lawmakers, staff, and media after a handful of people ignored several warnings against clapping during committee business.

“Everything feels really raw right now,” said Linda McFadyen-Ketchum, a retired teacher and leader with her Nashville-area chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

“People are angry and frightened,” she said, especially over any notion that the solution to gun violence is more guns.

Proposals would put more guns in schools

Both GOP-sponsored bills that advanced in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee would open the door to people other than law enforcement officers having guns in schools.

One measure would let a teacher or school staff member carry a concealed handgun after completing 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense, as well as passing a mental health evaluation and FBI background check.

It would be up to the local district whether to let employees carry firearms under the legislation sponsored by Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville and Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta.

But the school’s parents and students would not have to be notified under this legislation, which runs counter to the GOP’s emphasis on parental rights and notification in other areas of education, such as curriculum and library materials.

A second bill would allow a person with an enhanced permit, which requires eight hours of training, to carry a handgun openly or concealed in any K-12 public school building, campus, or bus. The proposal also would apply to law enforcement officers and military personnel, whether on duty, off duty, or retired.

The bill, sponsored by Bailey in the Senate and Rep. Chris Todd of Jackson, is opposed by Lee’s administration, which budgeted an extra $140 million this spring to place a full-time, armed officer in every public school in the state, beginning this school year.

Todd countered that many schools still don’t have SROs because of a shortage of law enforcement officers. And he noted that private schools already can set policies so that some employees carry handguns.

Several citizens spoke against any measures that would place additional burdens on teachers.

Sarah Shoop Neumann, a parent at The Covenant School, said she believes the tragedy would have been worse if teachers had focused on anything but keeping students safe in their classrooms as the shooter walked the hallways.

Sarah Shoop Neumann, joined by other parents at The Covenant School in Nashville, speaks during a press conference on the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol on Aug. 21, 2023.

Fighting back tears, she recounted conversations with Covenant teachers who described how their hands shook while they worked to keep their students quiet, hidden, and secure.

“They are heroes,” she said. “They enacted every protocol in place perfectly, and they could not have done those things if they were also meant to be armed and go out and attack the shooter.”

More votes are scheduled

Both House bills are scheduled to be taken up Wednesday in the Civil Justice Committee. But their path in the Senate looks harder, judging by the actions and comments of several GOP leaders in that chamber.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to take up the Senate version of Todd’s bill on Tuesday, but didn’t vote on it. The committee, chaired by Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga, passed only three of 55 bills on its calendar before adjourning.

The bills must clear committees chaired by Sens. Todd Gardenhire and Jon Lundberg (front left).

In the days after the Covenant shooting, Gardenhire said he would defer any action on gun-related legislation until next year.

The Senate version of Williams’ bill — to let some teachers carry firearms — is scheduled for a vote Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.

But on Tuesday, Sen. Jon Lundsberg of Bristol, who chairs the panel, indicated he would vote against it.

Any bills to allow guns in schools “require a great deal of input from multiple stakeholders,” he told Chalkbeat. “I believe they would require several weeks of testimony and input.”

Currently, special session business is scheduled through Thursday, although leaders could extend it several more days.

Also Tuesday, three bills to create so-called extreme risk protection orders failed in the same House subcommittee where members of the public were kicked out. Those bills, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman of Nashville, would allow courts to order temporary removal of firearms from people at risk of hurting themselves or others.

Authorities said the 28-year-old shooter at the Covenant School was seeing a doctor for an “emotional disorder” and had legally obtained multiple weapons.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee legislature will avoid gun control in special session prompted by mass school shooting

2023-08-22T00:12:11+00:00

As Tennessee lawmakers and lobbyists returned to the state Capitol Monday to discuss guns and public safety, 12-year-old student Juliette Dominguez showed up too, in hopes that her perspective would make a difference.

Fresh from two days of classroom instruction on how to respond if an armed intruder breaks into her school, Juliette was frustrated that Tennessee is focusing on preparing school communities to defend themselves from people with guns — instead of taking action to restrict gun access from people at risk of hurting themselves or others.

“Why is this something that children should have to worry about?” asked Juliette, a seventh grader in Goodlettsville, north of Nashville.

Gov. Bill Lee called the special legislative session in response to a school shooting in Nashville in which three 9-year-old children and three adults were killed. The session is expected to last a week.

But any drive to tighten Tennessee’s gun laws has been squelched by a Republican supermajority in one of the nation’s most gun-friendly states, even as a recent poll of Tennessee voters showed significant bipartisan support for various gun regulations.

More than a hundred bills have been filed based on Lee’s official proclamation identifying 18 potential topics, from school safety to juvenile justice to mental health. But Lee’s proclamation never uses the word “gun,” and it mentions “firearms” only in relation to measures that would encourage safe storage of weapons, but with no new penalties allowed.

The House also passed new rules Monday in response to the body’s dramatic expulsion in April of two Democratic members for the way they protested the body’s failure to pursue significant gun reforms this spring. Under the changes, Speaker Cameron Sexton can suspend recognition of members for escalating amounts of time if he determines they are disrupting legislative business, speaking off topic, or impugning another member. The rules also limit the number of people allowed in the chamber’s galleries, as well as the nearby rotunda.

“The rules that are being put forward now are to limit freedom of speech,” said Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis, who was expelled and then reelected in a special election this month. “With these rules, you are silencing our constituency.”

Lee called lawmakers back after acknowledging that the March 27 attack on The Covenant School confounded many elements of Tennessee’s school safety policies, including a sweeping plan that Lee had proposed just weeks earlier to require all K-12 public schools to keep their exterior doors locked, among other things.

Eventually, the legislature increased funding to further fortify both public and private schools but rejected the governor’s late proposal for a law allowing authorities to temporarily remove guns from people having a mental health emergency.

Gun control advocates, who held mass demonstrations after the tragedy and while lawmakers were in their regular session, returned to the Capitol as lawmakers prepared to start the special session, even as Nashville police recommended that people avoid the downtown area this week if possible.

At the invitation of a coalition of Christian groups, hundreds of people, including Juliette and her family, encircled the stone building in the morning to pray for passage of meaningful gun restrictions.

“I’m tired of people saying there’s nothing we can do, because we seem to be able to do things about everything else,” said Juliette’s mother, Jen. “We’re quick to yank books off of library shelves, or limit how students can dress. Why are guns impossible?”

Jen Dominguez stands outside of the state Capitol with her children Juliette, Alice, and Celia, after participating in a prayer circle for gun control on Aug. 21, 2023.

Meanwhile, a group of parents of surviving students at The Covenant School endorsed 10 bills that they said offer a start. They praised proposals to beef up school safety plans but said there’s an urgent need for new laws to keep guns out of the hands of people having a mental health crisis and for the state to provide more mental health care. They also criticized several bills that could allow teachers to be armed in school.

“As the spouse of an educator and the child of a retired educator, I am acutely aware, especially this time of year as we head back to school, of the heavy demands and lack of margins many of our teachers currently have,” said David Teague, the parent of two children at The Covenant School. “We should not add armed security guard to their list of extracurriculars.”

The Covenant School serves about 200 students in preschool to sixth grade. The six people killed there were students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9; and three school staff members: custodian Mike Hill and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, both 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school.

Authorities said the 28-year-old shooter was seeing a doctor for an “emotional disorder” and had legally obtained multiple weapons.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Philadelphia families rejoice at school’s new playground amid fears for children’s safety

2023-08-17T22:24:53+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.

When Duane Watts was a student at Edward Steel Elementary School in Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood more than 40 years ago, he remembers running excitedly out of his classroom for recess and being confronted with concrete.

No swings, no slides, no monkey bars to climb on. “We would play tag, but nothing was actually present and given to us to play with,” he said.

But that’s no longer true for the children attending Steel, a pre-K-8 school of more than 300 students. On Thursday morning, school officials and nonprofit leaders cut the ribbon on a new $45,000 playground in Steel’s side yard.

Built over the summer with donated funds, the playground gives children more room to play at a time when policies like the city curfew and restrictions on unaccompanied minors at businesses, as well as gun violence that has affected Nicetown and other Philadelphia neighborhoods, have made it harder for children to congregate and spend productive time together in public spaces.

Teachers and counselors at Steel who fought for the playground by writing grants and building partnerships and community support for it looked on in tears at the ribbon cutting. At least a dozen parents brought their children to be the first to test out the new equipment.

“This is a huge deal for us,” said Nicole Wyglendowski, a special education teacher for K-3 students who helped with the effort. Younger children especially need playgrounds with inviting activities to help them to learn to get along with each other and “just have fun,” she said.

Counselor Maria Lajara, who helped write the grant proposal for the playground with fellow counselor Klarissa Hudson, pointed out most Steel students “don’t really have a nearby city playground that is safe to play in. They want to play, and they didn’t have anything to play with. This is a great asset for them, they deserve that.”

A study in 2019 found that only one third of Philadelphia’s schools had playgrounds, and most of those were in more affluent areas. Advocates have made the case that quality playtime is vital to children’s physical and emotional health, and the lack of playgrounds in some areas of the city has become part of the broader debate about the need for educational equity.

District spokesperson Marissa Orbanek said the situation has improved since then. Of 149 district schools with elementary-age students in the city, 79 have fully equipped playgrounds and 70 don’t, although 11 of those have play equipment in various stages of planning or construction.

The cost of the playground was underwritten by The Block Cares, a two-year-old nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift children; the Robert Half Company, a recruiting firm; and some private donations. The Block Cares is affiliated with The Block Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation founded in 2014.

Maria Little, director at The Block Cares, said her organization has a “mission to empower urban youth and kids to experience a limitless future.” When the organization began working in the Nicetown area, it connected with Steel Elementary and became especially interested in supporting teachers and students as they returned to in-person learning from the pandemic.

Parent Samantha Dowd, who has five children at Steel, had just heard that morning about the playground and the dedication ceremony.

“I was shocked,” she said. “This is really nice. To see something like this is important, especially at a time when so many tragedies are happening,” referring to the gun violence that is plaguing the city.

She was grateful her kids now have a safe space to play. As she spoke, her son Isaac Carter was already on the monkey bars, and her daughters were enjoying the swings. “It’s fun,” Isaac said.

Najalene Bey’s daughter, third grader Amina Ray, made a beeline for the swings as soon as she could. Bey said she had attended Steel herself. When she was a student, they would play sidewalk games like hopscotch, foursquare and jump rope during recess. But surveying the new playground, she said, “I wish we had this.”

Grandmother Darlena Green, watching the children, observed: “They’re not gonna go home now.”

Orbanek said that the district partners with outside organizations for funding what she called “schoolyard transformations.” They include the Eagles Annual Playground Build project and the Trust for Public Land (although not The Block Cares). Grants are provided by the William Penn Foundation, earmarked funds through state legislators, and neighborhood groups connected to schools. (Chalkbeat receives funding from the William Penn Foundation.) The Steel project falls into the latter category.

She noted that the district’s strategic plan includes providing safe, welcoming spaces for students, and that building more playgrounds fits into this.

“We have a vision for our schoolyards to be much more than paved asphalt parking lots,” said Oz Hill, the district’s chief of operations, in a statement. “We strive to provide a dynamic space for playful learning with green space, active recreation, quiet areas, and space to refocus and unwind and creatively engage in learning and socializing through play.”

Watts, who remembers the schoolyard’s concrete during his days as a Steel student, is now the school’s academic teacher leader. After graduating from Dobbins Area Vocational Technical High School and attending college, he went on to a career in finance before switching to education.

He has family members who still live in Nicetown, and he said the neighborhood’s public park is not safe.

“Yeah, this is significant,” he said. “To see this now as a new playground in the area and have it attached to the school that I attended, and the community having access to it, it’s just indescribable.”

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee governor calls lawmakers back to address guns, public safety after school shooting

2023-08-08T23:09:47+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Defying Tennessee’s powerful gun lobby, Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday he’s calling lawmakers back to the state Capitol on Aug. 21 to take up public safety proposals after a shooter killed three children and three adults at a Nashville school this spring.

The Republican governor, whose wife knew several of the adult victims at the private church campus known as The Covenant School, wants legislators in one of the nation’s most gun-friendly states to pass a law to keep firearms out of the hands of people who could hurt themselves or others.

The 28-year-old shooter at The Covenant School was shot and killed by police on the campus after using legally purchased firearms in the March 27 attack. Authorities later said the shooter was seeing a doctor for an “emotional disorder.”

In calling for a law allowing “temporary mental health orders of protection,” Lee has tried to satisfy gun rights advocates who view any restrictions as an infringement of Second Amendment rights.

“As our nation faces evolving public safety threats, Tennessee remains vigilant and is taking continued action to protect communities while preserving the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Lee said in a statement.

But Democrats said Lee’s official proclamation doesn’t go far enough to try to address the proliferation of guns across Tennessee.

“For such a broad call, this proclamation somehow manages to miss the target,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons of Nashville, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus.

Lee’s proclamation is important because it sets the legal parameters for what they can and can’t take up.

The list of what’s fair game is long and includes mental health resources, providers, and related Medicaid coverage; school safety policies; measures encouraging safe storage of firearms; and timely law enforcement access to criminal and juvenile records, as well as to records for individuals “who are subject to mental health commitment.”

It also includes stalking offenses, reports from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation regarding human trafficking, the structure or operations of state or local courts, and limiting the circumstances in which juvenile records may be expunged.

The call comes after the governor met privately this summer with small groups of lawmakers to talk through his proposal and their ideas for quelling gun violence and increasing school safety in hopes of eventually passing meaningful legislation.

Then just a week ago, police in Memphis shot a man suspected of trying to enter a Jewish school with a gun.

Meanwhile, advocates on both sides of the gun debate have pressed Lee to pursue or abandon the special session.

Last weekend, the state’s Republican executive committee adopted a resolution encouraging Lee to back off, while groups like the National Rifle Association and the National Association for Gun Rights have urged legislators to oppose any gun control measures.

“We expect Tennessee Republicans to stand firm in their defense of the Second Amendment and vote to adjourn the special session upon its start in August,” Dudley Brown, president of the gun rights association, said last month.

On the other side, numerous gun control advocates have launched campaigns promoting firearm safety legislation. A Democratic-backed bus tour of the state kicks off Wednesday in Memphis to talk with Tennesseans about gun violence. Everytown for Gun Safety is spending $100,000 on digital ads, while Voices for a Safer Tennessee released a video message featuring the mother of Evelyn Diekhaus, one of the victims, on what would have been her 10th birthday.

“What’s more important?” asked Katy Dieckhaus, in her emotional plea for “responsible firearm safety laws that will work toward protecting our children and their right to life.”

The shooting at Covenant happened as lawmakers were meeting in their regular session, sparking daily mass demonstrations at the Capitol by Tennesseans protesting loose gun laws, especially those allowing easy access to military-style semiautomatic weapons.

Lawmakers responded by passing the governor’s sweeping school safety plan, which pumped $230 million more into hardening public and private K-12 schools by hiring additional armed security guards, upgrading school buildings, and placing a homeland security agent in every Tennessee county, among other things.

But most of them rebuffed Lee’s proposal to pass a law to restrict gun access for people experiencing a mental health crisis. Instead, after a House vote to expel two Democratic representatives for the way they protested the failure to pursue significant gun reforms, the GOP-controlled legislature rushed to adjourn in May without revisiting those laws. Lee quickly vowed to call a special session on the matter.

The governor has lobbied for Tennessee to pass a law on “extreme risk protection orders” and has avoided references to a so-called red flag law, which he has described as a “toxic political label.” Nineteen states have such laws on the books, including Florida, which passed its version after 17 people were murdered in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, despite numerous complaints to law enforcement about threatening statements by the 19-year-old gunman.

An extreme risk order allows courts to temporarily remove guns — typically for up to a year — from people deemed a threat to themselves or others. Family members or law enforcement often must petition a court for an order.

Soon after issuing his proclamation, Lee came under fire from both sides of the debate.

Senate Democratic Leader Raumesh Akbari of Memphis said the governor’s proclamation will prevent most gun safety reforms from being debated during the upcoming session.

“A promise to do something to stop future shootings was made to Covenant parents, but sadly this proclamation eliminates many paths forward,” Akbari said in a statement.

Victims in the Nashville shooting were students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9; and three school staff members: custodian Mike Hill and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, both 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Meet Michael Giles, Aurora Public Schools’ new superintendent

2023-08-09T16:36:06+00:00

A month after taking over the top leadership job in Aurora Public Schools, Superintendent Michael Giles says he’s working on being visible in schools and the community.

The Aurora district started classes Tuesday, and Giles has been greeting students and visiting classrooms.

Giles, who has a three-year, $285,000-per-year contract, was most recently the assistant superintendent of equity, culture, and community engagement for the neighboring Cherry Creek school district. He says he’s interested in fostering student and community engagement.

He doesn’t yet have answers to the big questions facing the district including the future of the previous administration’s Blueprint plan to deal with changing enrollment patterns. Giles said it was a thoughtful plan, but he’s evaluating if it still meets the community’s current needs.

In the first 90 days, Giles said he’s hoping to gather information to inform his longer-term plans.

The following Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Why did you get into education?

I feel like I’ve been called to work with the youth and I was doing it as a corrections counselor but it got to the point where I felt like my work wasn’t effective in the way of prevention. It was more so working with students once they had already committed offenses and they were incarcerated and I wanted to get out on the preventative side. I felt the way I could do that was to go into educational counseling. At one time, I thought that I wanted to be a math teacher, years ago, and that didn’t end up manifesting. But I guess the education piece combined with my counseling background kind of led me back into the education world.

What made you want to take on this superintendent role?

Just living here in the city of Aurora for 25 years, I’ve been a member of this community for so long. I’ve participated in many leadership opportunities, a lot of local events and organizations and this just feels like home. I wasn’t necessarily looking to become a superintendent although I was an assistant superintendent in my previous district but when this one came up right here, in what I consider to be my home, it felt like a great fit.

Is there a particular achievement in that previous role as equity officer that you learned something from and you now think you can apply to your work here in Aurora?

I can name many but there are two that come to mind: The involvement of student voice. I ran several student issue groups and had many different opportunities to engage with students to ascertain what has their experience with school been? And what do they need to make it more meaningful? We use that to help create systems and structures for them to thrive.

The other piece is involvement of community. Bringing community voice in the space so they can also talk about what their experience with our district has been and what are the things that they need to feel that they have some agency in the learning of their children and the kids in the community.

As superintendent, how do you see your role in fostering a productive relationship between your district and the community?

I have to get out and be visible. It starts with me. I lead that effort on behalf of the district so I have to be visible. I have to be intentional about creating opportunities to engage with the community to be able to receive feedback. But also to educate the community because that goes both ways. As I model it, as the superintendent, there’s an expectation that that same kind of engagement goes through the leadership team and then also at specific sites, that our building leaders are finding creative and intentional ways to engage the community.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the district right now?

There’s so many. The first one that pops in my mind is safety. Always concerned about the safety of our children. To make sure not only that we have structural and other measures in place for their safety, but I want them to feel safe when they come to school. I want them to feel included in the school environment so that they feel available to actually take advantage of the academic opportunities and avail themselves to learning.

Another is mental and social emotional health. And that’s not just germane to Aurora Public Schools, but I think we’re seeing that across the nation. So how do we provide supports for our students to navigate if they are struggling with emotional concerns or mental health issues. What can be put in place to help them with that?

And then also just the teaching and learning. I won’t say it’s necessarily a concern, but it’s a huge focus of mine to show that we’re teaching at a very high level. We have high expectations and we’re providing the greatest opportunities for our students to learn.

One of the issues between the district and the previous superintendent seemed to be about teacher diversity. Do you think the district needs to take steps specifically to retain Black teachers? Would that look different than a broader push for teacher diversity?

I think that many of our districts across the nation are facing the same issue of hiring a diverse staff. I absolutely think that’s something I want to focus on here in Aurora. I think that my approach is hiring for greater diversity across the board and that includes, it’s not limited to, but it includes Black educators. But it also includes educators of many different identities, many different races and so forth.

Do you see any issues that are specific to one of those communities?

I think I need more time to assess and gather more data.

Aurora has one of the larger percentages of students learning English as a second language. What is your belief on what the district needs to be doing to ensure those students are also getting a good education?

We do need to be doing everything we can to ensure our students are having access to the greatest learning opportunities. In my short tenure, I would give myself some time to find out what is occurring right now. What supports, what structures do we have in place and those that are serving our students well, we’ll continue with, and if there’s opportunities to create other structures or supports, then we’ll look at that as well.

With regards to accountability, the Aurora district has one of the high schools that has been rated as low-performing for many years. Have you spent some time there yet, and what are your thoughts on the direction of that school?

I have not yet had an opportunity to spend time in the school yet, this being my fourth week. But what I can tell you, in talking to my chief of staff and my leadership team, I feel like there’s some really solid plans that are in place to elevate the learning and the outcomes for students at Aurora Central. And I will continue to dig into that and provide as much support as I can to make sure that that happens.

Anything else you want the community to know about you and your priorities?

There’s great talent in our school district. We have great community partnerships that I want to continue to leverage and push upon to help support and provide our students meaningful learning opportunities. I’m extremely passionate about that and engaging our community to educate our students and then also just elevating our student voice so that they have agency in what their experience looks like and how do we create meaningful opportunities for them.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Giles said his priority is being visible, not to be invisible.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Activists banned from Memphis school property can’t return early, federal judge rules

2023-08-08T20:11:27+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Two of the Memphis activists who were banned in May from entering Memphis-Shelby County Schools property lost a bid in court to have their bans lifted early.

But a federal judge said Friday that the merits of their broader case against the school district will depend on answers to several pending questions, including how the district decides whether to issue such bans and what its policies are on regulating public comment.

The bans on the two activists — LJ Abraham and Amber Sherman — are due to expire Friday. They are among five activists who were barred from entering school buildings and board offices after a tense board meeting in May involving the district’s search for a new superintendent.

The bans on the other three — Damon Curry Morris, Tikeila Rucker, and Rachael Spriggs — had already expired, and the judge ruled their request for an injunction moot.

The orders to ban the activists from district property, first issued through the district and the Memphis Police Department, threatened them with criminal trespassing charges if they violated the ban. In initial statements to the media following the May meeting, district officials said the bans were due to “disruptive” behavior and threats to public safety.

The district later provided their first explanations of the bans in letters to the activists that also included the expiration dates.

The five sued in federal court in June, alleging that MSCS was “conspiring” to prevent them from advocating for a transparent process to hiring the next superintendent. Their attorneys asked a judge for an injunction lifting the bans on the grounds that the district had violated their constitutional rights to access public meetings.

But U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman wrote in her ruling late Friday that the activists hadn’t provided the court evidence that they were banned “because of the viewpoints they expressed.” She dismissed an argument from the plaintiffs’ attorney that, without an injunction, the district would be likely to issue more bans against the activists as their lawsuit proceeds.

Abraham and Sherman have acknowledged that they dropped small devices that made an alarm sound at the end of the May meeting.

The alarms figured prominently in testimony and arguments for the district during a hearing on the injunction July 13. MSCS’ top security official, Carolyn Jackson, a named defendant in the suit, testified that the activists posed safety threats.

Attorneys for the activists “presented no evidence rebutting Jackson’s testimony,” Lipman wrote.

But her ruling said she had several remaining questions about how district officials decided to issue the bans and communicate them, about what governs those decisions, and about policies governing public comment. Answers to those questions will help determine whether the bans are constitutional, Lipman wrote.

Lipman said at the July hearing that regardless of her ruling on the preliminary injunction, she expected the case over the bans to continue, acknowledging that it raises “important issues.”

Ben Gastel, the attorney for the activists, told Chalkbeat: “We look forward to proceeding with the next phase of this case and ensuring that our clients constitutional rights are protected and preserved.”

Attorneys for MSCS did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

The case is set for non-jury trial in October 2024.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Tickets and arrests didn’t increase when SROs were reinstated at Denver schools, police data shows

2023-07-27T22:42:33+00:00

Tickets and arrests of students at 13 Denver Public Schools campuses were lower when police officers were not stationed inside the school buildings than when they were, according to state and local data from the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years.

The data backs a key criticism of school resource officers, which is that they increase tickets and arrests and feed the school-to-prison pipeline.

But when SROs were reintroduced on those 13 campuses for the last two months of the 2022-23 school year, after a shooting inside East High School, the monthly average of tickets and arrests did not go up, according to data from the Denver Police Department.

East High student Stella Kaye has a theory as to why.

When Kaye, a 16-year-old junior, thought about the data on SROs, “I thought about, Wow, they probably know how many people don’t want them to be there,” she said. “So if they start arresting kids left and right, it would not look good for the police or DPS. It’s almost like they had to be on their best behavior. It’s like they were put in their place a little bit.”

It’s a theory shared by parents, students, advocates, and elected officials on both sides of the issue. Those who support the return of SROs point to the data as a hopeful sign that students won’t be overpoliced. Those opposed to SROs are skeptical that two months of data, at a time when school safety was closely watched, proves that anything will be different.

When school starts in Denver next month, SROs will be back at the same 13 high school campuses. The data from the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years provides a window — albeit a limited one — into what parents and students can expect.

DPS had SROs starting in the 1990s. In the 2019-20 school year, SROs were stationed at 18 middle and high schools. Those 18 campuses included the 13 that will have an SRO this fall.

In 2019-20, there were 30 student arrests and 160 tickets issued on those 13 campuses, according to the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, which uses data from law enforcement agencies and school districts to track student interactions with police.

In the summer of 2020, amid nationwide protests against racist policing, the Denver school board unanimously voted to end DPS’ contract with the Denver Police Department. The 18 SROs were phased out of schools the following year, and gone by June 2021.

The pandemic made it difficult to assess the impact of removing SROs. The 2020-21 school year was largely remote for high school students, and the following year, 2021-22, was interrupted by returns to remote learning as COVID variants spiked.

This past school year, 2022-23, was the first prolonged test of in-person school without SROs. Data from the Denver Police Department shows that arrests and tickets at the 13 campuses were lower this past year than in 2019-20 when the campuses had SROs.

In 2022-23, there were 18 student arrests at the 13 campuses, compared to 30 in 2019-20 for those same campuses — a 40% decrease. Similarly, there were 75 tickets issued to students at the 13 campuses this past year, compared to 160 in 2019-20 — a 53% decrease.

A majority of the tickets — 57 of the 75 — were for assault or public fighting.

The 2022-23 data includes the months of April and May, when SROs were temporarily placed at the 13 campuses following a shooting inside East High on March 22. A 17-year-old student shot and injured two deans before fleeing and taking his own life.

After SROs were reinstated, the number of tickets and arrests at the 13 campuses held steady at about 10 incidents per month across all 13 campuses, the data shows. Most of the incidents were tickets. Only two students, both 15 years old, were arrested in that time period: one for third-degree assault and one for indecent exposure, according to the data.

School board member Scott Baldermann wrote the policy to reintroduce SROs. The policy includes a requirement that DPS monitor the number of times SROs ticket or arrest students to ensure marginalized students aren’t disproportionately targeted.

Before SROs were removed, Black students were targeted more often. In 2018-19, one in four tickets or arrests involved Black DPS students, even though only about one in seven students were Black, state data showed. The monitoring is meant to safeguard against racist policing.

“Now they’re being watched,” Baldermann said.

But the 2022-23 data also shows a disproportionality. White students were underrepresented in tickets and arrests, while Black students were overrepresented. A third of tickets and arrests in 2022-23 involved Black students, but only 14% of DPS students are Black.

Steve Katsaros, an East High parent who helped form a safety advocacy group after the March shooting, is supportive of SROs. But he said the bigger issue is DPS’ rules for when educators can suspend or expel students or call the police. Those rules are spelled out in a chart known as the discipline matrix, which DPS amended in 2021 to limit calls to police.

“The elephant in the room is that the discipline matrix says educators cannot refer to [the Denver Police Department],” Katsaros said.

Given the changes to the discipline matrix and other factors, such as the effects of the pandemic on students’ behavior, Katsaros said it’s hard to draw conclusions by comparing data from before and after remote learning. “The data can be twisted,” he said.

Elsa Bañuelos-Lindsay is also skeptical of the data. She is the executive director of Movimiento Poder, an advocacy organization that strongly opposed the return of SROs.

“Our worry as an organization is we will see an increase … in the criminalization of [Black, Indigenous, people of color] working-class young people,” Bañuelos-Lindsay said, and “a lot of schools relying on policing to deal with issues that should be dealt with in schools, like mental health.”

Seventeen-year-old Skye O’Toole is a student at Denver School of the Arts, which doesn’t have an SRO. At a closed-door school board meeting held the day after the East High shooting, Superintendent Alex Marrero said DSA had turned down the offer of an SRO this past spring, a recently released recording revealed.

But that’s no guarantee DSA won’t get an SRO sometime in the future. It’s an outcome that O’Toole, who is an active member of Marrero’s student cabinet, opposes.

Even though the recent data does not show a spike in tickets and arrests after SROs were reintroduced this past spring, O’Toole said she still fears that could happen.

“We can’t jump to any conclusions based on two months of data,” O’Toole said. “The first few months or the first few years, [the SROs are] likely going to be on their best behavior. They were being brought back with a lot of caution and concern around them.

“We can start judging the data more when we’re one or two years into the process. I have a feeling that arrests will go up. I’ll be watching very closely.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Newly released recording of Denver board’s closed-door meeting reveals tensions

2023-07-24T02:14:54+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

In a closed-door meeting the day after a shooting at East High School in March, Denver school board members worried about being blamed, about Superintendent Alex Marrero overriding their authority by returning police to schools, and about the technicalities of how to proceed.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, a chief proponent of removing school resource officers back in 2020, said he was scared for his personal safety. Marrero expressed frustration that board members had not asked right away about the health of the two East High deans who were shot and injured the day before by a student who later died by suicide.

Denver Public Schools leaders fought for four months to keep the conversation private. Chalkbeat and other media organizations sued in April, alleging that the meeting violated the Open Meetings Act. A Denver District Court judge agreed and ordered the recording released in its entirety. DPS refused and appealed that decision, but on Friday, the school board voted unanimously to release a redacted version.

Chalkbeat reviewed the four-hour recording that was released Saturday to the media organizations through their attorneys. The audio quality is poor, and the sound sometimes cuts in and out. But the recording provides new insight into how and why the Denver school board initially decided to approve returning school resource officers to Denver campuses — a major policy reversal made unanimously with no public discussion.

The recording shows that school board members mostly treated the return of SROs as inevitable, even as several said SROs would not entirely solve the problem of gun violence.

Tensions flared at times, especially between Marrero and Anderson.

A few hours after the shooting on March 22, Marrero informed board members that he would return armed police officers to high schools in violation of board policy.

During the March 23 closed-door meeting, known as an executive session, some board members were upset about it — not necessarily about what Marrero had done, but about how he’d done it.

“The school board is the ones being blamed for this,” Anderson said of the shooting. “You’ve made yourself the hero. Everybody is applauding you. … We got the emails thanking you: ‘Go SROs! Go SROs! Thank you for your courage, Superintendent Marrero. But f—k the rest of the seven board members.’ Those are the emails: ‘Resign today.’”

Marrero said he acknowledged that Anderson, who co-authored a 2020 policy banning school resource officers from Denver schools, was bearing the brunt of the criticism.

But Marrero said he too was getting calls to resign, and that his decision to reinstate police in schools could have repercussions for his career as a superintendent.

“People are calling for my resignation because I am pro-cop all of a sudden,” Marrero said. “I have a career beyond this. Fifty percent of the districts won’t see me from here on out.”

Meeting redacted after question about legal liability

Only 20 seconds of the recording were redacted. The redaction involves a discussion of the Claire Davis Act, named for a Colorado student killed in a school shooting. The state law creates a legal obligation for schools to exercise “reasonable care” to protect all students, faculty, and staff from “reasonably foreseeable” acts of violence that occur at school.

In the meeting, a DPS staff member asked DPS attorney Aaron Thompson if the Claire Davis Act could “open the door” to school board members or Marrero being held liable.

“Yeah, it could,” Thompson said. “I don’t think we’re there yet based on the incident that happened at East.” Then the recording cuts out.

Throughout the meeting, board members said the community wanted SROs back.

“I think that the community is clamoring for SROs,” board member Carrie Olson said. “And we all know that is not the answer.”

Board member Scott Esserman said, “We can’t simply respond with SROs. It’s the easy response. It’s the convenient response. But it can’t be the only response.”

Board member Michelle Quattlebaum said that if DPS moved to bring back SROs, “it needs to be thoughtful. They can’t come back the way they were.”

Anderson repeatedly said the board’s hands were tied. Marrero had said former Mayor Michael Hancock told him he would issue an executive order to put police in schools. Because of that, Anderson said, “the decision has already been made without the duly elected school board.”

But at another point, Marrero implied Anderson was in favor of SROs. In a tense exchange, Marrero said that Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas told him Anderson had called Thomas after the East shooting and demanded Thomas put 80 officers in the schools. And Anderson himself said he had asked for SROs to return after East student Luis Garcia was shot in February.

A previous school board that included Anderson, Olson, and board member Scott Baldermann voted unanimously in 2020 to remove SROs from Denver schools amid concerns about racist policing and how Black students were disproportionately ticketed and arrested.

Baldermann came to the executive session with a resolution he’d drafted to temporarily suspend the SRO ban. The resolution backed what Marrero had said he’d do the day before, but it put the decision back in the school board’s hands, where board members said it should be.

“What I’m most interested in is that we as a board take action,” Baldermann said. “And I think the public is expecting us to take action as well.”

However, Baldermann’s proposed resolution sparked a lengthy debate about a wonky topic that dominated the executive session: whether the board was acting in accordance with policy governance, the governance structure that dictates how the board should operate.

Under policy governance, resolutions that order the superintendent to take a certain action are discouraged. Instead, the board is supposed to govern by setting policies and goals that the superintendent must follow and achieve. The board can also set limitations that spell out what the superintendent can’t do. At the time, there was a limitation — called executive limitation 10.10 — that said the superintendent could not staff schools with SROs.

Marrero argued during the executive session that the board passing a resolution would violate his contract, which said the board must operate using policy governance.

Board members questioned if meeting should be public instead

In the end, the board members decided to turn Baldermann’s resolution into a memo. They spent an hour and a half wordsmithing it, debating changes as small as whether to capitalize certain words and as big as whether to delete a sentence that implied “trained professionals,” and not school staff, would pat down students for weapons.

The East High student who shot the deans had a safety plan that required him to be patted down daily by an assistant principal. On the day of the shooting, the assistant principal wasn’t available and a dean had taken over, Marrero said.

Some board members said the phrase “trained professionals” implied that SROs would be patting down students. But a DPS attorney told them that wouldn’t be allowed unless the SROs had probable cause. The board ended up deleting the sentence.

The board held a brief public meeting when it came out of the session. Board members read the memo aloud and voted unanimously to adopt it without discussion.

Chalkbeat and the other media organizations sued on the basis that the board made a major policy decision behind closed doors, and that the meeting was not properly noticed. State law allows elected officials to meet in private for certain reasons, but says that the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

The meeting notice said the executive session would cover confidential matters, specialized details of security arrangements, and information about individual students who would be harmed by the public disclosure of that information.

After listening to the recording, Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen found the school board’s discussion didn’t match the meeting notice, and that the board didn’t discuss any confidential matters. He ordered DPS to release the recording, but the district appealed that decision.

The recording reveals that board members asked at various times during the executive session whether they should be meeting in public instead.

“As we are talking about suspending policy, this conversation doesn’t need to be public?” Anderson asked DPS attorney Thompson at one point.

“I think what we’ll have to do is present this memo and then vote to suspend the policy,” Thompson said.

The board’s decision to temporarily return SROs kicked off several months of intense community and board debate about whether to keep SROs next school year, and whether Denver has the right safety and discipline policies.

On June 15, the board voted again to reinstate SROs — but that time, the debate was public and the vote was divided. Anderson, Esserman, and Quattlebaum voted no.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board votes to release recording of closed-door meeting about police

2023-07-21T22:57:07+00:00

The Denver school board voted unanimously Friday to release a recording of a March closed-door meeting at which board members discussed returning police officers to schools.

“In the interest of transparency of the board, it’s best that we release it now and be done with it,” board member Charmaine Lindsay said. “I don’t think anybody has anything to hide.”

However, the board voted to withhold any parts of the recording in which members discussed “confidential student information.” The March 23 closed-door meeting, called an executive session, happened one day after East High student Austin Lyle shot and injured two deans and later took his own life.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said at a press conference after the vote Friday that the board had discussed Lyle during the closed-door meeting.

Anderson also gave a brief description Friday of other topics the board had discussed, including a fear that former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock would issue an executive order reinstating police in schools without the school board’s approval.

Anderson said the board also talked about “the need to have a personnel discussion” about Superintendent Alex Marrero, the board’s sole employee. Hours after the East shooting, Marrero sent a letter to the board indicating he planned to return armed police to high schools even though it violated a board policy banning police from schools.

A coalition of news organizations, including Chalkbeat, sued Denver Public Schools to release the recording of the five-hour executive session. That lawsuit was still underway when the board voted Friday.

It was not immediately clear when or how the recording would be released. Several board members said they wanted the recording to be widely available to the public, not just to the media organizations who sued or to people who filed open records requests for it.

DPS attorney Aaron Thompson told the board that the length and format of recording may make it difficult to post the video online, and that the district may have to distribute it via USB drives.

The school board emerged from the closed-door meeting on March 23 and, with no public discussion, voted unanimously to temporarily return police officers to some high schools. The board subsequently voted in June to make that decision permanent. When school starts next month, 13 high school campuses will have a school resource officer, or SRO.

Chalkbeat and six other media organizations argued in a lawsuit that the topics of the closed-door meeting were not properly shared with the public beforehand, and that the board made its decision about returning SROs in private. State law says the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

A Denver District Court judge listened to the recording last month and ordered DPS to release it. DPS is appealing that decision. Earlier this month, the coalition of news organizations asked a judge to hold DPS in contempt for not releasing the recording.

Late Friday afternoon, Anderson tweeted a two-minute clip from the executive session that shows he and Marrero discussing a possible executive order from Hancock. “The Board President attempted to censure me for sharing this information with our communities and the Mayor denied making this remark,” Anderson tweeted.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán moved in April to censure Anderson for holding a press conference at which he talked about the potential executive order, which Gaytán alleged was confidential information. But the other school board members rejected the effort to censure Anderson.

Much of the discussion among board members Friday was not about whether to release the recording but about the timing of the meeting. The board does not typically meet in July. Gaytán called a special meeting to discuss the recording — a move questioned by board members Anderson, Michelle Quattlebaum, and Scott Esserman.

“Why now?” Quattlebaum asked. “Why the urgency during the month of July when there was no urgency in June?”

Anderson said he’d written an email to his fellow board members on June 23, the day Judge Andrew Luxen ordered DPS to release the recording, saying the district should comply. But the district appealed Luxen’s ruling instead.

“I raised this on June 23 and there was no response from anybody whatsoever on my inquiry to go ahead and release this footage,” Anderson said.

Gaytán explained that she wanted to get this issue out of the way before school starts next month. Voting now to release the recording would allow the district and board to “move on to other issues that actually impact our students positively,” she said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board to vote on whether to release recording of closed-door meeting about police

2023-07-20T18:10:17+00:00

The Denver school board will hold a special meeting Friday to vote on whether to release the recording of a closed-door meeting it held in March. Several news outlets, including Chalkbeat, are suing Denver Public Schools for the recording of the meeting.

DPS spokesperson Bill Good said Thursday that he didn’t know when the recording would be released if the board votes to do so.

The board held the closed-door meeting on March 23, one day after an East High School student shot and injured two deans before fleeing and later taking his own life.

The school board emerged from the five-hour meeting, which is called an executive session, and with no public discussion voted unanimously to temporarily return police officers to schools — a decision board members made permanent in June.

In a lawsuit, Chalkbeat and six other media organizations argued that the topics of the meeting were not properly noticed and that the board made its decision in private. State law says the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago swears in new members to city’s last fully appointed Board of Education

2023-07-19T19:58:21+00:00

Chicago’s Board of Education ushered in a new era of leadership Wednesday by swearing in five of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees.

The new members, who include vocal critics of the system, took an oath of office during a meeting to review agenda items ahead of the board’s full meeting next week. They will be part of the last fully appointed board before it shifts to an elected body in 2025.

As board members introduced themselves, Mariela Estrada, director of community engagement at the United Way of Metro Chicago, recounted being a “fierce” parent advocate. New board president Jianan Shi, former executive director of influential advocacy organization Raise Your Hand, noted that he is the first educator appointed as board president.

“I am used to sitting on your side of the glass fence,” new board member Mary Fahey Hughes told the audience at the meeting. Fahey Hughes formerly worked for Raise Your Hand as a parent liaison for special education and is an outspoken advocate for students with disabilities.

The inclusion of board critics at the decision-making table is in some ways similar to Johnson’s path, who rose to power through his teachers union ties.

Earlier this month, Johnson nearly cleaned house by appointing six new board members, who come from advocacy, philanthropy, and business backgrounds. In addition to Shi, Estrada, and Fahey Hughes, the mayor also tapped Michelle Morales, Rudy Lozano, and Tanya Woods (read more about each here). Lozano and Morales were not present at Wednesday’s meeting; a spokesperson for CPS did not explain why but said they will be sworn in at the board’s July 26 meeting.

The only holdover from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who will be the board’s vice president.

All seven members’ terms end Jan. 1, 2025, when the city’s partially elected, 21-member school board will be seated. Several members highlighted that shift. Todd-Breland called her term a “bridge” to that elected board with “so much hope and optimism for Chicago Public Schools.”

Wednesday’s agenda review meeting was the third of its kind, allowing board members to publicly ask questions about agenda items ahead of the meeting where they’ll vote.

During the meeting, members reviewed and asked questions about a slew of agenda items expected to come up for approval next week, including a new agreement for marketing services, the opening of a comment period for a new parental leave policy for CPS employees, and a renewed contract for math tutoring.

One agenda item — about X-ray machines in school — signaled a possible shift in approach that Johnson’s appointees may bring to the board.

Shi asked a school safety official whether there is research that such machines, which are meant to detect weapons, make schools safer. The official said it’s hard to determine exactly what makes schools feel safe, but that such machines have found weapons in the past. Last month, the old board approved a slightly costlier contract for campus police.

Shi asked that district officials engage in “actual community dialogue” on school safety policies as the district continues work on its Whole School Safety initiative. The CPS official said it’s the district’s goal to get more “buy-in” from the community.

Board members like Shi have also previously expressed interest in making meetings more accessible to the public, such as working parents who can’t attend the meetings that are held downtown during weekday mornings.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district’s discipline proposal would give schools more power to suspend students

2023-07-21T22:38:48+00:00

Editor’s note: This story was updated Friday, July 21 to include a statement from Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Detroit school district leaders want to give school administrators more leeway to suspend or transfer students amid growing concerns about student misbehavior.

Under a stricter student code of conduct Detroit Public Schools Community District officials are proposing, deans and principals would have greater flexibility to impose out-of-school suspensions, and could suspend a student after just the first instance of fighting.

The proposed changes, which Superintendent Nikolai Vitti outlined for school board members at recent committee meetings, would mark a sharp reversal from less punitive policies the district adopted just five years ago, when Vitti and the school board raised concerns that the code of conduct was too ambiguous and that student discipline varied from school to school.

Vitti said the latest proposals were intended to give school administrators more authority to deal swiftly with behavioral problems in their buildings. The changes were supposed to go before the school board at its July 11 meeting, but were removed from the agenda. The district did not respond to questions about whether it planned to introduce the proposal later or make changes to it.

The proposed revisions come at a time when lawmakers across the country have moved to make it easier to kick disruptive students out of school, a pivot toward stricter discipline that reflects growing concerns about student behavior and school violence.

But some students and advocates view the potential changes as a step in the wrong direction, suggesting that the new policy language would embolden teachers and school administrators to suspend students in lieu of other interventions and strategies.

Already, some students say, administrators are short-circuiting district policies and state laws that were designed to reduce punishments and emphasize communication and engagement with students.

“We already overuse these punishments and penalties,” said Janiala Young, an incoming sophomore at Renaissance High School.

“It sometimes just feels like they don’t want to help us,” she added. “They want to control us.”

District responds to administrators’ complaints

In 2018, the DPSCD school board approved changes to the code of conduct aimed at bringing more consistency to discipline policies across the district, so that students at different schools would not face different consequences for the same infractions. At the time, Vitti advocated less punitive actions against students, suggesting that schools give students more room to make mistakes.

Those changes emphasized progressive discipline practices, which require school leaders to consider options such as conflict resolution, student conferences, and peer mediation before meting out punishment.

But since then, Vitti said, some school administrators have complained that they had to wait as long as six to eight weeks before they could suspend a student out of school, keeping students with behavioral issues in the building for a long time.

Vitti said the new proposals “will empower school leaders to make more decisions and have more discretion around using possible out of school suspension strategies.”

“Progressive discipline approach will still be embedded in the code of conduct,” he added, and school officials can still opt to use “in-school suspension or detention-like strategies during the school day.”

In cases of fights, or the use or possession of drugs and alcohol, though, students could be immediately referred to an out-of-school suspension.

State law requires Michigan schools to consider seven factors for most suspensions and expulsions, including a student’s age, disciplinary history, disability status, and the seriousness of the violation. The law also says school leaders should consider whether lesser interventions or restorative practices are better suited to address the student’s behavior.

Under restorative practices, students are encouraged to talk through harmful behavior and conflict through circles or conferences overseen by a trained adult facilitator. Some experts encourage the use of those progressive strategies to reduce suspensions.

Shantinette Lowe, a rising senior at Cody High School, said she wants school officials to be more deliberate about considering the seven factors before resorting to suspensions or transfers.

She recalled her experience in 2022, when she and a peer got into a physical fight at school. She alleges that despite district policy and state law that favored restorative practices, she was suspended without any attempted intervention from teachers or administrators.

“Before I got suspended, I didn’t know that there was a process … so when I found out my suspension could have been prevented, I was upset,” Shantinette told Chalkbeat in late May.

In an emailed response to Chalkbeat Friday, Vitti said both students were initially sent home to defuse the situation and prevent a conflict from escalating at school.

“Cody administration attempted to schedule a restorative meeting with both students and parents, but Shantinette’s mother refused to meet with the other parent,” he said. “Therefore, a restorative meeting took place between both students without their parents so they could return to school.”

School officials then staggered the students’ return to school, with Shantinette returning a few days before the other student.

Shantinette said she’s concerned that in the long term, overusing suspensions and transfers could push students to drop out of school and risk getting into trouble with the criminal justice system.

Students, advocates call for more restorative practices

Vitti said the district annually reviews its code of conduct with representatives from “various stakeholders,” including students, parents, community members, nonprofits, school administrators, and teachers.

Feedback from those groups led to language in the revised code that says “staff should consider student age and grade when assigning consequences” and “avoid assigning any form of suspension to K-2 students.”

Peri Stone-Palmquist, executive director of the Student Advocacy Center of Michigan, said it was encouraging that the district added that language but said she worries that “other places in the code actually send a message that automatic suspension is the recommendation.”

Under the proposed changes, for example, students who fail to follow instructions could be suspended out of school for up to two days on their fourth referral.

“For a student with a history of trauma or a disability, more support may need to be pushed in for that teacher and student to get to the root of the problem,” Stone-Palmquist said. The district should also consider a student’s housing status, and should provide “clear due process rights spelled out for virtual, alternative or administrative transfers,” she said

Detroit Heals Detroit co-founder Sirrita Darby said it is troubling that the district drew up this new language when it’s already moved to reduce the number of deans and school culture facilitators in recent budget cuts. The people in those roles are best positioned to understand student behavior and work directly with them to solve problems, she said.

Through her organization, Darby has focused on the impact of trauma on students both inside and outside the classroom, advocating for the use of restorative practices in place of suspensions.

“Writing referrals is not a benign act at all, but we do it like it is,” Darby said. “We need people to build relationships with students so they want to change behavior.”

Shantinette says she would like to see more collaboration between students and district officials to ensure that school leaders abide by state law when issuing punishment. Otherwise, she worries, the district may be pushing kids further away from school.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Firing of McAuliffe principal is having a chilling effect, Denver educators say

2023-07-13T01:24:53+00:00

Natalie Barrios said her colleagues were worried about her taking the microphone at a rally Tuesday in support of fired McAuliffe International School Principal Kurt Dennis.

“They’re worried that speaking out will backfire on us,” said Barrios, the athletic director and assessment coordinator at the Denver middle school, who said she considers Dennis a friend and mentor.

Dennis was fired last week in the aftermath of a televised March interview he did with 9News expressing concerns about gun violence and school safety.

Current and former Denver Public Schools staff say Dennis’ removal reflects a new lack of tolerance for dissent at a time when discipline and safety policies are under intense scrutiny after a shooting inside East High School this spring.

Dennis, meanwhile, is gearing up to fight his dismissal with a grievance and a lawsuit. He’s most upset, though, that the timing means a school community he cherishes has little time to find a new leader before the school year starts.

“Waiting until the middle of July to do this was really punitive,” Dennis said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s not fair to the kids or our staff. That part really bothers me. It’s one thing if you’ve got a bone to pick with me and you want me gone, but to take it out on the kids and my teachers just to me feels like it’s not a very student-centered approach.”

In a letter to staff last week, Superintendent Alex Marrero said accusations that Dennis was fired for speaking up were “100% false,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by Chalkbeat. Rather, Marrero said, Dennis was terminated for sharing private student information.

Dennis had expressed concerns in the 9News interview about McAuliffe International staff being required to pat down a student who was accused of attempted murder.

In his letter, Marrero referenced a 2022 district memo that said principals should keep any concerns about district policies or decisions internal and report them only to their supervisors.

“As an organization dedicated to continuous improvement, we cherish the feedback we receive from our leaders, even if it is sometimes hard to hear,” Marrero wrote in the letter.

The impact of Dennis’ firing is being felt beyond McAuliffe International. Two recently retired DPS principals said they worry it will have a chilling effect on the speech of other DPS staff.

“I feel like everyone needs to be on watch,” said Suzanne Morris-Sherer, a longtime DPS educator who retired earlier this year as principal of McAuliffe Manual, the sister middle school to McAuliffe International. “That’s not a good way to feel.”

John Youngquist, the former principal of East High who’s now running for a seat on the Denver school board, said the timing of Dennis’ firing “lends to leaders having less confidence in what their status might be and what their situation might be. We retain leadership when they have confidence that people believe in them and they’re being invested in.”

In a statement, DPS said it followed its normal process for terminating an employee. “It is important to note that not all employee discipline data would be publicly known or shared with other school leaders,” the statement said.

The principals union has filed a grievance

The Denver School Leaders Association filed a grievance Tuesday alleging that Dennis’ termination violated the process outlined in an agreement between DPS and the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone, which oversees McAuliffe International and two other schools, according to a copy of the grievance obtained by Chalkbeat.

Innovation zones are groups of semi-autonomous public schools. The schools are governed by a separate zone board of directors, but their teachers and principals remain DPS employees, which can create confusion over who’s in charge. An agreement between the zone and DPS says the district won’t remove principals without seeking the zone’s approval.

But zone leaders said they were blindsided by Dennis’ firing. In addition to the grievance, the zone’s board of directors sent a letter to DPS Tuesday. It says that if DPS doesn’t admit it acted improperly, the zone board will invoke its right under state law to have a neutral third party review the firing, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Chalkbeat.

Ulcca Joshi Hansen, a McAuliffe parent and zone board member who’s also running for a seat on the Denver school board, said Dennis’ firing is “an indication that the district is not operating as it should. That things are arbitrary. That things can be capricious. That we can’t trust the processes. The community — this says to them, ‘Well, yeah, you don’t matter.’”

A Denver Public Schools spokesperson said Wednesday that the district can’t comment on the grievance because it is a personnel issue.

Dennis’ attorney, David Lane, said he is planning to file a lawsuit on Dennis’ behalf after the grievance plays out “alleging retaliation for First Amendment free speech.”

The Denver school board is set to vote next month on whether to accept Dennis’ termination. Such votes are usually routine and merit no discussion. But this one could be different.

Supporters hold homemade signs in support of Kurt Dennis, who was recently fired as principal of McAuliffe International School.

District alleges disparate discipline

In March, Dennis gave the televised interview to station 9News in which he expressed concerns about his staff having to search students for weapons, including the student who was accused of attempted murder. He said the district had blocked McAuliffe’s attempts to transfer the student to an online school or expel the student.

A few days before the interview, an East High student shot and injured two deans during a search for weapons. The search was part of a safety plan developed because administrators feared the East student, Austin Lyle, might pose a threat. Lyle had a prior weapons charge.

Dennis told 9News he was speaking out because parents deserved to know that the weapons searches happening at East were happening at other schools, too, and that “it needs to stop.”

The East shooting sparked intense debate and calls for change. The school board voted last month to reverse its ban on police in schools, and Marrero released a new safety plan that calls for armed safety officers to help school staff with weapons searches.

Dennis’ attorney Lane told 9News that DPS put Dennis under investigation after the televised interview, which did not name the student accused of attempted murder.

But a DPS investigator concluded that Dennis “divulged confidential student and legal records” in the interview, which violated district policy, put DPS at legal risk, and caused the student to be singled out and ostracized, according to a document provided to Chalkbeat.

The investigator also concluded that Dennis “repeatedly attempted to remove a young student of color from McAuliffe International,” despite being told removal “was not available or appropriate.” In the wake of the East shooting, district leaders have repeatedly defended a policy that students facing criminal charges can attend their regular schools as long as a judge has decided the student can be out in the community and not behind bars.

A July 3 letter informing Dennis that he was terminated cited those findings, according to a copy of the letter provided to Chalkbeat. The letter also cited “a pattern of administrative actions” that had a negative impact on students with disabilities and students of color.

More specifically, an investigator found that McAuliffe International’s “overuse of out-of-school suspensions … was having a disparate impact on students of color,” the letter said.

Data shows McAuliffe not alone

McAuliffe International is the district’s largest middle school with nearly 1,500 students, and one of its most diverse. In the 2022-23 school year, McAuliffe issued 106 out-of-school suspensions for a rate of 7%, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat in a public records request.

That’s a lower rate than many other large Denver middle schools. Hamilton Middle School had a suspension rate of 26%, while Skinner Middle School had a rate of 22%. Lake Middle School had a rate of 12%, and Merrill Middle School had a rate of 10.5%.

Racial disparities in discipline did exist at McAuliffe International last year. The data shows 14% of McAuliffe students were Black, but 30% of the suspensions were issued to Black students.

The same type of disparity existed for Black students at Hamilton and Merrill, though not at Lake. Skinner had too few Black students to calculate a percentage.

Colleen O’Brien, the executive director of the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone and Dennis’ direct supervisor, said McAuliffe was aware of the discipline disparity and was taking steps to address it, including hiring a new part-time staff member to mentor boys of color.

She also pointed out that students of color at McAuliffe International scored higher than students of color districtwide in both literacy and math on state tests last year.

O’Brien called Dennis’ termination “a shock” and said the timing “is unbelievable to me.”

O’Brien said that in her opinion, as the person responsible for conducting Dennis’ annual evaluations, his performance as a principal did not warrant being fired.

“I would not have terminated him, no,” she said.

Supporters want Dennis back at McAuliffe

On Tuesday evening, hundreds of parents, students, and community members gathered outside McAuliffe International before a wall of television news cameras to rally for Dennis’ return. The rally was organized by Denver school board candidate Kwame Spearman. Most of the crowd was white. But several speakers were staff or alumni of color.

Shemar Magee was a student when McAuliffe International opened in 2012. He said Dennis, the founding principal, always promoted doing the right thing and “swiftly corrected” any unkindness. Magee said he left McAuliffe a stronger student and became the first person in his family to graduate college and go on to graduate school.

“Without Kurt, the little small boy who walked through those doors in 2012 would not be standing here today doing big things that he never thought he could do,” Magee said.

Barrios, the school’s athletic director, said it was Dennis who encouraged her to take a job in the public schools 20 years ago when she was a young single mom.

“It has been my goal to make sure my kids are better than me,” Barrios said. “But I had to do that by showing them you have to work hard and have integrity. Kurt taught me that.”

Barrios’ daughter, Cecilia Pablo, also spoke. A former McAuliffe International student who now works at the school with students learning English as a second language, Pablo said Dennis — who she calls “Great Uncle Kurt” — has been a role model for her.

“I am proud to say I broke the cycle of teenage pregnancy and am the first in my family to graduate college with a degree in social work,” Pablo said. “If it were not for the opportunities and doors Mr. Dennis opened for my family and I, we would not be where we are today.”

Prateeti Khazanie, whose son will be in eighth grade at McAuliffe International this fall, stood in the crowd and listened to the speeches. She said she disagrees that the school is an unwelcome place for students of color like her son. Dennis’ firing, she said, was wrong.

“This feels like retaliation,” she said.

For his part, Dennis said in an interview that he wants one thing most.

“I’d like my job back,” he said. “I want to be with my kids and my staff. I want to get this school year off to a great start.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

7 preguntas para el nuevo jefe de seguridad de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, Greg Cazzell

2023-07-08T00:22:01+00:00

Read in English.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS) tiene un nuevo jefe de clima y seguridad: Greg Cazzell, que fue director de seguridad de las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora por ocho años.

El puesto en DPS había estado vacante por seis meses cuando el distrito anunció que había contratado a Cazzell, que estuvo 22 años en el departamento de policía de Glendale antes de trabajar en Aurora.

Greg Cazzell

En estos momentos, la seguridad escolar es una prioridad para muchos estudiantes, familias y educadores de Denver. Los tiroteos dentro y alrededor de las escuelas secundarias este año han provocado protestas de estudiantes, la formación de un grupo de padres, llamados a la renuncia de la junta escolar, un debate sobre la reintroducción de los agentes de recurso escolar (SRO), y el desarrollo de un plan de seguridad a largo plazo.

Chalkbeat habló con Cazzell sobre sus prioridades y su enfoque de seguridad antes de su empleo comience oficialmente el 10 de julio. Esto es lo que tenía que decir.

Usted está llegando a DPS de las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora y una comunidad que también ha lidiado con la violencia armada de menores de edad. ¿Qué traerá a Denver de lo que aprendió en Aurora?

Asociaciones con la comunidad. Las escuelas no pueden hacerlo solas. Tenemos a nuestros estudiantes unas 7 horas y 40 minutos al día. Y eso no es tiempo suficiente. Por eso necesitamos asociarnos con la comunidad, asociarnos con las familias y unir a todas las partes interesadas para que juntos podamos resolver algunos de los retos.

Si hay violencia en la comunidad, va a tener impacto en nuestras escuelas. Así que en realidad no hay diferencia entre las dos. Nuestros estudiantes están en la comunidad, ven la violencia y se ven afectados por ella. Se necesita la participación no solo del distrito escolar, sino también de organizaciones sin fines de lucro, organizaciones comunitarias y ciudades. Se necesita de todos.

¿Hay algún ejemplo de una colaboración en Aurora de la que se sienta especialmente orgulloso?

Creo que el trabajo que están haciendo todos nuestros programas después de la escuela: Boys and Girls Club, COMPASS, Rocky Mountain Kids. Todos están proporcionando un poco de estructura y eso logra que los estudiantes participen, los mantiene en la escuela, los mantiene protegidos y es parte de todo ese sistema de apoyo.

Entonces, diría que esos tres programas después de la escuela. Y he tenido muy buenas relaciones con los tres. Y de hecho, espero, traer algunos de esos programas a DPS.

La junta escolar de Denver recién levantó la prohibición de los agentes de recurso escolar y permitió que la policía regrese a las escuelas. Las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora han tenido agentes de recurso escolar (SRO) desde hace años. ¿Qué opina de los SRO?

Como mencionaste, ellos llevan más de 20 años en las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora. En cada secundaria tenemos dos, además de un agente de seguridad armado. Ese es el modelo que han adoptado el superintendente y la junta escolar de APS.

Ellos decidieron tener esa política, y es parte del debate que se está oyendo ahora mismo en las reuniones de la unta de DPS. Y yo seguiré la dirección que se decida.

Una de las mayores preocupaciones es que los estudiantes traigan armas de fuego a la escuela. Algunas personas han propuesto instalar detectores de metal. Aurora ha utilizado perros detectores de drogas que también podían detectar residuos de pólvora. ¿Qué medidas sugeriría que adoptara Denver para mantener las armas fuera de las escuelas?

Todo lo que has mencionado sería una buena respuesta para eso.

Tenemos que examinar toda nuestra tecnología, y todas las opciones que puedan ser beneficiosas para asegurar que tengamos un ambiente seguro y propicio para el aprendizaje. Y eso nunca se detiene. Es algo que siempre se va a cuestionar. Nosotros tenemos que asegurar que siempre estemos reevaluando.

No se trata de un plan integral de seguridad para el DPS que se hace una vez y ya. Habrá que evaluarlo. Nosotros tendremos que determinar qué está funcionando y qué no. Ese será el camino a seguir.

No creo que debamos eliminar ninguna de las opciones que tenemos. Pero de nuevo, todas estas medidas van de acuerdo con la política establecida y con lo que la junta escolar de DPS decidió.

DPS dijo que estaba buscando un nuevo jefe de seguridad que tuviera experiencia en “seguridad y protección” y con “una mentalidad enfocada en el estudiante”. Los líderes del distrito han hablado de la importancia de ponerle fin al problema de los estudiantes que van de la escuela directo a la prisión. ¿Usted opina lo mismo? ¿Qué haría para ayudar a resolver ese problema?

Absolutamente. Tenemos que asegurar que no estemos criminalizando el comportamiento normal de un adolescente.

Por eso necesitamos trabajar de cerca con nuestros agentes colaboradores, ya sea con el SRO que atienda la situación o cualquier otro componente adicional de la policía. Necesitamos asegurar que nuestro personal entienda las comunidades de las que proceden nuestros estudiantes, algunos de los retos que enfrentan, y entender ese enfoque integral para asegurar que no estemos operando de manera aislada o en una burbuja. Es importante que tengamos esa visión completa y nos demos cuenta de cómo todo eso impacta el ambiente de seguridad cotidiano en nuestras escuelas.

¿Por qué quería el puesto en DPS?

Aparte de la diferencia en tamaño de los dos distritos [Aurora Public Schools tiene unos 39,000 estudiantes, mientras que Denver Public Schools tiene unos 88,000], creo que son muy similares. La composición socioeconómica [de las familias de los estudiantes], la cantidad de estudiantes que reciben comidas gratis o a precio reducido.

Creo que el distrito de Aurora es probablemente un poco más diverso que DPS. Sé que el DPS podría no querer oír esto, pero Aurora es una comunidad muy diversa y tenemos que asegurarnos de reconocer esa diversidad, de reconocer a esos grupos de refugiados — sé que no se limitan a Aurora, claramente, pero esa ha sido mi experiencia — y asegurar que ellos entiendan cuál es nuestro papel en la seguridad del plantel escolar.

Es importante entender que no somos la policía. Nuestro enfoque es la seguridad. Esas personas vienen de países donde ven un uniforme y lo asocian con lo que les ha oprimido. Así que tenemos que asegurarnos de reconocer esa diversidad.

En el pasado, en DPS y en los distritos escolares de todo el país, ha habido una desproporción en la disciplina. Algunos lo llaman exceso de vigilancia sobre los estudiantes de minorías raciales. ¿Cómo usted resuelve y mitiga este problema?

Es algo que está ocurriendo. No hay una solución única.

Tienes que mirar esos datos. Hay que asegurarse de contar con las personas correctas. Si la junta decide tener SRO en las escuelas, tenemos que asegurarnos de trabajar con la policía de Denver y encontrar los SRO correctos que van a ser ideales en cada una, que van a ser la persona correcta para esa cultura escolar. Nuevamente, tenemos que reconocer de dónde vienen esos estudiantes, entender sus antecedentes. Una vez más, hay que asegurar que tanto el SRO, como mi equipo son la combinación perfecta para esa escuela.

No ocurría a menudo, pero hubo veces en que íbamos a la policía de Aurora y decíamos: ‘Oye, esta persona no encaja bien en esta escuela. Busquemos otro candidato’. Esa puede ser una opción si la junta aprueba los SRO.

De nuevo, mi trabajo se basa en la política establecida. Cualquiera que sea la dirección final que la junta le indique al superintendente, esa será la dirección que tomaré en cuanto a seguridad y protección.

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

‘It awakened a part of us’: How NYC students are turning the trauma of gun violence into action

2023-07-05T15:30:00+00:00

Leslie R., a recent Brooklyn high school graduate, still thinks about the February afternoon that three people were shot outside her campus.

She watched police gather at the scene from a window inside the Williamsburg Charter High School. Her brother, a ninth grader with no cellphone, had already left the building. She had no way to ensure he was safe.

“You shouldn’t have to worry about that,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to worry about somebody being shot, or somebody dying.”

Students and educators at the school continue to reel from that day, when violence arrived at their doorstep. A teenager, who didn’t attend the school, allegedly shot two students and a staff member. All three of the shooting victims survived. But the trauma of the incident has lingered among members of the school community.

In the immediate aftermath, reporters flocked to the scene to interview students — carrying cameras and microphones — an ordeal students described as further traumatizing as they tried to make sense of the situation. Though the overwhelming attention has for the most part faded, the community continues to feel its impact. (Some students’ last names are being withheld to protect their privacy.)

The school bolstered security efforts, installing metal detectors and conducting bag checks after the shooting. It brought in additional counseling services. Teachers gave space for discussion in class. And in the months that followed, the community stood unified in pushing for changes that could help prevent other shootings from happening at local schools.

While gun violence at schools remains rare, it often occupies outsized space in the minds of children. Young people in New York City also feel the impact of shootings in their larger community. As of April, roughly 20% of shooting victims in New York City this year were under 18, NYPD data showed. And between 2018 and 2022, the number of teenagers arrested and charged with murder grew at a rate twice as fast as adults, according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.

As high-profile school shooting incidents have spurred national movements over the past decade — mobilizing students to advocate for change — that trend has continued on a smaller scale locally, as students call for action to help make their neighborhoods safer.

For Williamsburg Charter High School, that meant holding a rally, with students making signs and performing, as they called for local changes they believe could help make their community and others safer. So far, their efforts haven’t resulted in any concrete changes, but that hasn’t stopped further action from teachers and students. The school is planning to hold another rally in the fall, along with encouraging students to write letters to legislators in a continued push for policy changes in New York.

The city has taken some steps to address concerns about youth-related gun violence: holding weekly meetings between school administrators and local police precinct commanders, bringing violence interrupters to schools, and creating opportunities for discussions between students and NYPD officers. This year, though the number of shooting victims in New York City has dropped by nearly a quarter from more than 700 last year, young people still feel the urgency.

“After the shooting, in some students, it awakened a part of us,” Leslie said. “This is the world that we live in. This is reality. So what can we do now to help?”

Students push for change, even as fear lingers

After the shooting, the school transitioned to remote learning for seven days, followed by the week-long mid-winter break and a phased-in return. During that time, teachers Alexandra Sherman and Ryan Fuller felt an urgency to take action.

“Something like this can’t just happen and we go on as usual,” Sherman said. “As a community, we needed to heal emotionally.”

It began with a petition calling for an end to gun violence, along with concrete measures — like expanded partnerships between neighborhood schools and the NYPD and legislation to support school-to-school information networks. The petition also called for improvements to violence interrupter coordination in the community, streamlining communication between schools and the groups who work to de-escalate potentially violent situations. They also called for expanded funding for schools’ social-emotional support and after-school programs, and job opportunities for young people. The petition has since garnered nearly 4,000 signatures.

From there, Shante Martin, an assistant principal at the school, connected with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence to organize the rally in March.

“I feel like the students gave us a push,” she said. “Because they were really like, ‘We need to do something.’ They kept reaching out, they kept emailing us, and telling us that we have to do something so that we can move forward.”

A student at Williamsburg Charter High School holds up a newspaper clipping about their rally against gun violence.

Witnessing violence or tragedies can often spur young people into action, said Sara Suzuki, a researcher at Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

For students who do get engaged, though, it’s critical they find support from their community, she said.

“The link between mental health and political activism can be negative, unless there is a supportive environment for the young person,” she said. “It’s not that if a young person gets engaged post-massive political event, that will automatically help them process that trauma or help them heal. It really needs to be in a supportive civic environment.”

At Williamsburg Charter High School, students encouraged one another to come to the rally, and to speak with social workers and other support staff, Martin said. To Sherman, the experience has brought the school community closer together. But the teacher still feels the aftereffects of the incident. She’s still on edge when hearing sudden loud sounds in her apartment.

The shooting weighs heavily on the students, too.

“That fear is still here,” said Arianna S., a recent graduate of the school. “Sometimes, we’ll be feeling wary about coming to school.”

Students seemed more subdued and anxious in the aftermath of the shooting, said Brittany Gozikowski, a social work counselor at the school. She saw a slight initial drop in attendance, too.

“A location where an incident took place can be triggering,” Gozikowski said in an email. “It can ignite overwhelming emotions that the body is naturally adapted to flee from. So that can look like skipping school, requesting to do learning remote, or finding a new school altogether. However, coming back to that space and finding it safe — finding a supportive community and people who care — that can be healing.”

She worked with some students and their families to “process the trauma,” she said. She helped them “take small steps toward eventually getting back in the building and not being hindered by anxieties.”

Anti-gun violence rallies in Bed-Stuy

At another school in Brooklyn, anti-gun violence rallies are an annual occurrence, featuring student poems and performances at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy.

Middle schoolers at Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School have been holding walkouts and rallies against gun violence for eight years — an act that has given Tiayana Logan, the school’s director of enrichment, a “renewed sense of hope.”

Students and school staff gathered in the plaza last month, sporting orange T-shirts calling for an end to gun violence.

Neighborhood violence impacts everything from student mental and physical health to academic performance, Logan said, adding students are constantly considering how they can stay safe moving to and from school.

“These are things that 10-year-olds and 12-year-olds are thinking about,” she said. “It’s our job as school officials, as teachers and leaders, to reassure them every day that they will be safe.”

Sonali Rajan, associate professor of health education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, noted the impacts of gun violence on mental health can be devastating.

“It’s not just individuals who are shot and killed with firearms,” she said. “But even for children who survive a school shooting, who witness gunfire, who regularly hear gunshots, who have lost a close friend or family member to firearm violence — these are examples of indirect experiences with gun violence that absolutely shape a child’s sense of stability and safety.”

Both short- and long-term intervention are critical in helping children and teenagers process a traumatic incident, particularly as students may face multiple, compounding incidents over their time in school, Rajan said.

Diamond Smith, an alumni of Launch and recent high school graduate, has been thinking deeply about gun violence and its impact on her community for years. She remembers a time before students at Launch had a plaza to host the rallies — when they gathered just outside the nearby Applebee’s to make their voices heard.

Students and staff from Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School gather at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy for their eighth annual rally against gun violence.

Smith was in sixth grade during the second rally, and since her time in middle school she has worked with Save Our Streets to help keep students safe from gun violence. To her, the anti-gun violence rally helped her understand what was happening in her community around her — a realization she equated to landing in a pool and needing to learn how to swim.

“I want to give kids a safe space,” she said of her work with SOS and as an after-school teacher for younger students. “Because out there isn’t always safe, maybe sometimes home isn’t safe, but you have somewhere to put all your emotions. When you come here, we’re here for you.”

Her time at Launch and with SOS helped crystallize her own goals beyond school. Smith, who will soon attend Albany State University in Georgia, hopes to help those who are struggling — first as a social worker, and eventually, as a lawyer.

“I want to do public service work. I feel like that is my path,” she said. “The gun violence work, the outreach, all of it — it made me realize that.”

‘The activist years’

Students at Williamsburg Charter High School watched in the weeks that followed the incident as more shootings occurred across the country — including one in Nashville that sparked national coverage. Seeing those incidents brought back memories of their own experience, and students said they empathized with the victims on a deeper level.

“It’s one thing to realize and know about it, and it’s another thing to experience it,” said Savannah F., a recent graduate. “It made me more aware of how much not only legislation is not doing enough for us, but also just how exhausted we are.”

It’s been challenging balancing advocacy work with their studies, college applications, and more — but it’s also helped fortify their interests moving forward. Leslie said she plans to work in government in some capacity after college to address systemic issues, including gun violence. For Arianna, this experience has given insight she’ll carry forward as she hopes to study psychology and work in counseling after graduation.

“I never envisioned having such a close connection to this topic,” Arianna said, noting their time in high school has also been disrupted by major incidents like the murder of George Floyd and the pandemic.

“It’s just mind boggling. We already didn’t have the best four years, because of COVID and everything in general. So we tried to make the best of it,” she said. “But I feel like the last four years have been the activist years.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

SROs to stay at 13 Denver campuses, armed officers to help with weapons searches under safety plan

2023-06-30T21:00:53+00:00

Leer en español.

Police officers will stay at large secondary schools this fall, armed school district safety officers will help with weapons searches, and Denver Public Schools leadership will “comprehensively examine current student discipline practices.”

Those are among the details in the final draft of a long-term safety plan that Superintendent Alex Marrero released Friday in line with a deadline set by the school board.

In an interview, Marrero called the plan “an index of what we have to offer.” He implied that the plan would continue to evolve with the district’s needs.

“By no means do I want anyone to think this is one and done,” Marrero said. “It is the start of a larger conversation, not only here but also nationally.”

The board ordered Marrero to create the plan after a March shooting inside East High School. A 17-year-old student who was required by the school to be searched daily for weapons shot and injured two deans. The student fled the school and later took his own life.

The shooting spurred intense debate and community activism, including the formation of a parent group that called for increased safety, as well as backlash against returning police to schools. A divided school board ultimately voted to allow the return of armed school resource officers, known as SROs.

A previous board had voted in 2020 to remove SROs — a ban that was temporarily suspended following the East shooting.

The final safety plan released Friday is its third iteration. Marrero released the first and second drafts last month. The final version is clearer in that it lists the “current state” of certain district safety programs and the “future state” — to show what will change.

The school board does not need to vote on the plan.

The changes include that DPS will:

Return SROs to comprehensive middle and high schools.

The plan doesn’t specify which schools, but Marrero said in an interview that SROs will return this fall to the 13 campuses where they were stationed this spring following the East shooting.

Those 13 campuses are: East, North, South, West, Northfield, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Montbello, and Manual high schools, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College and the Evie Dennis campus.

Eighteen middle and high school campuses had an SRO when the board voted to ban them in 2020. Following this fall, Marrero said in an interview that the district will develop a protocol for deciding which campuses have SROs.

Allow schools to determine, after extensive community engagement, whether to employ weapons detection systems.

DPS already has four mobile weapons detection units by the company Evolv Technology that the plan says the district uses for “athletic events and events requested by administrators.” A fiscal memo says “substantial and widespread detection systems at all schools or at high schools only would likely exceed $5 million.”

Conduct a staffing analysis to evaluate the presence of unarmed campus security officers.

Unarmed officers are stationed at middle and high schools and are different from SROs. The analysis will determine “where more staff may be needed or how resources can be shared,” the plan says. Marrero said in an interview that it could show the district needs to hire more unarmed officers.

Provide more support to school staff in conducting student searches, especially if weapons may be found.

For example, the plan says that if a student is required to undergo a search because they were found to have a gun outside of school, an armed DPS safety patrol officer “will be designated to support that for the specific window of time that allows for a safe, supervised search and entry into the building.”

Armed DPS safety patrol officers are different from both unarmed campus safety officers and SROs. They are a part of a mobile unit that responds to calls throughout DPS.

In the aftermath of the East shooting, some parents and educators said searches should be conducted by police or security staff rather than administrators, as was happening at East. The district has said SROs can’t search students without probable cause, but an armed DPS safety patrol officer — who is not a sworn police officer — can.

Work with local law enforcement to host youth violence meetings in each region of the city.

The meetings would be “to monitor trends of violence impacting school communities and strengthen partnerships to dismantle barriers impacting access to programming for youth,” according to the plan.

Expand the district’s online high school and potentially offer hybrid learning.

After the East shooting, some parents questioned why the shooter, who had been expelled from a neighboring school district and had a weapons charge, was attending school in person and not online.

While Marrero said the district believes in-person learning is best and is “not in the business of just shipping kids out,” he said DPS is considering a protocol that would allow students to learn online while the district figures out a plan for them to safely learn in-person.

Develop an online dashboard to better track and monitor “action and intervention plans,” which are put in place for students who may pose a threat to themselves or others.

Conduct safety audits of DPS school buildings and make “physical infrastructure recommendations such as secure vestibules, camera placement, lighting,” the plan says.

Those recommendations could also include wearable panic buttons for teachers, Marrero said. The audits are already underway with the help of consultant Murphy Robinson, who was formerly head of the Denver Department of Public Safety.

Have district leaders attend the Public Education Leadership Program Institute at Harvard University this summer to collaborate with other large urban districts on issues including safety.

DPS leaders will then “comprehensively examine current student discipline practices with the goal of enhancing the experience of safety, while maintaining compliance with federal and state law, and achieving the goal of equity and inclusion for all students,” the plan says.

Increase training for DPS staff on issues such as suicide prevention, threats posed by students, emergency management, and crisis recovery.

Increase offerings for students, including advanced high school coursework, college-level courses, work-based learning, and after-school and summer programming.

Require annual suicide prevention programming for all students in 5th, 6th, 9th, and 12th grades. This programming was previously optional, Marrero said.

Require all students be screened for social and emotional health three times per year, which “represents a dramatic increase” in the use of the screening tool, the fiscal impact note says. DPS plans to pay for the screener next year with federal COVID stimulus funds.

Offer at least “one session on grief and loss” for staff and parents who need it.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board backs funding for campus police — and an initiative to reduce reliance on it

2023-06-28T21:24:10+00:00

The Chicago school board approved a contract Wednesday with the Chicago Police Department that will be slightly costlier than last year’s, even as some members urged the district to keep decreasing its reliance on campus police.

The contract approval also comes as Mayor Brandon Johnson, who criticized having police in schools while on the campaign trail, pivoted to adopt his predecessor’s view that local school councils should decide whether their campuses staff officers.

District officials touted an initiative that encourages campuses to consider replacing officers stationed with restorative justice coordinators, social workers, culture and climate coordinators, or other staff devoted to promoting safety.

Since the district launched the Whole School Safety initiative during the pandemic, its police contract has shrunk to less than a third of the roughly $33 million it paid in 2019. The number of police officers stationed in schools has also been cut nearly in half. Next year, the district will staff 57 police officers at 39 high schools, down from 108 officers at 53 high schools in 2020.

But Chicago’s push to pull police officers from campuses has lost momentum in the past couple of years. This spring, the local school councils at just two schools voted to change the status quo: Austin College and Career Academy went from two officers to one, and Marshall High School did away with police presence on its campus altogether.

Because of contractual salary increases, the contract with the police department approved Wednesday is going up by $180,000, to $10.3 million.

Now, some school board members say the district’s efforts to reduce the police presence need fresh ideas. That’s especially important because the majority of schools that continue to staff officers serve predominantly Black students, board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said.

“We are disproportionately policing Black students in our schools,” she said last week during a board meeting to review the agenda for Wednesday’s monthly meeting.

Todd-Breland voted no on the police contract, and board member Joyce Chapman abstained.

But Jadine Chou, the district’s safety and security chief, told school board members that she sees the stable number of police on high school campuses as a good thing after several years of pandemic upheaval and rising concern about school safety. The district largely receives positive feedback on the role officers have played, she said.

Chou said she believes that campuses where officers have been successful in cultivating relationships with students have actually disrupted the school-to-prison pipeline, though she did not offer data to that effect and acknowledged that might not be the case in all schools.

The district will study the impact of officers — and of removing them — this year, using both discipline data and surveys of students and families.

“You see it as a plateau,” Chou said. “We see it as a stabilization for the time being coming out of the pandemic.”

The district has released few details about the impact of the Whole School Safety initiative so far. Last year, Chicago Public Schools denied Freedom of Information Act requests from Chalkbeat for school-level data on officers, disciplinary referrals, support staff, and funding for safety alternatives. It deferred a request to city hall and the police department.

District officials and community groups touted safety initiative

The board also approved Wednesday $3.9 million for staff and programs aimed at improving school climate in 39 schools that have pulled one or more of their police officers in recent years. Employees at these schools will also receive professional development from five community-based organizations that have teamed up with the school district on the Whole School Safety initiative.

A shift the district is considering toward more mobile police patrols might encourage more campuses to move away from stationing officers, Chou said. “We don’t want to push people before they are ready.”

Chou also told the board that this summer the district is doing away with a contractual requirement that all part-time security officers on its campuses be off-duty Chicago Police Department officers.

After a string of high-profile school shootings over the past year, some districts have revisited their efforts to reduce reliance on police officers — even as some advocates have continued to question their effectiveness in improving overall safety. Following a March shooting at a high school that injured two educators, a divided Denver school board voted to permanently lift a ban on school police enacted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police in Minneapolis.

Johnson, who had said police have no place in school during the election campaign, said last week that it should be up to those local school councils to decide whether to station officers on campus. That’s even though the Chicago Teachers Union, where Johnson worked as an organizer until his election, had harshly criticized his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, for saddling the councils with that decision.

Asked about the contract with the police department last week, Johnson said, “I think it’s important that as a city, we recognize that our priorities have to be the development of the full child, and a budgetary decision that ultimately will come down to whether or not a local school council believes that’s the best pathway forward.”

Board members and officials stressed the importance of allowing students to weigh in and even take the lead in driving school safety solutions. Some students and staff with the district’s community-based partners on the Whole School Safety initiative addressed the board on Wednesday as well.

Natalya Miner, a rising senior at William Howard Taft High School, said she was involved with her school’s Whole School Safety push over the past two years. She was the only student in the room, often wishing the effort had involved more peers.

On her campus, Miner said, the initiative had been successful because the administration and educators already had forged strong relationships with students, including an open door policy by its principal.

“The most important thing for school safety is the school environment,” Miner said. “It should truly be about the students, and how students feel.”

Board members urge expanding the district’s safety efforts

Sean Price of Build Chicago, a nonprofit that helped coordinate the initiative at Austin College and Career Academy, said that the school’s leadership focused on bringing in student and parent voices. In place of the police officer the school decided to pull, it will get a climate and culture coordinator and is also setting up a meditation room.

“This is about creating a culture of safety,” he said. “The punitive approach hasn’t worked. We’ve all seen it.”

Some board members such as outgoing president Miguel del Valle wondered if some of the lessons of the district safety initiative, including its collaborative approach, can be applied to improving safety in schools’ surrounding areas — and across the city.

Chou said she is excited about Johnson’s interest in collaborating, touting a push by the mayor’s office to team up with the district and nonprofits to provide safe activities for young people this past Memorial Day weekend.

The district opened seven school buildings that weekend, and more than 2,000 youth participated in enrichment, sports, and other activities there, even as the highest number of shootings since 2016 marred the weekend elsewhere.

Chou said the district and its community-based partners will host a Whole School Safety conference in the coming months. The district will also pilot the initiative at three elementary schools in the fall. Elementary campuses do not staff police officers, but officials felt some could also benefit from exploring ways to strengthen their climate and safety.

“There are a lot of people out there who feel this is not moving fast enough,” she said.

But, she stressed, “This process, Whole School Safety, is something we really believe in, that our schools believe in, and that we’re doubling down on.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Audit criticizes Michigan education officials’ oversight of fingerprinting for school workers

2023-06-27T19:52:51+00:00

The Michigan Department of Education has no procedures in place to ensure school districts aren’t employing people who’ve been convicted of criminal offenses that prohibit them from working in schools, according to a state audit released Tuesday morning.

The report from the state Office of the Auditor General criticized MDE’s oversight of the fingerprinting and background check process for contract workers. These are people who perform functions such as substitute teaching, food service, and custodial and maintenance services.

State laws require Michigan school districts to ensure that all their employees and contract workers are fingerprinted and undergo background checks. Those laws were part of a sweeping package of legislation that went into effect in 2006 and were aimed at ensuring the safety of children in schools.

The laws bar schools from employing anyone who is on the sex offender registry. For those convicted of any felony or certain misdemeanors — such as criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree, child abuse in the third or fourth degree, and any misdemeanor involving cruelty, torture, or indecent exposure involving a child — a school board and superintendent must decide whether to employ or continue employing the person.

The audit found that some contract workers were hired without being fingerprinted, and some worked weeks, months, or even years before being fingerprinted.

The number of workers found to have been hired without the required fingerprinting was relatively small, but the audit report said “the deficiencies noted within this report would extend to all individuals regularly working in schools, regardless of their employment arrangement.”

The findings matter, the audit report said, because ineffective oversight by the state education department means there could be a significant threat to child safety “if individuals with unsuitable criminal convictions are provided direct and/or continued access to children through school employment.”

The auditors called for the department to implement procedures to help ensure that contracted staff are fingerprinted and that employment determinations are made for those with criminal convictions that require school boards and superintendents to decide on their continued employment. Department officials pushed back on that recommendation, saying in part that state law doesn’t require MDE to oversee or monitor the fingerprinting process. However, the department said that “in the interests of ensuring the safety of students,” MDE would work with the Michigan State Police to “enhance the monitoring process.”

The total number of contract workers in Michigan schools is unknown. But the audit says a statewide survey found that 91% of the districts in Michigan used contract workers. The 41 school districts sampled for the audit employed 5,010 contract workers.

Here are some of the additional findings in the audit:

An estimated 220 of 5,010 contract workers were never fingerprinted prior to employment.
Fingerprinting did not happen “in a timely manner” for three of 45 sampled workers. They were fingerprinted 23 days, 16 months, and 10 years, respectively, after being employed.
In some cases, MDE received conviction alerts about workers, but did not notify their school districts.
MDE routinely used outdated and incomplete employment data as part of its notification process.

Martin Ackley, spokesman for the education department, said in a statement to Chalkbeat that student safety is a priority and the MDE relies on its partners to ensure students are secure.

“School districts should not be hiring individuals whose criminal history demonstrates the potential to jeopardize the safety of children and other school staff. We do this in partnership with the Michigan State Police to ensure the safety of all Michigan children,” Ackley said.

He said MDE will discuss the auditor recommendations with the state Center for Educational Performance and Information “to have local school districts report employment changes more frequently during a school year.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief of Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

45,000 NYC students among the victims of MOVEit global data breach, DOE officials say

2023-06-23T23:00:08+00:00

Tens of thousands of New York City students were among the millions of victims who have had their personal information compromised through the recent MOVEit data breach, education officials said Friday.

A security vulnerability in the file-sharing software MOVEit — widely used by private companies and governments to safely transfer documents and data — has wreaked havoc in recent weeks as hackers accessed sensitive information across the globe.

Officials estimated roughly 45,000 students, as well as education department staff and service providers, were impacted by the data breach. For those affected, that could mean social security numbers, OSIS numbers, dates of birth, and employee IDs were stolen.

Roughly 19,000 documents were also accessed without authorization, including student evaluations and related services progress reports, Medicaid reports for students receiving services, as well as internal records related to DOE employees’ leave status.

City officials said they would notify individuals whose data was compromised “this summer,” though they did not specify a date. The kind of data impacted could vary from person to person, officials said. Those affected will be offered access to an identity monitoring service, which helps people track if their information is being used illicitly.

The department patched the software within hours of learning about the vulnerability and is working with local and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the breach, officials said.

“Working with NYC Cyber Command, we immediately took steps to remediate, and an internal investigation revealed that certain DOE files were affected,” said Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, in an emailed statement. “Currently, we have no reason to believe there is any ongoing unauthorized access to DOE systems. We will provide impacted members of the DOE community with more information as soon as we are able.”

Nationally, the data breach has affected millions — as financial institutions and government agencies were impacted by the sweeping cyberattack.

It’s not the first time New York City students have been subject to a cyberattack. Roughly 820,000 current and former students had their information compromised last year after a security breach of a company used by schools for tracking attendance and grading.

In the aftermath, experts told Chalkbeat that families should change passwords associated with their child’s school accounts, monitor their credit, and watch out for scam calls and emails.

City officials said the DOE has not been subject to any threat or ransom, and none of its information has been published.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district, school officials were slow to act on Moses Field abuse incidents, parents allege

2023-06-23T01:42:15+00:00

A group of parents of students with special education needs claim that Detroit school district officials and administrators attempted to cover up incidents of abuse in school involving their children earlier this year.

The parents are accusing the district and administrators at Moses Field School of “not reporting substantiated incidents of abuse to Children’s Protective Services, failing to immediately remove the abusers from the school, allowing students to suffer for months, and withholding information from parents,” according to a press release from Southfield-based Spectrum Legal Services shared on Wednesday. They said they’re planning to sue the district and school officials.

Three of the four parents spoke at a news conference Thursday, alongside Spectrum lawyers, who are representing the parents.

Tanisha Floyd, mother of a 12-year-old student at Moses Field, said she received a call from a district investigator only in early June, stating that her daughter had been “one of those children that had been left in a restraint chair for hours, neglected and abused” earlier in the year.

Restraint chairs are typically used to help students with certain disabilities with sitting upright. But state law prohibits restraining children with any type of device.

“I was super furious, because no one told me anything,” Floyd said. “I’m just hearing about this. This was (an investigation) that was going on in February of this year. It was just heart-dropping to even hear about it, because my child is nonverbal and doesn’t walk on her own, so she needs help with everything.”

Tanisha Floyd, a parent in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, speaks during a press conference held on June 22, 2023. Floyd said she was only recently notified about a child-abuse investigation that was happening in February.

Allegations of child abuse at Moses Field, one of the district’s centers for students with special education needs, surfaced publicly in April following a report by news outlet Detroit Native Sun.

At the time of the report, Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, told Chalkbeat that district officials learned of the allegations in January and quickly moved to place two paraeducators accused of abuse on administrative leave pending an investigation.

In an emailed statement Thursday, district spokesperson Chrystal Wilson said that the district investigation “revealed improper conduct by both employees, one of which is facing criminal charges; both employees are no longer employed by the District.”

“At this point, there is no evidence that school or Central Office administration failed to report abuse against children at the school,” Wilson said. “The District is prepared to defend itself through facts in Court, if necessary.”

Last week, the DPSCD school board voted to fire one of the two paraeducators, Felicia Perkins. Perkins, who is facing criminal charges, allegedly “grabbed a 12-year-old boy by the back of the neck, choked him, and pulled him out of the cafeteria while holding the back of his neck” in January, according to a spokesperson from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office.

Tina Gross, who identified herself as the mother of that 12-year-old boy, said that she only heard about the incident two days later, when Principal Derrick Graves told her that her son had been “grabbed up by the collar.” She said she understood the full details of the situation only after she received a letter notifying her that she had to appear in court on July 18 as a witness.

Spectrum attorney Michael Fortner, who is part of the team representing the parents, said that the parents are calling for the firing of Graves and other administrators and staff at Moses Field who were involved in or aware of the abuse. Both Gross and Floyd claim that Graves failed to properly notify them about the incidents and that in both cases he dismissed media reports about the alleged abuse. Chalkbeat attempted to reach Graves via email ahead of publication.

Michigan’s child protection law requires school administrators to report any suspicions of child abuse or neglect to the state’s Children’s Protective Services program.

“We’ve got some very serious allegations going on that need to be investigated not only by the police but by the school board, and there needs to be some accountability,” said Fortner. “The school board needs to show up and explain what they’re doing so that this doesn’t continue to happen under the Vitti administration.”

DPSCD school board President Angelique Peterson-Mayberry referred Chalkbeat to the district’s statement Thursday afternoon.

Fortner said he expects the lawsuit to be filed by early next week.

All of the parents who spoke Thursday said they would not send their child back to Moses Field. Floyd said she would like to see justice for all the children affected and a change in school leadership.

Fighting back tears, she added that in the past several months she had noticed her daughter act out emotionally.

“In the morning, she would cry, saying that she didn’t want to go to school, she just wanted to stay home,” Floyd said. “Looking back on all the information that I’m getting now, (my daughter) was acting out because she was scared. She wanted somebody to be there to help her. So I am very upset that they didn’t do what they were supposed to do.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

The ‘Tennessee 3’ created a historic teachable moment. Will schools be allowed to teach it?

2023-06-16T19:34:07+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

When Wyatt Bassow and Ava Buxton missed classes one morning this spring to see democracy in action in Tennessee, they witnessed history that they acknowledged probably wouldn’t be fully taught at their high school less than a mile away.

Justin Pearson, one of two young Democratic lawmakers who were dramatically expelled from office just a week earlier by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, was taking his oath of office again that day outside the state Capitol in Nashville after being voted back in by officials in Shelby County.

A few days earlier, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville had been reinstated after a similar vote by his city’s council.

Both men had been ousted from the legislature for staging a protest on the House floor urging gun reforms after a mass school shooting in Nashville. The votes temporarily robbed some 140,000 Tennesseans in the state’s two largest cities of their representation.

“What I’ve learned these last few weeks is that democracy is incredibly fragile,” said Bassow, a senior at Nashville’s Hume-Fogg High School, as he cheered Pearson’s reinstatement in the shadow of the Capitol building.

“But because of the power of the people,” he added, “we were able to fix this.”

Less certain, the students said, is whether the controversial ouster of the two young Black Democrats by the House’s all-white GOP supermajority would be fully discussed at their school, or any public Tennessee school, as part of a course in U.S. government, civics, history, contemporary issues, or social studies.

While Republican leaders maintain the ouster was not racially motivated, the racial optics were undeniable, as was the supermajority’s suppression of legislative voices with whom they disagreed.

Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville, is the speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Tennessee is at the front of a conservative-driven wave of censorship about what can and cannot be taught in K-12 schools.

A 2021 state law restricts classroom discussions about systemic racism, white privilege, and the ongoing legacy of slavery. Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who signed the law, has championed civics education that emphasizes American exceptionalism and plays down the origins of present-day U.S. injustices.

School libraries are under scrutiny too, especially for materials that have to do with race and gender. A 2022 law gives the state unprecedented authority to overrule local school boards and remove certain materials from libraries statewide. And a 2023 law puts book distributors and publishers at risk of criminal prosecution if materials they provide to Tennessee schools are deemed obscene.

“We definitely have noticed that a silencing is happening in our schools.” —Ava Buxton, student

“We definitely have noticed that a silencing is happening in our schools,” said Buxton, also a senior at Hume-Fogg, when asked whether the expulsions of Jones and Pearson had been discussed in her classes.

“Thankfully, our teachers are wonderful and intelligent educators who do their best to give students the space we need to have important conversations,” she continued. “But I think these conversations would go much deeper if our teachers didn’t have the fear of these new laws hanging over them.”

The rise, fall, and rise of the Tennessee Three

The expulsions of the two Black lawmakers came during the dramatic last weeks of a tumultuous legislative session gripped by large citizen protests over Tennessee’s lax gun laws, after an armed intruder killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27.

Frustrated that House Speaker Cameron Sexton was not allowing them to voice the concerns of demonstrators during debates, Pearson, Jones, and Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville took their protest to the House floor, where Jones and Pearson alternately used a bullhorn to shout “Gun control now!” and “Power to the people!”

In the process, the trio broke the chamber’s rules of decorum. GOP-sponsored ouster resolutions accused the so-called Tennessee Three of “knowingly and intentionally bringing disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”

(From left) Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville, Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis speak at a press conference on April 4, 2023, about GOP-sponsored resolutions to kick the three Democrats out of office.

Ultimately, Republican representatives voted overwhelmingly to kick out the two young Black men, while Johnson, who is older and white and was less vocal during the protest, kept her seat by a single vote.

The last time the House had expelled multiple members was in 1866, when six representatives were thrown out for conspiring to deprive the chamber of a quorum during a special session to ratify the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Two others have been expelled in more recent times, one for soliciting a bribe, and the other for sexual misconduct.

By contrast, the ousters of Jones and Pearson over their peaceful protest of gun violence — now the No. 1 killer of children and teens in America — seemed heavy-handed to their supporters. The House could have chosen simply to censure them for breaking House rules of decorum instead of kicking them out altogether.

In a subsequent four-page rebuke, the nation’s professional organization for social studies teachers denounced Tennessee’s House as attacking foundational principles of democratic and republican norms. Intentionally or not, the state was sending Tennessee students a message that the rights to free speech, peaceful protest, and holding their elected officials accountable are “reserved for those who have a specific view or perspective,” the National Council for the Social Studies wrote.

“Just as disturbing,” the group continued, “this action sends a message to the larger community that civil discourse and active citizenship will result in punishment rather than in finding consensus in ways that uphold the principles of democracy and the functioning of our republic … (which) will have a long-term impact on our students’ faith in the democratic process and our constitutional principles.”

Tennessee’s living history drama was filled with teachable moments

Political science and social studies experts say it’s hard to narrow down the events in Tennessee this spring to one teachable moment.

Tens of thousands of citizens descending on the Capitol to protest gun violence after a school shooting and the subsequent expulsions and reinstatements of Jones and Pearson are rich runways for academic inquiry. Among the issues: freedom of speech, legislative rules of decorum, the enduring influence of racism on public policy, and — as Bassow, the Nashville student, articulated — the fragility of democracy.

Students protest outside the Tennessee State Capitol on April 3, 2023, during a demonstration against gun violence and the state’s lax gun laws after a deadly school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

John Geer, a political science professor who helped to launch the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, heartily agrees with Bassow.

“The teachable moment is that democracy fundamentally rests on genuine competition among political parties,” said Geer. “But because of supermajorities in our state legislatures, the minority party has no real influence and is left to scream or complain. They’re not part of the governing process. There’s no give and take, no compromise. Meanwhile, the majority party has so much power that they don’t need to negotiate, and that leads to excesses.”

It didn’t take long for resources to become available to help teachers broach the controversies in Tennessee as well as in Montana, where that state’s House speaker silenced Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender lawmaker who refused to apologize for telling colleagues they would have “blood” on their hands if they supported a ban on gender-affirming care for youths.

Facing History and Ourselves, a nonprofit group that creates resources about current events to spawn thoughtful classroom discussions, zeroed in on two issues in its lessons: how to discuss politics in non-polarizing ways and the implications of using rules of decorum to censure legislators.

“What norms should guide our conversations about political issues?” asks the group’s lessons designed for middle and high school students.

“How could rules around speech be used to silence people?”

Parameters have narrowed on what teachers can teach

The availability of resources doesn’t mean such questions are being regularly asked in Tennessee classrooms, however.

The state’s public school teachers don’t have much wiggle room on what they’re allowed to teach. They’re also under increased scrutiny over the resources they can use.

“Tennessee civics is really nowhere in the standards. If something isn’t in the standards, it’s probably not going to be taught.” —Bill Carey, Tennessee History for Kids

Teachers are guided by hundreds of state-approved academic standards that set learning goals by subject and grade, and that dictate decisions around curriculum and testing. And social studies teachers already are hard-pressed to cover all of the standards for their subjects during a single school year. Even if they do, only a few courses offered in grades five, eight, and 12 include standards that might lend themselves to discussions about the Tennessee Three.

“Tennessee civics is really nowhere in the standards,” said Bill Carey, who sells resources for educators through his nonprofit Tennessee History for Kids. “And if something isn’t in the standards, it’s probably not going to be taught.”

Social studies lessons, in particular, are monitored closely by parents and activists.

In 2015, some complained that some Tennessee teachers were “indoctrinating” students into Islam in their seventh-grade world history classes, prompting state officials to order an early review of those standards.

More recently, amid a conservative backlash to anti-racism protests after a white policeman killed Black American George Floyd in Minneapolis (an incident that prompted a federal investigation into systemic racism on the police force), Tennessee was among the first states to enact a law intended to restrict K-12 classroom discussions about race, racism, and gender.

Specifically, the 2021 law prohibits teachers from discussing 14 concepts that the state has deemed divisive, including that the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably sexist or racist, or that an individual is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive because of their race or gender.

Educators have complained that the law and the state’s rules for enforcing the statute aren’t clear about exactly what teachings cross the line. But teachers found in violation could have their licenses suspended or revoked, while their school districts could face financial penalties.

“To be honest, I just didn’t mention this in class. I am just overly cautious with what I cover in class for now.” —Tennessee social studies teacher

The potential fallout has influenced small but pivotal decisions that educators make every day in Tennessee and in other states that have passed similar laws targeting so-called critical race theory: how to answer a student’s question, which articles to read as a class, how to prepare for a lesson, which examples to use.

That includes whether to discuss the Tennessee legislature’s vote to expel Jones and Pearson, which made national headlines.

“To be honest, I just didn’t mention this in class,” said one Tennessee social studies teacher who asked not to be identified, for fear of retribution. “I am just overly cautious with what I cover in class for now.”

Students ‘come up with all these great questions’

Mark Finchum, executive director of the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies, says the law — and a related climate of fear — has had a chilling effect on teachers who might normally contemplate lessons about the Tennessee Three, or perhaps about the insurrection at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. But it also depends on the teacher.

“If you’re a new teacher who is teaching in an area of the state where you feel insecure, you may not want to go there,” Finchum said. “But if you’re an experienced teacher and feel strongly about these events and how your students can learn from them, you may go ahead.”

Erika Sugarmon falls in the latter category.

One Friday at White Station High School in Memphis, students showed up to Sugarmon’s weekly current events discussion with lots of questions about the expulsion. The day before the legislative vote, many White Station students had walked out of school to show support for gun reforms called for by the Tennessee Three.

“The kids come up with all these great questions. Sometimes there’s not an answer,” said Sugarmon, a veteran educator who teaches courses in U.S. government.

Protesters listen from the gallery of the House of Representatives at the Tennessee State Capitol on April 3, 2023, while demanding gun reform and justice for The Tennessee Three.

But it’s important to give students a safe and constructive space to discuss hard things, added Sugarmon, who is also an elected official on the Shelby County Commission, where she cast a vote to reinstate Pearson to his seat.

One student in her class brought up racism, she said, prompting a conversation about why Tennessee lawmakers have sought to ban some books and squelch classroom discussions about racism.

“Students have been very vocal about not just what happened with Pearson, but with state laws in general,” said Sugarmon.

She encourages them to explore source documents to formulate their own options.

Evidence-based discussions are the way that teachers should take up politically charged topics with their students, Vanderbilt’s Geer said.

“The evidence should be your guidepost,” he said, “while avoiding injecting ideology into the classroom.”

“Yes, facts need to be interpreted,” Geer added. “But if we can agree on a basic set of evidence, we can have a conversation. And that’s an important part of democracy.”

Maya Logan, a rising senior in Memphis at Germantown High School, talked about the lawmakers’ expulsions with her friends, but didn’t discuss the event as part of her 11th-grade American history class. Just the same, the deadly shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, which prompted the protest and led to the expulsions, was a big deal to her. And as a young Black person, she related to Pearson and Jones, who are among the youngest members of the House.

Logan hopes this year’s events at the state Capitol will resurface as discussion topics during her senior year when she takes a U.S. government class. She has important questions. And she’s looking for answers.

“These are people,” she explained, “that are setting things up for us for our futures.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Laura Testino is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Contact her at ltestino@chalkbeat.org.

Divided Denver school board votes to keep police in schools

2023-06-16T02:24:08+00:00

Police officers will return to Denver schools next year, after the school board voted 4 to 3 Thursday to allow “the persistent presence of school resource officers” at schools.

The new policy reverses a 2020 board decision to remove SROs from Denver schools and puts to rest — at least for now — a debate that has raged in the community for nearly three months.

The split vote came after nearly four hours of debate, several amendments to the proposal, and accusations that some board members intentionally delayed the vote.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and members Scott Baldermann, Charmaine Lindsay, and Carrie Olson voted in favor of bringing police back to schools.

“This is about deterrence,” said Baldermann, who authored the proposal. “If it stops one kid from bringing a loaded gun into a school, I think it’s worth it.”

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and members Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum voted no. The three board members had backed an alternate proposal that would have established a group of “community resource officers” that would have responded to schools when necessary but would not have been stationed inside them.

Anderson said returning SROs was going “back to an oppressive system.”

“The police system in America is designed to oppress,” Esserman said.

The much-anticipated decision comes after a particularly violent school year. A shooting inside East High School in March, in which a student shot and injured two deans and later took his own life, most forcefully reignited the debate about police in schools.

The new policy doesn’t specify which schools will have SROs. It simply directs the superintendent to establish a memorandum of understanding with the Denver Police Department for when SROs are necessary at district-run and charter schools.

However, it does allow the superintendent to “promptly remove” SROs who don’t follow district policy and best practices. It also requires the district to monitor the number of times SROs ticket or arrest students to ensure marginalized students aren’t disproportionately targeted.

Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas has said that his preference is to have school resource officers in high schools but that he will work within the parameters established by the district.

A majority of board members removed other guardrails that Baldermann had included in the proposal, including that SROs not be involved in student discipline, not store firearms at schools, and that the officers “reflect the students at the school” demographically.

Baldermann said he included those limits to prevent disproportionate policing of students of color — something opponents of police in schools say is nearly inevitable.

But Anderson, Esserman, and Quattlebaum criticized those guardrails as getting too deep into operational details. Olson said she preferred the simplified policy.

The Denver school board uses a governance model that calls for board members to set policy and leaves the superintendent responsible for operations. Criticizing an idea as too operational has become a way for board members to reject ideas they oppose.

Over the course of the meeting, Anderson and Esserman proposed numerous amendments that would place fewer limits on how police operate in schools — the opposite of the position they have advocated for. Other board members accused them of purposely extending the debate.

“To me, this feels more like a delay to not vote on the original motion,” Gaytán said after Esserman offered one of his amendments.

Esserman disputed that he was trying to delay. “This is about getting it right,” he said.

Lindsay also expressed frustration about delays. “So all I have to do is make a motion in the middle of a motion and I can stifle everybody else’s speech?” she said.

“If you get a second,” Anderson said.

Denver school board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson led the effort to remove SROs from schools and has strongly opposed their return.

A previous board voted three years ago, in June 2020, to remove school resource officers from Denver schools. At the time, 18 SROs were stationed in middle and high schools across the district. Denver Public Schools and the Denver Police Department split the cost.

But amid protests against racist policing following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Denver school board unanimously decided to sever ties with the police department. Anderson, Baldermann, and Olson were on the board at the time and voted in favor.

After SROs were removed, the number of DPS students ticketed and arrested at school went down. But the number of real and fake guns confiscated at schools went up. And several high-profile shootings in and around East High sparked community concern.

A day after the shooting inside East in March, the school board temporarily lifted its ban on SROs. For the last two months of school, 14 SROs were stationed on 13 high school campuses.

The temporary suspension was set to expire June 30. That’s also the deadline the board gave Superintendent Alex Marrero to come up with a long-term safety plan for the district.

Public opinion on whether to reinstate SROs varied widely. In an April survey conducted by DPS, 33% of staff, 41% of students, and 48% of parents who responded said SROs would help.

At a raucous school board meeting last week, Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith said more recent surveys showed more support for SROs. But the feedback from a series of telephone town hall meetings in May was that parents consistently ranked SROs second behind weapons detection systems as the resource they wanted DPS to invest more money in.

The advocacy group Movimiento Poder has strongly opposed reintroducing SROs. The Denver-based organization has pushed for years to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. In a press release after the vote, Executive Director Elsa Bañuelos-Lindsay condemned the decision as “a false solution that will directly endanger students.”

“It will mean plunging students back into the harm and criminalization that cops are known to bring to classrooms and especially students of color, while not providing protection to students,” she said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district fires Moses Field paraeducator accused of child abuse

2023-06-15T18:00:10+00:00

The Detroit school board voted Tuesday to fire a special education paraprofessional accused of assaulting a student earlier this year at Moses Field School.

Felicia Perkins, who is facing criminal charges, allegedly “grabbed a 12-year-old boy by the back of the neck, choked him, and pulled him out of the cafeteria while holding the back of his neck” in January, according to a spokesperson from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office.

Perkins was one of five employees in the Detroit Public Schools Community District who were fired during Tuesday’s school board meeting. Others included a substitute teacher accused of assaulting a student, and another teacher accused of bringing a loaded gun into a school.

Perkins’ termination came after a monthslong investigation into abuse allegations at Moses Field, one of the district’s centers for students with special education needs.

A district investigation report on Perkins’ case said she allegedly led the 12-year-old “by his neck to the main office,” where she “swatted” him and “snatched an item from his hand.”

Perkins claimed the student threatened “to have several family members attack her,” the report said. In a separate incident a few days earlier, Perkins allegedly swatted another student, “aggressively pulling the arm and chair (of the student) in response to him holding a shoe in her direction,” the report said.

Perkins was arraigned May 22 on charges of fourth-degree child abuse, and assault and battery. A pretrial conference is scheduled for July 18.

Another Moses Field paraprofessional was also investigated for alleged abuse, but a spokesperson for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office said an arrest warrant was denied because of “insufficient evidence to charge in that case” following a review by an assistant prosecutor. That employee was not among the ones the board fired Tuesday.

Fight with student leads to charges

The board also fired Ashley Garrett, a substitute teacher at Turning Point Academy Day Treatment Center, a school for students with severe emotional impairments, over a verbal and physical altercation with a 13-year-old student on March 21. Security cameras captured the teacher throwing several punches at the student.

Despite staff attempts to separate the two, the teacher continued to make statements such as “I’m getting my lick back,” and “going to get him,” according to a district report. Garrett, who was charged with third-degree child abuse, was identified only by initials in the report, but a Wayne County Prosecutor’s spokesperson confirmed her identity.

The incident happened after the teacher received counseling from Turning Point principal Natasha McGhee about her “use of profanity when engaging with students.”

High school teacher charged with having weapon on school grounds

Board members fired Cody High School math teacher William Howard, who was accused of having a loaded handgun in school in April.

The incident was described in a district investigative report and a news release from the prosecutor’s office. Howard admitted to district investigators that he had been in possession of a loaded weapon, the report said, adding that Detroit police confirmed that the gun was registered to Howard, and that it fell out of his knapsack onto the floor.

The district’s report cited Howard for violating its ethics standards by having a gun on school grounds and failing to report it to administrators.

In early May, Howard was arraigned and charged with one count of carrying a concealed weapon and one count of possession of a weapon in a “Weapons-Free School Zone.”

“I revere educators. Their jobs are among the hardest in today’s times,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a news release after the charges were announced. “But we simply cannot ignore the alleged conduct in this case.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

7 questions for Denver Public Schools’ new safety chief, Greg Cazzell

2023-06-13T23:37:46+00:00

Leer en español.

Denver Public Schools will soon have a new chief of climate and safety: Greg Cazzell, who served for eight years as the director of safety for neighboring Aurora Public Schools.

Greg Cazzell

The DPS position had been vacant for six months when the district announced it had hired Cazzell, who spent 22 years with the Glendale police department before working in Aurora.

School safety is top of mind for many Denver students, families, and educators right now. Shootings in and around high schools this year have led to student protests, the formation of a parent advocacy group, calls for the school board to resign, a debate about whether to reintroduce school resource officers, and the development of a long-term safety plan.

Chalkbeat spoke to Cazzell Tuesday about his priorities and approach to safety before he officially starts the job on July 10. Here’s what he had to say.

You’re coming to DPS from Aurora Public Schools and a community that also has grappled with youth gun violence. What did you learn in Aurora that you’ll bring to Denver?

Community partnerships. Schools can’t do it alone. We have our students for about 7 hours and 40 minutes a day. And that’s just not enough time. So community partnerships, family partnerships, bringing all the stakeholders together to tackle some of the challenges.

If it’s violence in the community, it’s impacting our schools. So there’s no really differentiating between the two. Our students are in the community, they see the violence, they’re impacted by the violence. And so it takes not only the school district but nonprofits, community organizations, cities. It’s all-encompassing.

Is there an example of a partnership in Aurora that you’re particularly proud of?

I think the work that all of our after-school programs are doing: Boys and Girls Club, COMPASS, Rocky Mountain Kids. Those are all providing some after-school structure that engages the students, keeps them at the school, keeps them safe and part of that overwhelming umbrella.

And so all of those after-school programs, I’ve had great relationships with all three. And will continue to, I hope, bring some of those over to DPS.

The Denver school board is currently debating whether to lift a ban on school resource officers and allow police back into schools. Aurora Public Schools has had school resource officers for years. What is your opinion on SROs?

As you mentioned, they’ve been in Aurora Public Schools for over 20 years. We have two at every high school, along with an armed campus safety officer. So that’s the model that the superintendent and board of education in APS has adopted.

It’s a policy decision, and so that’s some of the debate you’re hearing right now in the DPS board meetings. And that will be the direction that I follow.

Students bringing weapons to school is a major concern. Some people have proposed installing metal detectors. Aurora has used drug-sniffing dogs that could also detect gunpowder residue. What approaches would you suggest Denver take to keep weapons out of schools?

All of the above would be kind of a good answer for that.

We really got to look at all of our technology, all of our options that may be beneficial to ensuring that we have a safe environment that’s conducive to learning. And that never stops. That is always going to be challenged. And we need to make sure we’re re-evaluating.

This isn’t a one-and-done comprehensive safety plan for DPS. It will have to be evaluated. We’ll have to determine what’s working, what’s not working. That will be the path forward.

I don’t think we should eliminate any of the options before us. But again, they’re all based on policy and what has the DPS board of education decided.

DPS said it was looking for a new safety chief with both “safety and security chops” and “a student-centric mindset.” District leadership has talked about the importance of disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Do you believe in that work? How would you further that work?

Absolutely. We need to make sure we are not criminalizing adolescent behavior.

So we need to work closely with our partners, whether they are the SRO that responds or any additional law enforcement component. We need to make sure that our staff understand the communities that our students are coming from, some of the challenges that they are faced with, and understanding that comprehensive approach to make sure that we’re not operating in a silo or a bubble. It’s important for us to get that big view of the big picture and realize how that impacts the day-to-day safety environment of our schools.

Why did you want the job in DPS?

Aside from the size of the two districts [Aurora Public Schools has about 39,000 students, while Denver Public Schools has about 88,000], I think they’re very similar. The socioeconomic makeup [of student families], the free and reduced-[price lunch] population.

I think Aurora is probably a little more diverse than DPS. I know DPS might not want to hear that, but Aurora is a very diverse community and we need to make sure we are recognizing that diversity, recognizing those refugee populations — I know they’re not limited to Aurora, clearly, but that’s been my experience — and making sure they understand what our role is in campus safety.

It’s important to understand we’re not law enforcement. We are safety-focused. And they’re coming from countries where they see the uniform and that’s what has been oppressive for them. So we need to make sure that we’re recognizing that diversity.

In the past, in DPS and in school districts all over the country, there has been that disproportionality in discipline. Some people call it over-policing students of color. How do you approach that and mitigate that?

It’s ongoing. There’s not one solution.

You need to look at that data. You need to make sure you’ve got the right people. If the board chooses SROs, we need to make sure that we’re working with Denver police and finding the right SROs that are going to fit with those schools, fit in with that school culture. Again, recognizing where those students come from, understanding their background. And again, making sure that the SRO, as well as my team, is a good fit for that school.

It didn’t happen often but there were times when we did go to Aurora police and say, ‘Hey, this person just isn’t fitting in well with this school. Let’s look at a different candidate to come on board.’ That may be an option should the board approve the SROs.

Again, my work is all based on policy. And so whatever that ultimate direction given from the board to the superintendent to me, that will be the direction I take safety and security.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Raw emotions, shouting, and prayers as Denver school board debates police in schools

2023-06-06T18:45:21+00:00

A Denver school board discussion of police in schools Monday began with board members shouting to be heard after the president cut off their microphones and ended with a series of ministers praying that the district’s children be safe and that its leaders show good judgment.

“This topic is too important for us to gloss over,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who opposes stationing police officers inside schools, said after her microphone was cut off. “I will continue to press back on structures of oppression.”

The tumult at Monday night’s Denver school board meeting reflected ongoing conflict on the board, the deep division in the community over police in schools, and how strongly each side feels their solution is safest for students. The debate follows several incidents of gun violence, including a shooting inside East High in March that prompted the board to temporarily lift a ban on police in schools.

Now the board is weighing whether to bring the officers back on a long-term basis. But with dueling proposals on the table, the seven board members don’t agree.

Superintendent Alex Marrero invited Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas to Monday’s meeting to explain how police would partner with Denver Public Schools if the board reinstates school resource officers, known as SROs. The agenda item read only “Superintendent’s Update.”

Thomas promised specialized training in de-escalation and the adolescent brain. He pledged that the officers would come from the community and want the assignment. He said they would focus on positive interactions with students and deterring crime, not on discipline.

“I’ve seen it work where young people have had a great opportunity to develop relationships with police officers in their schools,” Thomas said.

Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith then read off a long list of just-in survey results overwhelmingly in favor of police: 95% of students at Montbello High, 90% of parents at Northeast Early College, and 85% of staff at Lincoln High are in support of SROs, Smith said.

The results were notably different from previous survey results. An April survey conducted by the district found just 41% of students in favor of SROs. At a series of telephone town hall meetings last month, parents consistently ranked SROs second behind weapons detections systems as the resource they wanted DPS to invest more money in.

Quattlebaum questioned the validity of the survey results presented by Smith. Black students, she said, “do not feel safe speaking their truth” for fear of being seen as opposing school safety. The survey, she said, supports what Marrero, board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, and board members Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay want: to return SROs to schools.

“But have we done the real research, is what I’m asking,” Quattlebaum said. “Creating and holding the space that’s actually required to address the situation?”

Gaytán tried to cut Quattlebaum off. She said it wasn’t Quattlebaum’s turn to speak.

“Please, I ask for your respect,” Gaytán said. “As president of the board, I’m asking you kindly and respectfully to respect procedure.”

Quattlebaum kept speaking. “When we go down the list of traits of white supremacy, this is actually one of them,” she said.

Gaytán gestured toward the technical crew controlling the microphones. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson jumped to Quattlebaum’s defense. “Do not cut her mic!” he said.

But Gaytán did. Quattlebaum stood up and spoke loudly.

“I will continue to be a voice and a beacon,” Quattlebaum said.

Anderson’s microphone was cut off a few minutes later, after Marrero said it was “impossible to fathom” that Denver’s students of color would be over-policed by SROs under his watch, even though it happened in the past. “Then is not now,” Marrero said.

“Respectfully, Dr. Marrero, I have to just,” Anderson began.

“Vice President Anderson,” Gaytán said. “Would you please follow procedure and ask for the floor?”

“I’m not doing this with you today,” Anderson said to Gaytán.

When Anderson’s microphone went dead, he also stood up and shouted.

“Just because we have new faces doesn’t mean we trust what you’re going to do!” he said.

The board is considering two proposals. One, authored by Baldermann, would let the superintendent decide when, where, and for long SROs should be stationed in schools. While Gaytán and Lindsay have not formally endorsed Baldermann’s proposal, Gaytán called the return of SROs “inevitable,” while Lindsay has said they could help.

Another proposal, backed by Quattlebaum, Anderson and board member Scott Esserman, says the district should instead work with the city to create community resource officers who would be available to schools only when necessary.

The bulk of Monday’s meeting was set aside for public comment — and the topic of SROs dominated among the speakers in the packed auditorium. Nearly all speakers, including a large group with the advocacy organization Movimiento Poder, were opposed to bringing back SROs.

They said SROs cause trauma, ticket and arrest Black and Latino students, and do nothing to stop school shootings. They accused the school board of being reactionary and ignoring data.

“For my sake, and thousands of students’ sake, please stop ignoring the Black and brown voices,” said Carold Carter, a sophomore at Denver School of the Arts.

“It’s important we show our community of beautiful students that we truly care about them and will refuse to treat them as criminals or their schools as prisons,” the 15-year-old said.

At a press conference just a half hour before the meeting Monday, some parents expressed a more complicated view. Dorian Warren, a Black mother with a son at East High, said that the SROs at East have tried to build a rapport with her son.

Warren is part of a group called Resign DPS Board that is calling on all seven board members to step down — or at least for voters to get rid of any incumbents who run for reelection.

In a year filled with gun violence, Warren said there were no incidents after the SROs returned.

“I don’t want to see another child die and more finger pointing,” Warren said. “This board needs to be proactive and stop dragging their feet, stop making excuses, stop being divisive.”

Before Monday’s board meeting was over, Quattlebaum had apologized for “stepping out of order.” More than three hours of public comment ended with a series of nine ministers who used their allotted three minutes each to stand at the microphone and pray.

“I’ve been here for a few hours, so I’m tired,” said Brandon Washington, pastor of Embassy Christian Bible Church. “And I know you are too. One of the things that was fatiguing was not just the passage of time, but the manner in which this conversation occurred. So I want to be careful to give some attention to remembering that the agenda here is not self. It is others.”

School safety, Washington said, is “a complex matter.” “Let everyone here think the best of the other,” he said, “knowing that everyone here desires the welfare of children.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Schools and safety top reasons Detroiters may leave city

2023-06-05T15:32:59+00:00

A new survey shows Detroit residents have a lower quality of life compared with those in neighboring suburban communities, shedding light on why Detroiters may leave the city but not Wayne County.

The Gallup Center on Black Voices poll found high crime and the desire to find a better place to raise their children are the top reasons Detroiters want to leave the city — only 26% of residents said their community is safe, and 18% said all children in their neighborhood have access to high-quality public schools. Black Detroiters are even less likely to have access to affordable housing, opportunities for good-paying jobs, city services, neighborhood amenities, and quality education, according to the survey.

“I used to judge my friends harshly when they would move out of Detroit,” said Dwan Dandridge, co-founder and CEO of Black Leaders Detroit, which connects entrepreneurs to no-interest business loans. “But when you consider what it looks like to really count the cost, I’m a lot less judgy and more thinking about: What do we do as a community, as a city, to make sure we have some of those things we need?

“When you make a conscious decision stay and then your kids become the age when you need to put them in school, we have a number of friends that tried and (decided), ‘If I look at what it cost to look somewhere else versus paying for private school, I may as well move into a better school district.’ Then you deal with lower crime rates, better schools and amenities in close proximity to your home.”

Survey results came weeks after the U.S. Census Bureau released new data showing Detroit lost 7,791 residents from 2021 to 2022. Mayor Mike Duggan has challenged the accuracy of the count, but agrees that residents “by and large” are leaving the city because of education and crime.

“A lot of the blight issues, the streetlight issues, a lot of those things were factors 10 years ago and aren’t factors today, but there’s no doubt (crime and education) are the two issues,” Duggan said in an interview.

Most Detroiters say they would move if they could

The national polling firm surveyed 6,243 Detroit residents and 5,227 residents living in Detroit suburbs in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties last year. Data was collected through paper mail and an online survey.

The Gallup Center released its findings Thursday at the Mackinac Policy Conference. The survey showed 57% of Detroit residents say they would move permanently to another area if they had the opportunity. Black residents were slightly more likely to consider moving than white and Hispanic Detroiters.

Nearly half of Detroiters who said they would move out of the city also said they would stay in the Detroit metro area.

Noah Urban, co-executive director of Data Driven Detroit, said census data shows more neighborhoods are growing compared with the previous decade. Clusters of ZIP codes are showing population growth around Midtown and downtown, neighborhoods like Palmer Woods and Grandmont-Rosedale, immigrant communities like Banglatown, and the border with Dearborn.

The Gallup poll identified Detroit neighborhoods with a higher quality of life, and that map lines up neatly with census data, showing those neighborhoods are seeing population gains.

Detroit’s unemployment rate hit a 33-year low in April, dropping to 4.2%. Duggan said this shows opportunity is available in the city, though only 4 in 10 Detroit residents reported satisfaction with the availability of good-paying jobs. Meanwhile, 72% of suburban residents were satisfied with job opportunities.

“We see neighborhoods that we identify as having property-related problems — blight, abandonment, danger — for those of us in the Black community who were born and raised here, we associate those communities with traumatic experiences,” Dandridge said. “Some of our white peers, when they see those same spaces, they see vacancy, opportunity, and what could be. We have to get Black Detroiters that have stayed access to some of these pots of money that are out there.”

Four in 10 Detroit residents said there were times in the past year when they didn’t have enough money to buy food for themselves or their families, while 23% said they didn’t have enough to provide adequate shelter or housing.

Schools and policing need to improve, Duggan says

Detroiters are twice as likely compared with the national average to be dissatisfied with schools in their area, per the Gallup poll. Half of city residents between ages 18 and 39 believe kids would be better off at school in another area.

Duggan said he has trust in Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, and Police Chief James White. The mayor said schools have to bounce back from learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, and police need to address violence as the department deals with a manpower shortage.

Duggan said officers are coming back to Detroit after wages were raised last year. Duggan is also pushing the state Legislature to pass a police officer revenue sharing proposal, which would send $100 million to Michigan cities to hire more officers.

“We had 300 (officer) vacancies at the start of the year; we filled 100 already, we’ll have another 100 filled by the end of September, and we’ll have all filled by the end of the year,” Duggan said.

Duggan said police respond quickly to shootings, but residents notice the lack of officers in their neighborhoods. The Gallup poll found 60% of Black Detroiters want police to spend more time in their area. Less than a third of Detroit residents surveyed said they feel safe walking alone in their area at night.

“You’ve got people running red lights in this city. It drives me nuts, and it’s a lack of the kind of patrol officers that other cities would have,” Duggan said. “How much better would you feel if you saw a car go down the street once in a while? We certainly want more neighborhood police officers. We’re definitely going to expand the NPOs.”

Middle-class exodus creates a ‘spiral’ effect

The survey drew a link between quality of life and health outcomes. It found Detroiters who are struggling to survive are more likely to face depression, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma.

It also highlighted the effect of a mass departure of middle-class residents to the suburbs. A decades-long population slide caused a decline in the city’s tax base, impacting its ability to provide quality services and further contributing to the loss of middle-class households.

“It is a spiral, and it’s a problem,” Detroit Chief Financial Officer Jay Rising said in an interview.

The survey cites a 2019 Detroit Future City study, which found Detroit has the lowest share of middle-class neighborhoods out of the largest 50 U.S. cities, though Detroit ranks sixth for its share of Black middle-class neighborhoods. The nonprofit research group found 33 census tracts meet the definition of a Black middle-class neighborhood in metro Detroit, of which 11 are located in the city.

Survey results were used to group residents into three categories reflecting their quality of life: “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering.” Gallup determined the categories by looking at education and employment opportunities; physical and mental health; neighborhood services, amenities, environment and living conditions; satisfaction with law enforcement; and access to social capital.

Detroit residents are less likely than suburban residents to rate their lives highly enough to be considered thriving — 40% versus 52%. Black Detroiters were even less likely to be thriving (40%) compared with Hispanic residents (43%) and white residents (46%).

Homeownership is much lower for Detroiters (48%) compared with suburban residents (76%). Black residents across the region are far less likely to be homeowners.

The lack of affordable housing in the city likely undermines many residents’ sense of financial security, according to the survey — 29% of Detroiters say they are satisfied with the availability of good, affordable housing in their area, compared with 55% of suburban residents.

The survey shows neighborhood cleanliness is linked to the likelihood to recommend Detroit as a good place to live, suggesting that beautification and cleanup efforts could help encourage people to move into the city.

Poor transportation network poses barriers

Detroiters have less access to amenities compared with suburban neighbors, per Gallup poll, with big gaps in access to parks, grocery stores, places to go out, and social events.

Transportation is another major issue. Problems with access to a car kept half of Detroiters from finding or keeping a job, and 44% said limited access to convenient public transportation is a barrier to keeping or finding a job. Detroit has the most expensive auto insurance rates of any major U.S. city, making car ownership cost-prohibitive for low-income residents.

Suburban residents reported public transportation is less accessible compared with Detroiters, according to the Gallup poll.

Dwight Ferrell, CEO of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, said SMART is dealing with a shortage of 100 bus drivers, though negotiations are in progress with unions to increase wages.

The Detroit Department of Transportation also needs to fill around 100 vacant operator positions, Duggan said. The city is considering a major overhaul of its transit network, but Duggan said improving reliability and expanding service will rely on filling the shortfall in part through recent wage increases.

“Before we start promising these other things, we need to get back to reliable service on the road, and we’re working on that,” Duggan said.

Malachi Barrett is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach him at mbarrett@bridgedetroit.com.

Denver board divided on competing school policing proposals

2023-06-01T23:55:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

A divided Denver school board failed to find much common ground in an hourlong debate Thursday over two competing proposals on the role of police in schools.

The meeting concluded with no decision, with no scheduled vote, and with uncertainty about next steps. The board even discussed setting aside both proposals until they held an up-or-down vote on the policy that was in place for almost two years — a ban on armed police officers on Denver campuses.

Superintendent Alex Marrero had asked the board to decide whether to allow police on campuses and in what circumstances as he finalizes a new school safety plan, and board members presented two different visions.

Board member Scott Baldermann’s proposal would allow Marrero to decide when, where, and for how long to station police at Denver schools. The proposal says police would not get involved in discipline but would be present for ensuring safety, deterring crime, mentoring students, and building community.

Baldermann said he hopes Denver schools can benefit from the presence of police without seeing a return to disproportionate discipline, tickets, and arrests that affected students of color.

“I don’t want to fall back,” Baldermann said.

Board member Scott Esserman countered: “This policy is falling back.”

Esserman backs a proposal from Vice President Auon’tai Anderson to direct the superintendent to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the Denver Police Department to create community resource officers who would receive special training and get to know schools within regions of the city — without being stationed inside buildings.

Anderson called it a “third way” between having school resource officers on campus and the recent status quo, in which school leaders called 911 when safety issues arose and any on-duty officer responded.

“We need to center the needs of our students and not make reactionary decisions,” Anderson said.

With Anderson leading the charge, the Denver school board voted in 2020 to remove school resource officers amid the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. Community groups such as Movimiento Poder, formerly known as Padres y Jóvenes Unidos, had been working toward that change for a decade.

Then in March, after a student shot two administrators inside East High School, the board temporarily suspended the ban. Marrero had already publicly stated his intention to bring police back to schools, and after spring break, Denver police officers were stationed at 13 Denver campuses.

The first version of Marrero’s safety plan would have allowed building principals to decide whether police should be stationed at their schools. After many principals said they didn’t want that responsibility, Marerro asked the Denver school board to make a long-term decision.

In a written statement emailed to Chalkbeat, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said he would work with the district wherever the board lands but has a “clear preference” for full-time school resource officers in every large high school.

“They will serve as a layer of safety planning and, more importantly, maintaining positive relationships with youth in schools,” Thomas said. “This position was shared with members of the school board. The decision will ultimately be that of DPS. DPD will comply with the direction of the DPS Board and School Administration.

“There are still a number of uncertainties with multiple options still on the table. While the department has begun logistical planning internally for different options, we will not comment about those plans until after a final determination has been made.”

The unanimous March vote to temporarily allow police on campuses occurred after a five-hour closed-door meeting and with no public discussion. Thursday’s meeting gives the public more insight into how board members are thinking about safety and policing. Esserman said the disagreement is a sign of healthy democracy in action, not dysfunction.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán called the return of police “inevitable” and said the board should set guidelines such as proposed by Baldermann for what their role should be.

But board member Michelle Quattlebaum said the decision only becomes inevitable after the board votes. She said the board’s first decision should be whether it wants to stick with the policy in place from 2020 until March of this year — a ban on police in schools. Only once that policy has been overturned should the board consider a new policy.

Quattlebaum said she wanted to name the “elephant in the room.”

“I have Black sons who have gone through DPS and I know what their experience was,” she said. “We are talking about policing Black children. That is what we are talking about, without saying it. How do we make sure the white students are safe when they are in school with Black students?”

“I’m just as concerned as about my brown boys and my brown community,” Gaytán said. “What I want is a say in what that looks like.”

Board member Charmaine Lindsay says she has seen the impact of disproportionate policing and discipline on her 10 grandchildren, who are all children of color. Lindsay, who is white, said she also has seen children meet a bad end that might have been avoided if there had been earlier intervention.

“I’ve seen kids end up dead and kids end up with 20- or 30-year prison sentences that could have been prevented if someone said, ‘you’re going to get a ticket’ or ‘you’re going to go to a pathways school,’” she said.

She also said school resource officers could help teachers feel safer, and that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Board member Carrie Olson, who was attending remotely, did not weigh in.

With the board reaching a self-imposed deadline for wrapping up the discussion, Anderson suggested holding an up-or-down vote on the previous ban at a future meeting before taking up either of the new proposals. It takes three board members or the president to place something on the agenda.

Baldermann said he feared that ending the ban without agreement on a replacement policy — one possible outcome of an up-or-down vote — would leave Denver students without protections and the superintendent without guidance.

The board’s next meeting is Monday, when the board is scheduled to hear public comment. However, the board doesn’t have a meeting allowing voting until June 15. The board could also schedule a special meeting.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school district hires safety chief from Aurora schools, filling 6-month vacancy

2023-06-01T22:26:33+00:00

Denver has hired longtime Aurora Public Schools safety chief Greg Cazzell to be the district’s next chief of climate and safety.

The key position has been vacant for more than six months as Denver Public Schools grapples with rising community violence and shootings both inside and just outside school buildings. Superintendent Alex Marrero is developing a new safety plan, the school board is debating the role of police in schools, and community groups are advocating for competing visions.

In a press release announcing the hire Thursday, the district said Cazzell would be responsible for overseeing and implementing the safety plan set to be finalized later this month. Cazzell is scheduled to start July 10.

Greg Cazzell

“I am very proud to accept this role with Denver Public Schools,” Cazzell said in the press release. “I am very aware of the work in front of us, and I am excited to get started on implementing the safety and security features of the new plan in support of our students, staff and community.”

A district spokesman said Cazzell is on a family trip and not available for interviews.

Cazzell has worked as Aurora Public Schools’ director of safety and security for eight years. Before that, he spent 22 years with the Glendale, Colorado, police department. He also has been an adjunct professor teaching criminal justice classes at Johnston & Wales University.

The neighboring Aurora school district has dealt with similar challenges with community violence. In 2021, within weeks, nine students were shot and injured in two incidents, one in the parking lot of Hinkley High School and the other in a park near Aurora Central High School.

Aurora, though, has maintained school resource officers throughout social justice protests and student advocacy. Then-Superintendent Rico Munn said the district put its own money toward mental health supports and restorative justice, while the city paid for police salaries, striking a good balance.

During his tenure, Cazzell implemented ID check procedures at Aurora schools that raised concerns among advocacy groups that work with immigrant parents and faced questions about the use of drug-sniffing dogs in schools.

“I know that Chief Cazzell will help DPS move forward in our ongoing commitment to providing a safe environment for every student to thrive,” Marrero said in a press release. “He will play a pivotal role in safeguarding our students and building trust among parents and staff.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board to weigh competing proposals on police in schools

2023-06-01T00:55:11+00:00

The Denver school board is divided on whether to keep police officers on campuses, with two competing proposals on the board agenda for Thursday.

One proposal, authored by board member Scott Baldermann, would give the superintendent authority to decide when, where, and for how long police should be stationed in Denver school buildings. School communities would be informed and their opinions considered, the proposal says, but the decision would rest with the superintendent.

The superintendent would deem when police presence is necessary and would work to ensure officers don’t get involved in school discipline and have special training and certifications, the proposal says.

The proposal says that police should be in schools for preserving safety, deterring crime, mentoring students, and building community and that they should have a softer presence, wearing less formal uniforms and not parking their cars where students would have to walk around them.

Baldermann, who voted to remove school resource officers back in 2020, said he changed his position due to the number of weapons being confiscated in Denver schools and feedback he has heard from the community.

He hopes his proposal will provide safety benefits and deter students from taking weapons to school without leading to more tickets and arrests for students of color — the reason advocates wanted police out of schools in the first place.

“At the end of the day, I do want this to be a positive relationship, and I think we can do that,” he said.

The other proposal, authored by Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and endorsed by members Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum, says police should not be stationed in schools — district- or charter-managed — on a regular basis. Instead the district would develop a memorandum of understanding with the city to create community resource officer positions.

Those officers would be assigned by region and available to schools when necessary. Their role would be limited to protecting the physical safety of students and staff, responding to a threat from someone outside the school community, and responding to situations in which schools are required to call law enforcement. The memorandum would include guidelines for when it’s appropriate for police to be on school grounds and when school staff should handle a situation, the proposal says.

Anderson’s proposal says that any officer engagements with students should include district support staff, restorative justice workers, and if needed a special education caseworker to help de-escalate the incident and intervene without criminalizing students.

Anderson said during a news conference Wednesday that the proposal represents a middle ground. The district won’t place police officers in schools but schools will have a police presence when needed.

“We cannot turn back on the progress that we have made,” he said.

While Baldermann’s proposal calls for officers to be trained by the National Association of School Resource Officers, Anderson lays out more extensive training requirements with curriculum to be developed by community groups. Topics would include restorative practices, culturally responsive de-escalation, working with students with disabilities, trauma-informed approaches, racial equity, and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Both proposals call for not spending school district funds on school resource officers. Instead, the city, state, or grants should cover police salaries, the proposals say.

The school district cannot unilaterally compel the city or the police department to agree to its terms.

Anderson said he’s spoken with Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas about the proposal. Questions remain about details of the memorandum of understanding, such as officers’ duties, the number of officers, and school assignments, Anderson said.

Baldermann said he hasn’t talked with the police chief, but he hopes the department would find the guidelines he’s proposing reasonable.

The role police will play in Denver schools is a significant question as Superintendent Alex Marrero develops a new safety plan that also emphasizes mental health resources for students, after-school programming, and community partnerships. Last week, in a second draft of the plan, he asked the school board to adopt a districtwide policy rather than leave the decision up to school principals in consultation with teachers and parents.

The Denver school board voted unanimously in March to temporarily return armed police officers to high schools the day after a student shot and wounded two administrators inside East High School. That decision reversed a ban adopted in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. Anderson was the leading advocate for removing police from schools.

The district was supposed to develop a new agreement with the Denver Police Department, but that never happened.

Without police on campuses, tickets and referrals to law enforcement fell, a major goal of advocates who pointed to significant racial disparities in student interactions with police.

Since then, rising community violence, more weapons being found on school grounds, and three prominent shootings in or near East High School — including one in which a student was killed — all pushed questions of school safety, discipline, and school resource officers to the forefront.

For the last two months, 13 Denver campuses have had school resource officers. Community surveys have found parents, students, and educators all divided on whether the presence of police would make schools feel safer. Advocacy groups like Movimiento Poder have urged the district not to return police to campuses, while many school principals say they would prefer to have officers in their buildings who know and are familiar with their students.

Board member Esserman, who supports not putting police back into schools, said the district shouldn’t switch its approach every time an incident occurs.

“When we do that, we’re just swinging a pendulum back and forth,” he said. Instead, the change will modify the district’s approach to keeping cops out of schools while also getting cops more involved with the city’s communities, he said.

Baldermann said those pendulum swings are one reason he wants the superintendent to make the decision on an as-needed basis.

“Right now, the board was saying you can’t do this, and Dr. Marrero did it anyway,” Baldermann said. “If there is a known threat or intelligence from the community, the superintendent should be able to respond. The board does not need to be involved in the operational level of where and when and how long.”

School Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said that as she’s met with Latino community groups, the large majority — especially mothers — want to see police in schools provided they have training and understand the community and its culture.

“It’s important we all come to the table with an open mind, that we come from the heart as well as bring analytical and critical thinking skills to determine what the best route is with this divisive SRO issue,” she said.

This article has been updated throughout with quotes from school board members.

Jason Gonzales contributed to this article.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

New Denver schools safety plan asks board to decide on police on campus

2023-05-26T21:41:08+00:00

The second draft of Denver Public Schools’ new safety plan doesn’t answer a key question — whether Denver schools will station armed police officers on campus next school year.

While the first draft suggested that school principals would have the authority to decide for themselves, the second draft released Friday kicks that question back to the school board, which still hasn’t voted on whether to permanently end a ban on school resource officers enacted in 2020.

Superintendent Alex Marrero now recommends the board decide for all comprehensive high schools and all 6-12 schools. The board is scheduled to discuss police in schools next week.

School principals would be able to decide whether to install metal detectors or other weapons detection systems after “extensive community engagement,” according to Marrero’s plan.

The plan reiterates that every student has the right under federal law to access a free and appropriate public education — a response to those in the community who said students with a history of concerning behavior should be required to attend alternative schools or online school. However, the plan also says the district is expanding hybrid and online options.

The plan does not recommend specific changes to the discipline matrix — another source of concern for some educators and parents who feel the district has gone too far in keeping certain students in school — but mentions that Denver Public Schools leadership will work with a team from Harvard and large urban school districts on effective discipline strategies.

The board directed Marrero to draft a long-term safety plan one day after a student shot two deans at Denver’s East High School in March. Marrero released a first draft of the plan on May 1. He has until June 30 to finalize it.

Whether police officers should be stationed on DPS campuses is among the most hotly debated aspects of the plan. The school board had removed officers — known as school resource officers, or SROs — from schools in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But after the East High shooting, the board held a lengthy closed-door meeting and temporarily suspended its ban on police.

Thirteen Denver high school campuses now have SROs. But the temporary suspension is set to expire next month.

The topic was on the agenda at the board’s May 18 meeting. However, after voting to give Marrero a 10% raise, the board ran out of time to discuss the SRO policy.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said Friday that the board is set to discuss the policy, known officially as executive limitation 10.10, at a work session Thursday. The board could vote later in June, Gaytán said. Currently, the policy says the superintendent shall “not staff district schools with school resource officers or the consistent presence of security armed with guns or any other law enforcement personnel.”

Opinions vary on whether schools should have SROs. In a survey conducted last month, 33% of DPS staff, 41% of students, and 48% of parents who responded said SROs would help. White parents were overrepresented among the respondents.

The draft plan says a majority of Denver school principals want to host school resource officers at their schools but also want the school board to make the decision, rather than make the decision themselves. In contrast, classroom teachers are less likely to support having school resource officers on campus but want the decision made at the school level.

Should the school board decide to keep police on campuses, the plan says the district would work closely with the department on selecting and training officers.

DPS held four telephone town hall meetings about the first draft of the safety plan. Marrero briefly discussed the feedback at the May 18 school board meeting.

He said more than 24,000 people attended the telephone meetings, and participants ranked SROs and weapons detection systems as the top two systemwide strategies in which the district should invest more resources. The other choices included unarmed and armed DPS security guards, communications, student discipline, and out-of-school programming.

A high-level summary of the townhall feedback included in the new safety plan shows a majority of participants did not feel the proposed strategies addressed student safety very well, not at a personal level, a school level, or a district level.

At 48 pages long, the first draft of the safety plan largely repeated things DPS already does or policies it already has in place. For instance, it talked about expecting schools to have the equivalent of one-full time mental health worker on staff and highlighted 20-minute daily lessons on social and emotional learning that happen in elementary schools.

The first draft also detailed DPS’s existing summer school programs, its commitment to culturally relevant curriculum, and its bullying prevention efforts.

The second draft is 62 pages and very similar to the first. The executive summary says in response to feedback, the district made an effort in the second version to better distinguish between programs that are already in place and those that are planned for future years.

The plan rejects the idea of requiring clear backpacks as unlikely to be effective and says that small class sizes — a top priority of the teachers union — do “not address all aspects of school safety.”

The draft plan doesn’t include any cost estimates yet but promises that the final version will.

Read the plan here.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Success Academy calls 911 on students in mental health crisis, writing its own rules

2023-05-23T15:15:00+00:00

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with THE CITY. It was originally published on May 23 by THE CITY.

In a panic, if she floors it, Marilyn Blanco can drive from her job at the Rikers Island jail complex to her son Ian’s school in Harlem in less than 18 minutes.

Nine times since December, Blanco has made the drive because Ian’s school — Success Academy Harlem 2 — called 911 on her 8-year-old.

Ian has been diagnosed with ADHD. When he gets frustrated, he sometimes has explosive tantrums, throwing things, running out of class and hitting and kicking anyone who comes near him. Blanco contends that, since Ian started first grade last year, Success Academy officials have been trying to push him out of the school because of his disability — an accusation similar to those made by other Success Academy parents in news stories, multiple lawsuits that resulted in settlements and a federal complaint.

When giving him detentions and suspensions didn’t stop Ian’s tantrums, Blanco said, the school started calling 911. If Blanco can’t get to Ian fast enough to intervene, a precinct officer or school safety agent from the New York Police Department will hold him until an ambulance arrives to take him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation — incidents the NYPD calls “child in crisis” interventions.

The experience has been devastating for Ian, Blanco said. Since the 911 calls started late last year, he’s been scared to leave his house because he thinks someone will take him away. At one ER visit, a doctor wrote in Ian’s medical file that he’d sustained emotional trauma from the calls.

Citywide, staff at the Success Academy Charter School network — which operates 49 schools, most of them serving kids under 10 years old — called 911 to respond to students in emotional distress at least 87 times between July 2016 and December 2022, according to an analysis of NYPD data by THE CITY and ProPublica.

If Success Academy were run by the city Department of Education, it would be subject to rules that explicitly limit the circumstances under which schools may call 911 on students in distress: Under a 2015 regulation, city-run schools may never send kids to hospitals as a punishment for misbehavior, and they may only involve police as a last resort, after taking mandatory steps to de-escalate a crisis first. (As THE CITY and ProPublica reported this month, the rules don’t always get followed, and city schools call 911 to respond to children in crisis thousands of times a year.)

But the regulation doesn’t apply to Success Academy, which is publicly funded but privately run and — like all of the city’s charter school networks — free to set its own discipline policies.

The consequence, according to education advocates and attorneys, is that families have nowhere to turn if school staff are using 911 calls in a way that’s so frightening or traumatic that kids have little choice but to leave.

“Sure, you can file a complaint with the Success Academy board of trustees. But it isn’t going anywhere,” said Nelson Mar, an education attorney at Legal Services NYC who represented parents in a 2013 lawsuit that led to the restrictions on city-run schools.

Success Academy did not respond to questions about the circumstances under which school staff generally call 911 or the criteria they use to determine whether to initiate child-in-crisis incidents.

Regarding Ian, Success Academy spokesperson Ann Powell wrote that school staff called EMS because Ian “has repeatedly engaged in very dangerous behavior including flipping over desks, breaking a window, biting teachers (one of whom was prescribed antibiotics to prevent infection since the bite drew blood), threatening to harm both himself and a school safety agent with scissors, hitting himself in the face, punching a pregnant paraprofessional in the stomach (stating ‘I don’t care’ when the paraprofessional reminded him that ‘there’s a baby in my belly’), punching a police officer and attempting to take his taser, and screaming ‘I wish you would die early.’”

Powell also provided documentation that included contemporaneous accounts of Ian’s behavior written by Success Academy staff, photographs of bite marks and a fractured window, an assessment by a school social worker concluding that Ian was at risk for self-harm, and a medical record from an urgent care facility corroborating the school’s account that a teacher had been prescribed antibiotics.

Blanco said that Success Academy administrators have regularly exaggerated Ian’s behaviors. When he was 6, for example, Ian pulled an assistant principal’s tie during a tantrum, and school staff described it as a choking attempt, according to an account Blanco gave to an evaluator close to the time of the incident. Each time Success Academy has sent Ian to an emergency room, doctors have sent him home, finding that he didn’t pose a safety threat to himself or others, medical records show. (Success Academy did not respond to questions about the assertion that staffers have exaggerated Ian’s behaviors.)

Blanco knows that Ian is struggling. No one is more concerned about his well-being than she is, she said. But villainizing her 8-year-old only makes the situation worse.

“It’s like they want to tarnish him,” Blanco said. “He’s just a child, a child who needs help and support.”

“Things are already hard enough” for Ian, Blanco continued. “Kids born with special needs — they didn’t choose that walk of life. Ian didn’t pick this. They don’t have the right to punish him for it.”

Strict discipline

Back in 2020, when Ian was 4, Blanco was thrilled to get him a spot at Success Academy. She and Ian live in the South Bronx, in the same neighborhood where Blanco grew up. At Ian’s city-run neighborhood school, P.S. 62, just 14% of students passed state reading exams last year.

Success Academy, which has avid support from many parents and is led by former New York City Councilmember Eva Moskowitz, promotes itself as an antidote to educational inequality, offering rigorous charter school options to kids who might not have other good choices. On its website, the network advertises its students’ standardized test scores (pass rates for Black and Latino students are “double and even triple” those at city-run schools) and its educational outcomes: 100% of high school graduates are accepted to college, the network says.

Success Academy administrators say that strict and consistent discipline policies are essential to kids’ learning. Students are required to follow a precise dress code and to sit still and quietly, with hands folded in their laps or on their desks. When students break the rules, the school issues a progressive series of consequences, including letters home, detentions and suspensions.

Once students are accepted through the Success Academy lottery, the network is required to serve them until they graduate or turn 21, unless they withdraw or are formally expelled.

But critics, including parents who say their kids were pushed out of Success Academy schools, have long claimed that the network achieves its academic results by getting rid of students with disabilities — especially those with mental health or behavioral challenges that make it impossible to follow the school’s rigid comportment rules. In 2015, The New York Times reported that a Success Academy school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, had drawn up a list of students with the heading “Got to Go.” The network’s officials responded to the report by saying that the list had been a mistake, and that the school’s principal had been reprimanded.

A year later, a group of parents, accompanied by then-New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, filed a complaint against Success Academy with the federal education department, claiming that the network discriminated against students with disabilities, including by threatening to file child welfare reports and to call 911 on children if their parents didn’t pick them up on demand. (The investigation is still open.)

In 2019, the New York State Education Department found that Success Academy had failed to provide mandatory services for students with disabilities and refused to follow orders issued by hearing officers.

Success Academy did not respond to questions from THE CITY and ProPublica about the investigations.

Critics have paid less attention to the fact that Success Academy is not subject to city rules governing 911 calls — an exemption the network takes full advantage of, according to accounts from parents, attorneys and two former staff members who spoke to THE CITY and ProPublica.

“The path is detentions, suspensions, parent meetings. A 911 call is the next step in the escalation,” said Livia Camperi, who was an English teacher at a Success Academy school in Brooklyn until March. Camperi said she was fired because she disagreed with a new principal about increasingly “draconian” discipline practices. On the day she left the school, an assistant principal called an NYPD safety agent on a middle school student who stayed seated after being instructed to leave a classroom, according to Camperi, who showed THE CITY and ProPublica text messages from students and staff that corroborate her account.

In response to questions about this incident, Powell, the Success Academy spokesperson, wrote that the student was shouting and banging on a desk. Educators “were concerned that the student wasn’t following directions and might become violent so they called school safety,” Powell wrote. “It is appropriate to involve school safety when there are possible safety issues.”

Powell did not comment on the circumstances under which Camperi was fired.

Falling behind

In Harlem, Ian started struggling at Success Academy just a few weeks into first grade. He’d never been aggressive before he started school, Blanco said. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d attended kindergarten online. When schools went back to in-person instruction, he was a high-energy 6-year-old who couldn’t follow Success Academy’s strict rules requiring him to sit still and stay quiet. By the end of first grade, he’d been suspended nearly 20 times.

The more Ian got in trouble, the worse he felt about himself and the worse his behavior became, Blanco said. He started falling behind because he missed so much class time during his suspensions, according to his education records. At home and at school, he said that teachers disciplined him because he was a “bad kid.”

At first, Blanco worked hard to cooperate with the school, she said. She was worried by the change in Ian’s behavior, and she thought that school staff had his best interests at heart. But then an assistant principal called her into an office and told her that Success Academy wasn’t a “good fit” for Ian, Blanco said to THE CITY and ProPublica, as well as in a written complaint she sent to Success Academy at around that time. (Success Academy’s board of trustees investigated the complaint and did not find evidence of discrimination against Ian, according to a September 2022 letter to Blanco from a board member.)

“That didn’t sit right,” said Blanco, who is an investigator at Rikers Island and is accustomed to gathering paper trails. She asked the assistant principal to put the statement in writing, but he told her she had misunderstood, she said. (Success Academy did not respond to questions about this incident.)

Several times, when the school called Blanco to pick Ian up early, staff told her to take him to a psychiatric emergency room for an evaluation. But the visits didn’t help, Blanco said. “You could be sitting there for six, seven, eight hours,” waiting to talk to a psychologist. Because Ian never presented as an immediate threat to himself or others, hospital staff couldn’t do much but refer him to outpatient care and send him home, according to hospital discharge records.

Eventually, Blanco found an outpatient clinic that would accept her insurance to evaluate Ian for neurological and behavioral disorders. She said she begged school staff to stop disciplining Ian while she worked to get him treatment, but the suspensions were relentless. Once, he missed 15 straight days of school.

At the beginning of Ian’s second grade year, Blanco reached out to Legal Services NYC, where Mar, the education attorney, took her on as a client.

Mar filed a complaint on Blanco’s behalf with the state education department, which concluded that Success Academy had failed to provide Ian with services required by his individualized education plan. He also represented her in hearings to determine whether Ian’s suspensions were for behavior that resulted directly from his disability, which ultimately reduced the number of days that Ian was barred from school. But there was little they could do about the fact that the suspensions just kept coming.

When parents of kids at city-run schools believe their children have been unfairly disciplined — including through inappropriate suspensions or unnecessary 911 calls — they can appeal for help first from the superintendent of their community school district or the city’s Department of Education, and then from the state education department, which oversees the city agencies.

Charter school families, on the other hand, often have “no opportunity for redress,” Mar said. In certain cases, students or parents can file a complaint with the State University of New York, which authorizes Success Academy’s charter and has the power to revoke it. But neither SUNY nor the state education department have regulations governing 911 calls, and SUNY will only consider a complaint if students or parents can show that a school violated the terms of its charter or broke the law — which is very difficult to prove in the case of 911 calls, since school staff have room for discretion in emergencies, including serious threats of suicide or self-harm.

“SUNY does not condone the use of 911 as a form of discipline and that is made clear when schools seek guidance. We also do not substitute our judgement if a school administrator believes a child in distress needs emergency services,” wrote Mike Lesczinski, director of communications for the SUNY Charter School Institute.

The state education department did not respond to requests for comment.

In January, Blanco called Mar again as she sped from Queens to Harlem. Ian had had another tantrum, and Success Academy had once again called 911. Mar raced to the school, where he and Blanco found Ian in a hallway, sobbing. Four uniformed police officers and two EMTs towered over him, Mar and Blanco said.

School staff said that they had isolated Ian in an office because he was behaving aggressively, and then he’d tried to open a window. “They claimed he was exhibiting suicidality,” Mar said.

But Ian told Mar and Blanco that he’d never planned to hurt himself; he just didn’t want to be confined alone in an office. “He was trying to do what any logical person would do,” Mar told THE CITY and ProPublica. “He wanted to get out of the situation.”

Blanco told the EMTs that she did not consent to them putting Ian in an ambulance. Instead, she drove him herself to the psychiatric emergency room at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital for an evaluation, she and Mar said. As with all the other ER trips, hospital staff evaluated Ian, determined that he wasn’t at risk of harming himself and sent him home.

Child welfare case

Shortly after the January 911 call, Blanco’s doorbell rang. It was a caseworker from the Administration for Children’s Services, New York City’s child welfare agency, there to investigate a report that Blanco was neglecting Ian’s medical care.

The allegation seemed absurd to Blanco, since Ian is under the care of a neurologist, was on waitlists for outpatient therapy at several clinics, and has been assessed multiple times by ER doctors who determined he was not at risk of self-harm, according to Blanco’s account and medical records. “I’ve done everything in my power to try and get him help,” Blanco said.

Because people who report concerns to child welfare agencies are typically kept anonymous and the investigation is still open, Blanco couldn’t immediately find out who made the complaint against her. However, Powell from Success Academy wrote that school staff reported Blanco for child neglect in January, after Blanco refused to allow EMTs to put Ian in an ambulance. (In this instance, the school had called a mobile crisis unit to respond to Ian before calling 911, Powell wrote, but the unit was not available.) School staff were concerned that, despite “Ian’s repeatedly exhibiting self-injurious behaviors,” Blanco had shown a pattern of “neglecting her child by failing to provide appropriate and necessary mental support for him,” Powell wrote.

Success Academy made a second child welfare report against Blanco in April, after another incident in which Ian’s parents refused to allow EMTs to take him from school by ambulance. In that instance, Powell wrote, lieutenants from the NYPD and EMS said that Ian needed to be evaluated in a hospital because he’d said he wanted to harm others, and that emergency services personnel would be required to alert the Administration for Children’s Services if Ian’s parents refused the recommended level of care.

“We had utterly no choice in the matter,” Powell wrote. “Declining to notify ACS when the police have specifically concluded there is a duty to do so would have been a flagrant, deliberate and criminal violation of our reporting duties.”

It’s not uncommon for schools to file child welfare reports against parents who refuse to allow their children to be taken from school by ambulance — even if the kids are in treatment and the parents believe that being forcibly removed from school would be traumatic and unhelpful, according to several education attorneys and parents who told similar stories to THE CITY and ProPublica. School employees, who are legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect, make thousands of unfounded child welfare reports each year.

“I don’t know if schools really understand how much pain they add to a stressful situation when they make a child welfare report,” said Jenn Choi, who works as an educational advocate for parents of children with disabilities. Ten years ago, Choi was subject to a child welfare investigation after a school bus attendant called 911 on her son, who’s autistic.

At Blanco’s apartment, the investigator peered into her refrigerator and cabinets and took Ian into a separate room to interview him alone. “It was very invasive and humiliating,” Blanco said.

She felt besieged by forces she couldn’t possibly withstand. “I know how this works. I’m a single mom, I live in the Bronx, I’m a minority, I’m a dark-skinned woman. So automatically, it must be a broken home,” Blanco said. “I’ve cried my eyes out. I’m not the person that I was prior to my son going into that school.”

The 911 calls and the child welfare case are taking their toll on Ian, too. He gets nervous now when he sees police cars on the street, Blanco said. “I’m law enforcement. I don’t teach him to be afraid of police.” In February, he told a therapist that the only place he feels safe is at home.

One month after the child welfare visit, things got even worse. Blanco was in Queens, heading to work to pick up some overtime, when the school called to say that Ian had had another tantrum. This time, she was too late to bring Ian home herself. He was in an ambulance, on his way to Harlem Hospital.

“I started having a panic attack,” Blanco said. “I just kept thinking about him being taken away by strangers and I’m not there. I don’t know if he complied and got in the ambulance of his own accord. I don’t know if they forced him. I don’t know what they’re telling him, what they’re doing to him, what they’re making him feel.”

She was crying too hard to drive, so she called Ian’s dad, who left a barbershop halfway through a haircut to pick up Blanco and rush to the hospital. When they arrived and Blanco saw that Ian was safe, her panic turned to something else. “I was so angry but at the same time I felt so defeated. I’m fighting a lost cause,” she said. “I felt so small and helpless that I couldn’t even defend my own child.”

Two weeks ago, Success Academy sent Blanco an email informing her that they requested a hearing to have Ian removed from school for up to 45 school days because he “is substantially likely to cause injury to himself and others while in the Success Academy community.”

Ian would be barred from Success Academy immediately, the email said, even though it could take up to 20 days to schedule the hearing, which will be held at the special education division of the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. If the hearing officer agrees with Success Academy, Ian will miss the rest of the school year.

“I want to be clear that this action is not disciplinary in nature,” wrote Bridget McNamara, Success Academy’s head of school management, in the May 9 message to Blanco. “We believe Ian is currently not safe in his current school placement.”

To Blanco, the hearing seems like just another way for the school to get rid of her son. She thinks about pulling Ian out of Success Academy all the time, she said, but it feels like there’s no good alternative. She doesn’t want to give up on the idea of him getting a better shot than the one she got at a failing neighborhood school.

“I want him to get free of this cycle of disadvantage,” Blanco said. “I want to fight for my son’s rights and let them know that you’re not going to treat my child this way. I’ve made it my mission. You don’t get to pick and choose who you give an education to.”

Clarification, May 30, 2023: This story has been clarified in two places to specify that Success Academy called 911 when requesting an emergency response to students’ misbehavior, removing any ambiguity about whether the police were called directly.

Artificial intelligence could come to Newark public schools. What does that mean for student privacy and safety?

2023-05-23T10:00:00+00:00

The item tucked in a Newark Board of Education committee report was brief, just a few sentences that could have far-reaching implications for the district’s 35,000 students: Replace an outdated security camera system with a “next-generation surveillance platform.”

The new system would include more than 7,000 cameras districtwide — roughly one for every five students — equipped with artificial intelligence to recognize people and objects such as cars and guns, sensors to detect chemicals in vape pens, and remote access to live feeds for authorized staff.

The plan, to be funded in part by federal COVID relief dollars, drew little response at the school board’s monthly business meeting in March. The proposed system would vastly expand the district’s surveillance capabilities, going beyond traditional systems currently used in most districts.

Community advocates and security experts are raising alarms, saying such a system could violate student and staff privacy, lead to overpolicing of students, and not actually protect campuses.

Giovanna Castaneda, a youth organizer at Make The Road NJ, says keeping students safe means more than hiring security guards, installing metal detectors, or buying security cameras. She fears these tools could also be a way of “fueling the system of policing” in schools.

“Cameras can easily just be another way of watching students and punishing them,” Castaneda said.

The push to keep students safe has grown in the wake of a rise in school shootings year after year and high-profile tragedies, like those in Uvalde, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee. While many school districts across the country have ramped up security, new surveillance technologies that are far more complex than traditional cameras are emerging in districts like Newark, experts say.

Artificial intelligence cameras with facial recognition systems, cloud-based systems to manage and store information, and student social media monitoring software are among the tools that experts are seeing districts choose.

But some of these new technologies often come with little to no state or local oversight, critics warn. Without that scrutiny, they say, these tools could be misused, not as effective, or put student privacy at risk.

In Newark Public Schools, that committee summary report said the new camera system is needed because the district’s current security set-up is “outdated, inefficient,” pointing to no remote access, storage, and other limitations.

The report, written by the district’s office of information technology, spells out features officials are looking for: live feeds, higher-quality images, the ability to be programmed to record at certain times of the day, and the potential to track school buses.

Additionally, the system should work with security cameras and sensors to react to the sounds of a gun, glass breaking, and human screaming.

Although the district says it has not started its process to solicit a vendor for the new camera system, the goal is to “enhance security” and the plan is to receive bids before the start of next school year, according to acting communications director Nancy Deering. Officials plan to complete the installation by the end of 2023, Deering said.

In 2021, the district allocated $2.4 million in federal COVID money for security cameras, but Deering said it will not have a final budget for this security overhaul until it chooses a vendor. Officials plan to pick the “most suitable and most cost-effective solution,” Deering added.

But the lack of a firm plan and budget, experts warn, could leave the district vulnerable to aggressive marketing strategies that describe complex security tools and technology as an essential part of keeping students safe at a time when school shootings are a top concern for educators.

“I’ve done a lot of work on stories about school districts because they are one of the largest markets for security products in the United States,” said Conor Healy, director of government research at IPVM, a security and surveillance research group. “Schools tend to make very poor decisions when it comes to the security technology they buy.”

In 2020, the Baldwin County School District in Alabama spent $1 million on thermal cameras that the Food and Drug Administration later said were not authorized under the federal government, according to an IPVM and a CBS affiliate investigation. Similarly in 2022, the Daily Beast reported that more than 200 school districts nationwide purchased thermal scanners and cameras promoted as a way to detect fevers, but which would regularly fail.

Districts bolster security in the name of student safety

Newark is one of many districts nationwide seeking to boost security in the wake of mass shootings. New York City purchased door-locking systems to control who has access to school buildings. Districts like Chicago spent $73.3 million to add and upgrade security cameras and in Memphis, the district is slated to spend up to $6.3 million to bolster security.

And Newark Public Schools has already been increasing security for several years. The school district installed metal detectors to scan students for contraband and weapons and added six new patrol cars for school safety officers. It also provided its security guards with training including on bag scanners, active shooter response, and the drug and alcohol policy. Newark plans to hire more security guards and update its software to track school incidents.

At the state level, Gov. Phil Murphy approved multiple efforts to keep children in schools safe, including $6.5 million in federal COVID relief funds to have school districts digitize school building maps and make them available to first responders in emergency situations. The maps will include aerial views of school buildings, floor plans, and utility shut-offs among other information.

Murphy also approved legislation in August 2022 to require boards of education in each school district to develop and adopt a policy to establish a threat assessment team tasked with identifying students who might be a threat to school safety.

Newark’s plan to overhaul its camera system would be a more ambitious step to monitor students, staff, and those visiting schools.

John Abeigon, president of the Newark Teachers Union, says he is comfortable with adding thousands of cameras in district schools as long as they are kept out of classrooms and teacher’s lounges. In the past, he’s received complaints about cameras being inoperable at specific schools or during certain parts of the day, a problem when students or staff claim that they were injured in hallways or staircases.

“As long as they can maintain a service agreement and keep them operable, we have no issue with them,” Abeigon said.

Privacy and policing concerns grow as new technologies are implemented

While surveillance and security companies sell new tools by promising to promote safety and giving administrators a greater ability to monitor students, experts say officials should carefully weigh the sales pitch against student needs.

Companies such as Verkada and Rhombus market security tools that will “help manage school security” and “create safer schools.” These companies market artificial intelligence capabilities in their surveillance systems that can send real-time alerts to law enforcement agencies and track faces in school buildings.

Similar to facial recognition on phones, security cameras that use artificial intelligence can monitor and keep a log of faces. But these cameras could potentially misidentify items or students and monitor them in ways that could infringe on their privacy, said Dillon Riesman, a Skadden fellow at the ACLU-NJ who specializes in advocacy for civil rights and technology.

Security experts also warn that facial recognition features might not work as well on darker skin tones, posing an extra challenge for students of color who risk being misidentified. That could present a particular concern in a district such as Newark, where nearly 90% of students identify as Hispanic or Black, say policy experts at the American Civil Liberties Union New Jersey.

“These new technologies cost schools millions of dollars for systems and functionality and tools that the school might not need,” Riesman added, “or worse, might actively harm students.”

According to Deering, the Newark Public Schools spokesperson, artificial intelligence offers capabilities that the outdated camera system is not capable of, and says the district’s goal in acquiring these capabilities “is to enhance security, not penalize students.”

Experts also warn of privacy concerns due to hacking, since information is stored in cloud-like platforms. Verkada, for example, uses a cloud-based management system and has had its cameras hacked. Several workers were also accused of accessing the company’s facial recognition system to take and post photos of women at the company, according to CBS News and VICE. In response to the reporting, Verkada fired three employees who abused the company’s monitoring system and updated its systems following the hacking incident.

Verkada declined to comment on their previous hacking incident and employee misuse of facial recognition.

The company has also been accused of dubious marketing practices. It sold technology to public schools throughout North Jersey by recruiting a Bergen County superintendent to help connect the companies’ sales representatives to school employees, who would be offered incentives in exchange for sales meetings, according to VICE.

No legislative oversight over security cameras in schools

Under New Jersey law, school officials can install cameras to keep watch of areas “that could be monitored or patrolled by a person.” There are no strict rules on where they can be placed, but cameras are generally not allowed in bathrooms or locker rooms.

State law also says the best practice is for schools to provide notice of surveillance areas by placing signs near security cameras but it’s unclear if the practice is enforced.

In Newark, which has 3,000 classrooms across the district, Deering said officials cannot disclose where cameras will be placed for security purposes, but they are installed outside school buildings or near entrances.

The state provides districts with funding for school security projects and upgrades, but few guidelines on how to use the funds, according to ACLU-NJ.

During the 2020-2021 regular state legislative session, a bill to include security cameras in certain special education classrooms was introduced but ultimately died. During the 2022-2023 regular session, state Sen. Nia Gill introduced a bill to restrict the use of facial recognition technology and other “biometric recognition” by governmental entities but it failed to move forward.

Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz and Senate education committee chair Vin Gopal did not comment on school surveillance technology regulations.

Joe Johnson, policy counsel at the ACLU-NJ, says the lack of state oversight over security and surveillance companies is a problem.

“It is left up to the school districts and sometimes that’s beneficial,” Johnson said. “But other times, students that live in one part of the state have a different experience, whether better or worse, than other students across the state.”

Advocates stress the importance of community engagement

As districts invest taxpayer dollars into these tools and systems, advocates say it’s important to include the community in discussions. In addition, bringing awareness about the implementation of new surveillance technologies could promote trust and better understanding for parents.

District spokesperson Deering said notice about Newark Public Schools’ plan to replace its outdated camera system would be provided to the community “at the appropriate time.”

Dave Maass, director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said community oversight on how these technologies are implemented is important for school communities. Johnson, the policy counsel at ACLU-NJ, said school districts should work on getting “the information in front of parents and students” before new tools are implemented.

“Those conversations lead to a stronger school district because the local community can weigh in on what it is that the students need,” Johnson said.

Castaneda, the youth organizer, believes there needs to be a larger conversation on how funds are used to promote safe school environments. Those dollars could be better spent to tackle the causes that lead to students carrying guns, drugs, or engaging in violence, she said.

“It’s about getting to know the student and knowing where they come from, what they ate, what their family life is like, and getting at the root of the issue,” Castaneda added.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school suspensions spike 27% during the first half of the school year

2023-05-19T23:01:29+00:00

New York City public schools issued significantly more suspensions during the first half of this school year, according to long overdue department statistics.

Between July and December 2022, schools issued just over 10,600 suspensions — 27% more than the same period in 2021. The number is about 6% higher than in 2019 just before the pandemic hit, even though the number of K-12 students has declined over 10%.

Drilling down into the data, principal suspensions — which last five days or fewer — jumped by about 29%. Superintendent suspensions, which stretch longer than five days, and are served at outside suspension sites, spiked by 21%. (The figures do not include charter schools.)

Before the pandemic hit, suspensions were on a downward trajectory, owing in part to a slew of policy changes that made it more difficult to exclude students from classrooms. When COVID forced the city’s school buildings to shutter, suspensions mostly stopped.

Last school year — the first time students were required to attend school in person since March 2020 — suspensions ticked back up but remained far short of pre-pandemic levels. That surprised some student discipline experts, who expected a larger increase given widespread concerns about student mental health and students’ ability to reacclimate to regular classroom rules.

Educators may have been more reluctant to exacerbate learning loss after years of pandemic schooling. Skyrocketing rates of chronic absenteeism and declining enrollment may have also played a role, as there were simply fewer students in school buildings to suspend.

Social distancing rules could have made physical confrontations, which may lead to suspensions, less likely. Suspensions are disproportionately issued to Black students, and teachers may have tempered suspensions in the wake of the racial reckoning after George Floyd’s murder.

Whatever the cause of the decline after the pandemic, suspensions are now ticking back up, mirroring educator reports across the country of more disruptive student behavior. Local data for the full school year, including demographic breakdowns, will not be available until later this year.

The uptick in suspensions raised concern among some discipline reform advocates.

“That is a huge problem that the city is choosing to increase the use of punitive and exclusionary approaches,” said Dawn Yuster, director of the School Justice Project at the nonprofit group Advocates for Children. “We are in the midst of a youth mental health crisis and we know our young people are literally crying out for more support.”

Jenna Lyle, an education department spokesperson, emphasized that the use of suspensions have generally declined over the last decade.

“We are continuously focused on equipping schools with the resources they need to address any issues in a positive, supportive, and less punitive manner, including through implementation of restorative practices,” she wrote.

Under city law, the education department’s mid-year suspension report is due by the end of March. Despite multiple requests, education department officials did not provide the suspension report for weeks. Lyle did not answer a question about why the city did not provide the figures within the required timeframe, a deadline the city regularly met before the pandemic.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Father of Luis Garcia: If police had been at East High, ‘maybe my son would still be here with us’

2023-05-19T19:59:19+00:00

Leer en español.

The family of Luis Garcia returned Friday to the City Park Esplanade, a paved road that runs in front of Denver’s East High School and loops into the park, for the first time since the 16-year-old was fatally shot there in February.

They pointed out the presence of Denver police at the school — a security measure that was absent when Luis was shot while sitting in his car, parked on the Esplanade. Denver police officers didn’t return to East until a month and a half later, after another shooting in which an East student shot and injured two deans inside the school.

“All the adults in charge that are supposed to make school safe failed my brother,” Luis’ 20-year-old sister Jovana Garcia said at a press conference with the family’s attorney Friday.

“No type of security or protection. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that weeks after my brother passed, there was an incident where two other adults were injured. Injured, not dead. And then they wanted change. Was Luis’ life not enough?”

The family has given Denver Public Schools notice that it plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the district, said attorney Matthew Barringer. The notice also names the school board, which voted in 2020 to remove police officers from Denver schools.

Luis Garcia, right in the red and white jersey, played on the East High School soccer team.

The murder of Luis, a talented soccer player whose father described him as “the happiness of our home,” remains unsolved without an arrest. Police have said it appeared the gunshots that hit Luis were fired from another car.

Luis’ father, Santos Garcia, said that if police had been inside East in February, with their patrol cars parked out front, “I think maybe my son would still be here with us today.”

When the family asked why there was no security at the school, Garcia said the police told them that the school board didn’t want officers arresting students or ticketing for things like drugs.

“They are taking care of those kids, but who is taking care of our kids?” Garcia said. “The kids that go to school, that they work, that they actually do sports. The good kids.

“Who takes care of them?”

In removing police from schools, the board cited a desire to disrupt the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects students of color. Black students were more likely than white students to be ticketed and arrested in Denver schools.

After the two deans were shot in March, the school board temporarily suspended its ban on police. East High and 12 other campuses have school resource officers through the end of the school year, and the board is expected to discuss soon whether to permanently lift the ban.

Garcia said his family would like to see the extra security remain.

“We don’t want 100, 200 policemen,” he said, “but we want some type of security so the students feel safe. We don’t want them to fear. We just want them to feel safe.”

Friday’s press conference was the latest in a series of weekly events hosted by Parents - Safety Advocacy Group, a group that formed in the wake of the March shooting. It was also the first time that many of Luis’ family members spoke publicly about his death.

Omar Bobadilla, 17-year-old cousin of Luis Garcia, speaks to the media Friday.

Several family members described Feb. 13, the day Luis was shot. Luis’ father recalled his last conversation with him that morning, in which he told his son to have a wonderful day.

Cousin Omar Bobadilla, 17, remembered speaking with Luis 20 minutes before he was shot. It was Omar’s birthday, and they were making plans to hang out later.

Luis’ sister Jovana recalled how DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero, who she called “a stranger to us,” came to the hospital and asked to see her brother.

“The entitlement he had to even ask, when not even his siblings were allowed to see him,” she said. “That was the last time I personally saw him show up for my brother.”

Luis’ 19-year-old brother, also named Santos Garcia, said he never wants another family to experience what his family has. “You feel lost,” he said. “You feel a hole. And I just want a change in who makes the decisions and for people to take accountability.”

Correction: A previous version of this story listed the wrong age for Luis’ brother Santos.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board set to discuss ban on police in schools amid pushback on proposed rollback

2023-05-17T22:30:56+00:00

As the Denver school board prepares to discuss its policy banning police from schools, some students, educators, and advocacy groups are pushing back on a proposal to roll back the ban.

“There is no such thing as a good person with a gun, the same way there is no such thing as a good cop with a badge,” Veneno Quezada-Montoya, a sophomore at Denver’s North High School, told school board members at a public comment session Monday.

“Because behind that badge is centuries and centuries of oppression.”

On Thursday the board is set to discuss — and possibly revise — a policy that says the superintendent shall “not staff district schools with school resource officers or the consistent presence of security armed with guns or any other law enforcement personnel.”

The board adopted the policy, known officially as executive limitation 10.10, in 2021 after voting in 2020 to remove police known as school resource officers from schools.

The board temporarily suspended that policy in late March after a shooting inside East High School, which has sparked public outcry and a debate about Denver’s discipline policies.

Thirteen high school campuses have had police officers for the past month and a half. Those campuses will continue to have officers, known as SROs, until the last day of school on June 2.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has proposed that for next school year and beyond, each school would be able to decide whether or not to have a police officer on campus. But Marrero’s proposal would require the school board to reverse its ban.

Movimiento Poder, an advocacy group that campaigned for decades against police in schools, is pushing Denver Public Schools to keep the ban. In a report released Wednesday, Movimiento Poder, which was formerly called Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, called the ban “the most significant advance in racial equity within the city’s education system in decades.”

“The elimination of SROs has already been clearly and hugely beneficial to thousands of students and families,” the report says, “yet the superintendent’s proposal would send the district backwards, reviving the racism of its recent past in which school policing caused profound harm to students, families, and communities of color.”

Denver students were ticketed or arrested 4,929 times in the six school years from 2014 to 2020, according to the report, which attributes those statistics to the Colorado Department of Criminal Justice. The report says the vast majority — 87% — of those tickets and arrests affected students of color, who make up about 75% of all DPS students.

In the two full school years since SROs were removed from Denver schools, students have been ticketed or arrested just 175 times, which is a 90% reduction, the report says. One of those school years was partly remote due to the COVID pandemic.

When Chalkbeat asked Marrero about similar statistics back in January, he said he was proud of the reduction in the number of students involved with law enforcement. But just hours after the East shooting, in which a student shot and injured two deans, Marrero pledged to return police to schools, a move he acknowledged violated school board policy.

“I can no longer stand on the sidelines,” he wrote in a letter to school board members, who eventually endorsed the move by temporarily suspending the policy.

A survey of students, families, and staff conducted by DPS last month found that none of the three groups ranked SROs as the top solution to the problem of school violence. Only a third of DPS staff, 41% of students, and 48% of parents who responded to the survey said SROs would help. White parents were overrepresented among the respondents.

At Monday’s public comment session, several students and parents spoke against permanently reintroducing police in schools. Skye O’Toole, a student who serves on the superintendent’s student cabinet, urged the board to keep the ban.

“These policies are heavily reactionary and will do next to nothing to ensure we are truly safe in our hallways,” O’Toole said. “Every time I think about this issue I just can’t get over the fact that hiring school resource officers is effectively hiring staff with a license to kill our students.”

As part of her leadership role on the student cabinet, O’Toole said she’d spoken to hundreds of students across the district. “One of the most resounding strains I’ve heard is that we don’t want schools to be militarized,” O’Toole said. “We want to be students, not prisoners.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis district may drop ServiceMaster custodial contract as cleanliness concerns persist

2023-05-17T18:01:07+00:00

Memphis-Shelby County Schools wants to clean up the way it cleans up its schools.

Last year, the board approved a four-year, $34 million contract with ServiceMaster Clean to provide custodial services across the district. The cost was significantly higher than the previous year, when the work was split between two providers, but MSCS sought a wage increase to $15 an hour, which the district argued would help it hire and retain workers.

Even so, the contract hasn’t resolved persistent cleanliness concerns raised by students and teachers. So among other options, the district may consider terminating the contract early.

“We want our kids going to clean schools,” board member Frank Johnson said at a meeting Tuesday, requesting that district officials present options for an updated custodial plan. Earlier this school year, Johnson said students at a school in his district walked out of class in protest of dirty classrooms.

Interim Superintendent Toni Williams — who was the chief financial officer when the board approved the ServiceMaster Clean contract last June — said the district has withheld payment for some $6 million in pandemic-related cleaning services that ServiceMaster Clean has not executed.

ServiceMaster Clean didn’t deep-clean the schools last summer, a task typically performed every summer, district officials said Tuesday.

“I just want to point out that the accountability is there,” Williams said Tuesday. “If we are going to do this, I’m going to be accountable for the schools.”

Williams said the district would present options to board members later this month, including a cost analysis for bringing custodial workers in-house.

This year, board members are requesting a more active role in deciding what happens with custodial services. In previous years, the board split over votes to approve custodial contracts presented by the district, with the lasting cleanliness concerns brought up each time.

Last year, for instance, the board voted down the ServiceMaster Clean contract before reconvening less than a week later to approve it.

For now, the board isn’t facing any impending deadlines: The current contract isn’t nearing expiration, and the district is not actively seeking new vendors for the work.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Denver Public Schools has lacked a safety chief for 6 months amid rising gun violence

2023-05-16T21:55:50+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

Denver Public Schools has lacked a safety chief for six months as the district grapples with rising youth gun violence and a shooting inside its largest high school.

The district attributed a delay in filling the position to several factors, including media coverage of the school board, whose infighting has been widely reported, and a desire to find a candidate who understands both safety and students’ social and emotional needs, according to a district document obtained by Chalkbeat.

The former chief of the DPS climate and safety department, Mike Eaton, left the district in November after more than a decade. The department has other vacancies as well. The interim safety chief, Robert Grossaint, is out on medical leave, according to a district spokesperson. And one of two deputy chiefs, Melissa Craven, left DPS last month.

The short staffing comes at a time when students, parents, and educators are particularly worried about school safety. Three shootings in and around East High School this school year have heightened those concerns, leading to student protests, the formation of a parent advocacy group, calls for the school board to resign, the reintroduction of school police officers, and the hastened development of a long-term safety plan for the entire district.

Two East High students died in shootings this year. Sixteen-year-old Luis Garcia was killed while sitting in his car outside the school in February, a crime that remains unsolved. And Austin Lyle, 17, took his own life in March after shooting and wounding two East High deans.

But Trena Marsal, the district’s chief of operations, said in an interview that despite the vacancies in the DPS safety department, Denver’s public schools are safe. Other staff members have been stepping in to fill the empty roles, she said.

“I want to make sure people understand that our buildings are safe,” Marsal said. “We have highly trained experts in the field of safety that are in place and continue to be in place.”

The district’s safety chief is responsible for setting a long-term vision for safety in DPS, overseeing investigations, leading the response to emergencies, coordinating with law enforcement, and other duties, according to the job listing.

Safety chief role is ‘a key player’

The vacancy came up at a school board meeting last month when Superintendent Alex Marrero was giving a brief update on the long-term safety plan the board directed him to develop in the wake of the March shooting at East.

Board member Michelle Quattlebaum said to Marrero: “A pressing question for me is centered around: You’re doing all of this work, and you’re missing a key player.”

Marrero promised to explain why it’s been difficult to hire a new safety chief, but he declined to do it publicly. “It’s best for you all to receive it in memo form,” he said to the board.

When Chalkbeat filed an open records request for that memo or any documents that explain the hiring difficulty, the district provided a two-page document that appears to have been last updated in late March.

It says the chief job was posted on Sept. 28, and 121 people had applied as of March 20. Twelve candidates were “brought forward,” the unsigned document says.

But five candidates withdrew and seven were eliminated after interviews. One candidate who made it to the second round of interviews backed out “after a student death in his current district” outside of Colorado, the document says.

“While we’ve interviewed numerous people for the role, we’ve had trouble finding a candidate that has both the safety and security chops in addition to a student-centric mindset — and in particular a person who understands the needs of communities and students of color,” the document says.

It notes that the district hasn’t had a shortage of candidates, but rather “a shortage of qualified candidates (based on both experience and mindset).”

About three-quarters of DPS students are students of color. The district’s approach to safety and discipline leans toward keeping students in school rather than suspending or expelling them — a philosophy that has come under scrutiny since the March shooting at East.

The document also says the salary DPS was offering “was initially a concern for many candidates,” but that a salary increase “has gotten us much closer.” The job posting currently lists the salary range as between $123,711 and $143,466.

Board turmoil is a concern for some candidates

Media coverage of the school board has also complicated the hiring process, the document says. The board has been plagued by infighting and power struggles for a year. Many media outlets have covered the turmoil, and newspaper editorials have decried the dysfunction.

“Some candidates researched the district, in particular the Board of Education, and declined to pursue the opportunity,” the document says. “In two specific cases, desired candidates withdrew applications due to the Board media coverage.”

Bill Good, a spokesperson for the board, said Tuesday that the board had no comment.

But at the meeting last month, Quattlebaum implored her fellow members to “focus on what’s important.” At that same meeting, President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán had tried to get the board to discuss accusations of policy violations she’d levied against Vice President Auon’tai Anderson. But the other board members refused.

“Our community expects us to lead, not to be wrapped up in a title that we all hold,” Quattlebaum said. “And leading is staying focused on the task at hand.”

Marsal said the search for a new chief continues, and that DPS has hired two search firms to help find candidates. She said the district hopes to announce a hire in the next several weeks.

“We want someone aligned with DPS’s core values around students,” Marsal said. “We want a balanced leader — a leader that understands the needs of emergency management and safety, but also understands the needs of our students.

“We are a district. We’re here to educate kids. We have to make sure we’re creating safe learning spaces that are cognizant of all students.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Seven school gyms are housing migrants or could soon. Parents and pols are pushing back.

2023-05-16T02:13:14+00:00

This story was originally published on May 15 by THE CITY.

Seven public school gyms are now either in use as emergency shelter for migrants or are being readied for use, all but one of them in Brooklyn — prompting pushback from parents and local officials.

Over the weekend, as border restrictions known as Title 42 expired, agencies transported migrants to P721R Richard H. Hungerford School on Staten Island, a City Hall official confirmed, quickly filling it to its 500-person capacity.

The next destination was the gymnasium of P.S. 188 in Coney Island, which neared its capacity by Sunday, according to City Councilmember Ari Kagan (R-Brooklyn).

By Monday, 67 cots were set up inside the gymnasium of P.S. 172 in Sunset Park, according to local Councilmember Alexa Avilés (D-Brooklyn). An additional four schools are slated to be used to house migrants as others fill up, according to the city source: P.S. 189 in Crown Heights, and PS 132, P.S. 17 and P.S. 18 in Williamsburg.

The decision by the administration of Mayor Eric Adams to resort to school gyms — after months of housing migrants in hotels, homeless shelters and facilities such as the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal — came with little notice to parents, school administrators and local elected officials, prompting alarm and frustration.

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams didn’t respond to a request for comment on the latest school sites selected to house migrants.

“Given all the potential facilities available, I don’t understand why primarily elementary schools are being used,” said Jessamyn Lee, 48, a Brooklyn public school parent who sits on the Panel for Education Policy.

“It’s undignified and inhumane,” Lee added. “There’s nowhere for them to shower and take care of their basic needs.”

Kagan said city officials told him P.S. 188 would be used for short-term stays of several days for up to 84 adults, but that more migrants may arrive after the people staying there move out. He said the city assured him mobile showers would be installed, likely on Tuesday.

“We cannot promise you even when they leave in a few days that this gym will be returned to the Coney Island community,” Kagan said. “We don’t know what to expect if more people will come. It’s terrible. It’s unacceptable.”

Adams’ office has not provided an updated count of recent arrivals, though through early May, more than 37,500 asylum seekers were staying in city shelters. Last week, Adams said the city had run out of space in hotels, with at least 140 emergency shelters in operation across the five boroughs, and was scrambling to identify facilities that have open layouts with more than 10,000 square feet.

Photos obtained by THE CITY Monday showed boxes of diapers and new cribs inside P.S. 172’s school gym in Sunset Park, seeming to indicate the facility would house young children imminently.

The photos caused newfound alarm for attorney Joshua Goldfein of The Legal Aid Society, who has been monitoring the rapidly evolving situation on behalf of Society client Coalition for the Homeless, to ensure the city’s right-to-shelter legal agreements are honored.

Anticipating a surge in arriving migrants ahead of Title 42’s expiration last week, Adams signed an executive order relaxing right to shelter regulations, by waiving the city’s requirement to provide bathrooms, refrigerators, kitchens and “an adequate sleeping area” to homeless families. Goldfein pointed to state regulations still in place that bar children from being housed in congregate settings, where they’re more susceptible to disease and abuse.

“Each time we have identified children placed in a congregate site, the city has told us we will move those families out,” Goldfein said. “I don’t understand why the city would be storing supplies for small children at a congregate shelter site.”

Goldfein subsequently asked city officials about housing children in the Sunset Park gymnasium and they told him they have no plans to do so, he said. He got the explanation that prepackaged pallets of supplies were sent to the school and happened to include items for children. Adams’ office didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the facility.

Councilmember Avilés said she had concerns about fire safety, student arrival and dismissal, and where after-school programs would be held.

“The community has been welcoming [immigrants]; we receive people every day,” she said. “But this situation is particularly untenable because of all these conditions.”

A spokesperson for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Education referred all comments to the mayor’s office.

The schools the city selected thus far all have freestanding gymnasiums, according to multiple sources. One source at City Hall said it might not stop there: “They’re looking at parks and playgrounds if it gets worse.”

Several groups of concerned parents planned multiple rallies outside Brooklyn schools for Tuesday morning. Lee said she’s already seen online conversations online veer into vitriolic anti-immigrant and xenophobic territory, something that could have been headed off with more planning, she said.

“Unfortunately that is being directed at the migrants themselves,” she said. “I do worry about the safety of the asylees.”

Dean Wayne Mason says there were ‘red flags’ before East High shooting

2023-05-09T23:11:53+00:00

The moment Austin Lyle pulled the trigger and shot Wayne Mason inside Denver’s East High School on March 22, Mason said he forgave him.

“The regret I have right now is that he’s not here for me to tell him that,” said Mason, who was a dean at East when 17-year-old Lyle shot him and another dean. Lyle later took his own life.

Mason told his story publicly for the first time Monday at a weekly press conference held by a group called Parents - Safety Advocacy Group that formed in the wake of the shooting. The other dean who was shot, Eric Sinclair, hasn’t spoken publicly.

Mason also revealed new details about Lyle, including that another East student had reportedly seen Lyle with a gun in class a few weeks before the March shooting, and told East High staff. But when staff members tried to search Lyle, he ran out of the school, Mason said.

“That is the biggest red flag there,” Mason said, “and then he was allowed back into the school.”

Lyle had a previous weapons charge, had been expelled from another school district, and was supposed to be searched every day by East staff because of his past behavior — a protocol that was in place before another student reportedly spotted him with a gun, Mason said.

But Mason said he and Sinclair didn’t search Lyle that day. The Denver police and school district officials have said the shooting happened while the deans were searching Lyle for weapons.

On March 22, Mason said he was in the front office when Lyle came into school and asked for a specific assistant principal. Mason said he called for the assistant principal on the radio, but there was a school assembly going on and the assistant principal didn’t answer.

Sinclair offered to take Lyle into the deans’ office, Room 129, Mason said. Sinclair then tried calling for the assistant principal and for security officers. But still no one answered, Mason said.

“Shortly after that, Eric was yelling in the radio, ‘Wayne, Wayne, help me, help me!’” Mason said.

“I ran back to 129, opened the door. Eric and Austin were wrestling. I grabbed Austin, and Eric said, ‘Gun, gun!’ Austin fired off some shots, I think two or three shots.”

Mason said he saw Sinclair go down. Mason grabbed Lyle’s arm, he said, and then Lyle “turned his wrist toward me and he fired two shots and he hit me. Austin broke away from me and he stood there, staring at Eric and I, still pointing the gun at us. And then he ran out of the room.”

Sinclair was bleeding badly, Mason said. He grabbed some towels and began putting pressure on Sinclair’s wound. It was only after paramedics who happened to be at the school for an unrelated medical issue arrived that Mason told them he’d been shot too.

“I just started praying and I was holding Eric’s hand,” said Mason, who was shot in the chest.

“I’m sad that my friend had to go through that. There should have been procedures put in place that he did not have to be alone with Austin. But he was.”

Denver Public Schools spokesperson Scott Pribble said on Monday that the press conference was the first time he’d heard a different version of events and could not comment on whether Lyle had been spotted with a gun on campus several weeks before the shooting or why he was allowed back at East after that.

On Tuesday, Pribble confirmed that another student reported seeing Lyle with a gun in school about two and a half weeks before the shooting. But Pribble said that when school staff searched Lyle, they found nothing. That’s when Lyle fled the school, Pribble said. A followup investigation also found nothing, Pribble said, which is why Lyle was allowed back.

Mason said, “If that’s the case, then we should have had armed safety patrol every morning that Austin came into the school because we knew his history. … They should have met Austin at the door with a show of force and saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to search.’”

“Maybe, just maybe, that would have stopped that behavior.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee governor sets special legislative session for Aug. 21 after Nashville school shooting

2023-05-08T22:45:00+00:00

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that he will call the legislature back Aug. 21 for a special session to address firearms and public safety concerns following a deadly school shooting in Nashville this spring.

“There is broad agreement that action is needed,” Lee said in a statement.

The goal, he said, is to “pursue thoughtful, practical measures that strengthen the safety of Tennesseans, preserve Second Amendment rights, prioritize due process protections, support law enforcement and address mental health.”

The governor also invited Tennesseans to provide input about the issues through an online form.

Lee’s announcement came just over two weeks after GOP lawmakers raced to complete their business early for the year while refusing to take up gun reform legislation from the Republican governor or their Democratic counterparts.

It was an anemic ending to a tumultuous session gripped by massive citizen protests after the shooting at The Covenant School left six victims and the gunman dead. The tragedy sparked calls for stricter gun laws and led to the ouster of two young Black lawmakers who took the protest to the House floor. Both men, Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, were quickly reinstated by local officials.

Meanwhile, gun violence continues to ravage communities across the nation, most recently in Texas where a gunman killed eight people and wounded seven others during a weekend shooting spree at a Dallas-area outlet mall.

In Tennessee this spring, lawmakers approved new policies and funding to further fortify school campuses, including at private schools like Nashville’s Covenant. Legislative discussions about limiting gun access mostly focused on people who are having a mental health crisis. Authorities said the Nashville shooter, who was later killed by police, was seeing a doctor for an “emotional order.”

Lee signed an executive order aimed at strengthening background checks on firearm purchases. He also proposed legislation that he said would help keep guns out of the hands of people deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others, his first embrace of a gun reform measure in one of the nation’s most gun-friendly states.

But his proposal hasn’t garnered much support from either side in the intense debate about gun access.

Joining forces with gun lobby groups, Republican leaders called Lee’s plan a “non-starter” and ended the session without taking up the measure. Groups advocating for gun control argued that Lee’s proposal — which allows three to five days before a court hearing would occur after law enforcement petitions for an order to seize firearms — doesn’t go far enough. That waiting period “could be the difference between life and death,” according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety.

Lee has avoided the phrase “red flag law” in describing his desire for new “order of protection” legislation.

“My proposal is not a red flag law,” he told reporters last week in Memphis. “It is unique to Tennessee (and) based on existing laws that we have in place.”

He continued: “We all believe that we should find a way to separate those who are of a dangerous mental condition who are a danger to themselves and others from having access to weapons. I have asked the General Assembly to look at multiple ways to do that. I’ve actually given a proposal to find a way forward to do that. We have to remember, too, that it is important that while we find a way to separate those that are a danger from weapons, we also have to protect the constitutional rights of every Tennessean. That is a balance that we have to find going forward.”

On Monday, Lee said he expects the General Assembly to bring forth its own ideas and pledged that discussions will take place throughout the summer before the session convenes.

Gov. Bill Lee delivers his 2023 state address to a joint session of the Tennessee General Assembly on Feb. 6.

But Doug Kufner, a spokesman for House Speaker Cameron Sexton, was cool about Sexton’s leadership in forging a workable solution.

“The speaker will continue his travel schedule throughout the state this summer and fall to assist members and meet with Tennesseans on a wide array of issues and policies,” Kufner said. “He is looking forward to those discussions as we all await Gov. Lee’s proposed legislative package for the announced special session.”

Democrats, by contrast, called the special session an opportunity to address the longstanding problem and growing threat of gun violence.

“The people demanding action have brought us to this moment,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, “and now we need every Tennessean who cares about this issue to tell their elected leaders to show up in August and support legislation that truly addresses gun violence.”

Akbari, who is Senate minority leader, added: “Once we see the official call for the special session, we’ll know exactly what kind of legislation can be introduced. But we already know that broad majorities of voters, from all parts of the state and all political backgrounds, support common sense gun reforms, like extreme risk protection orders, waiting periods, and universal background checks.”

According to a recent Vanderbilt University poll, 82% of registered Tennessee voters support a so-called red flag law that would temporarily restrict access to guns for individuals who are at a high risk of harming themselves or others.

Two former governors, Republican Bill Haslam and Democrat Phil Bredesen, wrote recently that red flag laws are a good place to break through the impasse over gun reform.

And in an opinion piece published last week by Forbes, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, a Republican who is also a physician, wrote that lawmakers should not only pass a red flag law, but consider raising the legal age for purchasing guns and banning high-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons.

Frist called firearm-related deaths “an official public health crisis.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat reporter Laura Testino contributed to this report from Memphis.

Denver teachers lack confidence in safety plan, want mental health support and smaller classes

2023-05-04T02:56:30+00:00

Reduce class sizes, hire more mental health workers, and make it clearer when schools can suspend or expel students.

Those are among the recommendations the Denver teachers union said it provided Wednesday to Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero. The recommendations come two days after Marrero released a 48-page draft safety plan. The school board directed him to develop a long-term safety plan in the wake of a March shooting inside East High School.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association surveyed its members about school safety, according to an email from the union. The findings include:

89% of respondents “expressed their lack of confidence in the district’s existing plan to address safety threats,” according to the union email.
72% of respondents said smaller class sizes and caseloads would make them “feel safe in schools.” In addition, 70% of respondents said more mental health support in schools would make them feel safe.
Only 42% of respondents said school resource officers — city police who are stationed inside schools — would make them feel safe. The school board voted in 2020 to remove police from schools but suspended that decision following the East shooting. For the past month, 13 high school campuses have had police officers.
Almost 50% of respondents “reported insufficient training on restorative practices and de-escalation techniques in schools,” the union email says. Restorative practices is a philosophy that focuses on repairing harm rather than punishing students.

School staff who responded to a separate safety survey from the district rated as most important improving discipline policies and practices, followed closely by better mental health support. Just a third ranked police in schools among their top three.

The union’s recommendations for the district’s long-term safety plan include:

Expanding mental health support for students in every school.

The draft safety plan Marrero released on Monday says DPS has more than 400 school social workers and psychologists for its 205 schools, exceeding the district’s minimum expectations of one full-time mental health worker per school.

But the union says that’s not enough. In response to the survey, many educators “stated that they believe the district provides less than half of the necessary support to address students’ mental health needs,” the union email says.

Reducing class sizes and caseloads.

Social workers, psychologists, counselors, speech pathologists, and other service providers who work for DPS have long expressed concerns that they have too many students on their caseloads.

Teachers feel the same about class sizes. “By reducing class sizes, educators can establish strong connections with students and foster a welcoming and supportive learning environment,” the union email says.

Reviewing the district’s discipline matrix.

The discipline matrix is a spreadsheet with rules for when schools can suspend or expel students. It was last revised in 2021 with an eye toward keeping more students in school.

DPS leaders have defended the matrix, even as some principals have spoken out about being unable to remove even students accused of violent crimes. The Denver principals union has also called for changes.

Providing staff with training on restorative practices and de-escalation techniques.

The union’s recommendations note that educators are “constantly being asked to be everything, everywhere, all at once without the time and resources to do so.”

Enforcing the part of the teachers union contract that deals with student discipline.

Article 18 of the contract says school principals should collaborate with teachers and parents on a school discipline plan, which should be reviewed annually.

But 70% of educators who responded to the union survey said they didn’t get any training about their school’s discipline plan. Only 5% said their school’s collaborative school committee, which includes teachers and parents, reviewed their plan for effectiveness.

Creating protocols for educators to address student safety needs.

The East High shooting happened when two deans were searching a student for weapons. The student, Austin Lyle, had a “safety plan” due to past behavior that required daily searches. Lyle later took his own life.

The union says educators want to play a bigger role in student behavior and support plans. About 45% said they are “rarely or never” involved in creating the plans, while more than 57% said they were unaware of the process altogether.

Allowing for school-based decisions on police.

Because opinions on police in schools vary, the union says it supports having each school decide whether they want an officer — which is what Marrero proposed.

But the union says DPS shouldn’t pay for it. The 14 officers currently stationed on 13 DPS campuses are being funded by the city. In the past, DPS split the cost.

The union also says police “should not ticket students for infractions that do not relate to physical safety within the school building.” Before police were removed in 2020, data showed Black students were ticketed and arrested at disproportionately high rates.

Marrero is expected to release a second draft of the safety plan by May 26 and a final version by June 23. The school board gave him a deadline of June 30.

“As the district moves forward with developing a safety plan, we will continue to gather feedback from members through various channels,” the union email says. “We ask the superintendent to take our recommendations seriously, and work collaboratively with us to achieve the shared vision of safe and supportive learning environments.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Cellphone towers on school grounds worry some Detroit parents

2023-05-02T22:40:51+00:00

Some Detroit parents and community members are pushing district officials and school board members to remove dozens of cellphone towers placed on school grounds, claiming that the radio waves emanating from the antennas could have unforeseen health effects on children and staff.

The health risks are not scientifically proven, but concern over cell towers at schools has bubbled up in districts both locally and nationally. The superintendent of Wyandotte Public Schools resigned in early April following backlash from numerous parents over the lease of a T-Mobile 5G tower at a district elementary school.

In Detroit, where many residents live with a legacy of utility, infrastructure, and economic development projects that have proceeded with limited public input, the school district is under growing pressure to respond to public concerns while it considers whether to keep the towers or give up the revenue that comes with them.

“I’m shaking because I’m so angry,” parent Karla Mitchell said during a Detroit Public Schools Community District school board meeting on April 18. “I find you to be grossly negligent in the installation of cell towers at the Detroit public schools. I wasn’t notified. I just found out (recently), and my son has been sitting in the school for two years.”

DPSCD currently has 29 cell towers placed on school grounds and buildings across the city, according to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, with multi-year lease agreements signed with telecommunications companies such as T-Mobile and Crown Castle. They provide revenue for the district, and more seamless voice and data connectivity across the city.

Some of those agreements predate Vitti’s tenure, having been approved by emergency managers dating back to 2014, he said at the April board meeting.

“I have no knowledge that there is concrete evidence that the cell towers harm children or staff,” Vitti said.

Serious health effects on humans aren’t proven

Amid rising demand for high-speed cellular data connections, telecommunications providers have sought to place more cellphone towers and antennas in both residential and commercial areas to increase the capacity of their wireless networks. (Technologies like 5G require more antennas, because their high-frequency waves don’t travel as far.) Placing them on school buildings or on school grounds gives providers a way to add connections in residential areas without encountering aesthetic objections from neighbors.

But the health-related complaints are growing, even though the science isn’t clear on whether there is a real health risk.

The antennas atop cell towers work by emitting radiofrequency waves that transmit data signals. Those waves can cause biological effects, according to the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates cellphone companies and technology. But they are unlikely to cause serious health hazards to humans, the agency says.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says that “no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies.”

The American Cancer Society states that currently there is no strong evidence that exposure to radiofrequency waves from cell phone towers causes any noticeable health effects.

But it adds: “This does not mean that the RF waves from cell phone towers have been proven to be absolutely safe. Most expert organizations agree that more research is needed to help clarify this, especially for any possible long-term effects.”

FCC is urged to take a closer look

Indeed, some of the new complaints reflect concerns that the research on the health effects is not complete, updated, or conclusive.

Some independent scientists and medical experts wonder about the potential health risks that radiofrequency waves or electromagnetic radiation can pose to children even at low levels. Others point out that the FCC’s regulations for safe levels of exposure to wireless radiation from towers and cellphones have not been updated since 1996.

In a 2013 letter to the FCC, the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote that the agency’s exposure limits “do not account for the unique vulnerability and use patterns specific to pregnant women and children.”

“This is a child — as well as a teacher and staff — health issue,” said Theodora Scarato, executive director of nonprofit Environmental Health Trust, who spoke at the April 18 school board meeting.

In 2021, a U.S. Appeals Court judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit by Scarato’s organization against the FCC, finding in part that the commission failed “to provide a reasoned explanation for brushing off record evidence addressing non-cancer-related health effects arising from the impact of (radiofrequency) radiation on children.” In its ruling, the judge ordered the FCC to “address the impacts of RF radiation on children.”

“The FCC was ordered to address those issues and more and it’s been nearly two years. And they have not responded,” Scarato said. The FCC did not reply to a request for comment.

District faces a decision on towers

School board member Misha Stallworth West said during an April 26 committee meeting that misinformation may be feeding public concern about cell towers. Toward the beginning of the COVID pandemic, a conspiracy theory emerged on social media linking the health effects of COVID-19 to the placement of 5G wireless towers across the globe in 2019 and 2020. The World Health Organization quickly dismissed the theory in April 2020.

“We’re in the era of misinformation, and the experience that everyone had with COVID I think, rightfully put a lot of folks on edge, especially in Black communities,” she said.

As a solution, Stallworth West suggested the district update its website to provide parents and community members with links to accurate information.

Vitti said that in the coming weeks he will provide board members with options on how to proceed with the cell towers. “The board can decide what path they want to take with renewing, or discontinuing and dealing with the legal challenges and financial challenges of discontinuing,” he said.

In 2014, while the district was under emergency management, 15 cell towers were placed on school properties. Those contracts, according to Vitti, have a no termination clause, locking the district into a 55-year agreement to keep those towers until 2067. The district could be liable to pay back the $6.8 million received at that time if the deal is terminated.

Since those initial lease agreements in 2014, the district placed an additional 14 towers under short-term leases, Vitti said. The newer leases provide the district with roughly $2,000 a month for each tower. Some of that revenue, he added, has helped cover meals for district staff and family events.

But many parents are still concerned that the district’s lease agreements with telecommunication companies circumvented community input.

“Why are we risking our children’s health for revenue?” said parent Tiffany Williams.

“You all couldn’t come up with anything else different, to come up with another plan. The implementation of these towers has great health concerns pertaining to our children’s safety.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Each Denver school would make its own decisions about police under draft safety plan

2023-05-02T01:33:28+00:00

Denver middle and high schools would make the choice each year whether to have a police officer stationed on campus under a draft school safety plan released Monday.

School leaders would need to reevaluate the decision annually and be required to involve the school community. The 48-page school safety plan also emphasizes the district’s focus over the years on mental health, social support, and equity.

Denver Public Schools released the plan Monday afternoon. It summarizes many of the district’s practices in school safety while adding in recommendations. More details of recommended changes will be highlighted in a second draft, a district spokeswoman said.

The school board tasked Superintendent Alex Marrero with drafting a plan a day after a student shot two East High School deans in March.

The shooting happened while the deans were searching the student for weapons, a practice that happens daily in some district high schools. Linking to a slide presentation given to deans districtwide, the draft plan implies deans will continue to conduct student searches, though it says an unarmed campus safety officer or an armed DPS mobile patrol officer should be involved “when you are searching for a firearm or dangerous weapon.”

The plan also calls for the district to retrain all employees in emergency response procedures.

The student who shot the deans at East had previously been expelled from the neighboring Cherry Creek School District. The draft plan says that when a student transfers from another district, “the school team should be requesting prior school records as part of the enrollment process,” including “any prior safety protocols.”

The district also is in the process of reviewing the physical safety of entrances and the interior of buildings, the plan says.

Two other shootings have also occurred near Denver’s largest high school campus this year, including one that led to the death of a student. And schools across the district have also dealt with violence on campus or in the community.

Marrero drafted the plan after he said he consulted with experts. The district also surveyed about 7,700 students, staff, and parents about safety concerns. The top concerns across groups included students bringing weapons on campus and student-on-student violence.

Next, but ranked at varying levels of priority, were the mental and emotional well-being of students, outsiders entering school buildings, and community violence.

Each group ranked potential solutions to school safety differently. More than half of students said more mental health support was important to school safety, followed by discipline policies and police in schools.

School staff also rated mental health support very highly, but put discipline policies first. Just a third ranked police in schools among their top three. Almost half of parents ranked police officers first, followed closely by discipline policies and student mental health.

As with most Denver Public Schools surveys, white parents were overrepresented, and families of color were underrepresented. Survey results were weighted to account for this.

According to his plan, Marrero will seek community feedback on the first draft. In an email to parents, Marrero encouraged them to talk to their school principal or email him directly with feedback. Two town halls are scheduled for later this month and the district will also gather feedback through a survey. His administration will then release a second version by May 26 that will also be available for community feedback.

Marrero will release a final version on June 23 that will be reviewed by the school board.

The school board tasked Marrero with coming up with a plan after a five-hour closed-door meeting. At that same meeting, the board suspended its 2020 policy that phased out police officers in schools.

Parents call for more transparency

When students returned from spring break, the district added a school resource officer at 13 campuses, with East High School getting two officers.

DPS previously removed police from schools and made other changes to its discipline policies because Black and brown students were more likely to be arrested, ticketed, suspended, and expelled than their white peers.

More recently, Denver principals and parents have criticized the district for allowing students accused of serious crimes to remain in the classroom. District officials have defended their approach.

Parents also have called for the school board and Marrero to be more transparent about safety decisions and communicate more with parents. Some parents also have called for the entire board to resign.

East High School parents have held weekly meetings calling for an end to the violence and for the district to do more. They’ve called on the board to work with families to make the district safer.

During Monday’s meeting of the East High School parents safety group, parent Steve Katsaros said he wants to see Denver schools commit to transparency and engagement of community and families. The plan was released during the group’s weekly meeting and he said he wasn’t able to review the plan.

But he said parents want transparency. He said he wants the district to detail whether the emailed survey reached parents as intended and how many families opened the email.

Short-term, he said he does not have confidence in the district or board. The city and community, however, will get this right in the long term, he said.

“Right now we are dealing with the same people that put us in this position,” Katsaros said. “We need to move fast so we have to work with the folks that we have, and we will see where we get.”

Report highlights existing plans, partnerships

Much of the plan is a recitation of things the district already does or policies it already has in place.

Examples include expecting schools to have the equivalent of one full-time mental health worker on staff, screening all students for emotional and behavioral concerns, and doing more in-depth reviews when a student is flagged for potentially hurting themselves or others. It highlights 20-minute daily lessons on social and emotional learning that happen in elementary schools.

The draft plan also talks about DPS’s existing summer school programs, its commitment to a curriculum that teaches Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic history, and its bullying prevention efforts.

It also includes a chart that shows the types of safety personnel in schools, including armed city police officers at some high schools, an armed DPS patrol unit that’s mobile and responds to calls that don’t require police, and unarmed security guards stationed inside schools.

Parents and others have questioned why students who are being searched daily for weapons are allowed to attend in-person school. The draft plan says, “as a district we strongly believe in-person learning is the best option for students because it allows us to support students developing resiliency, visions for their futures, and the skills needed to achieve their dreams,” which it calls “key components of youth violence prevention efforts.”

But the plan also says DPS is planning to expand its online school “based on an increase in demand.” The district’s online school, Denver Online, serves grades six through 12.

The report also highlights plans the school district has been working on with the city, including developing a pipeline of culturally responsive providers who can fill vacancies for school psychologists, social workers, and other mental health providers. The district would do that by recruiting current students to become entry-level restorative practices coordinators, recruiting paraprofessionals to become deans of culture, and recruiting deans to become psychologists and social workers.

Participants in the program would get tuition stipends and “access to educational opportunities” that would allow them to earn the proper certifications to move up while working full-time.

The district has done a version of this program that recruits paraprofessionals to become classroom teachers.

The district also is working with the city on “dissolving outdated policies that inadvertently perpetuate youth violence,” the draft plan says. That includes reviewing all of its policies related to youth violence prevention to make sure they’re working as intended — and to discontinue policies that are not.

The plan proposes developing more alternatives to citation and connecting students who commit offenses with supportive services more quickly.

The district also says it hopes to work with the city to develop a “central database powered by the latest technology” that will allow information sharing between schools, city agencies, and nonprofit organizations. The goal, the draft plan says, is “to support youth and ensure follow-up on referrals so no youth is left without the vital services they need.”

Read the full plan and see opportunities to provide feedback.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Release recording of closed-door Denver school board meeting, lawsuit demands

2023-04-28T23:59:10+00:00

Chalkbeat and six other media organizations are suing Denver Public Schools for the recording of a five-hour closed meeting board members held the day after a student shot two administrators at East High School.

When school board members emerged from the meeting, they voted unanimously to return police officers to Denver high schools — a major policy change — with no public discussion.

Colorado’s open meetings law declares that the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

Colorado law requires public bodies to meet in the open, except under particular circumstances, such as discussing a student or employee or to receive legal advice. Before entering a closed meeting, elected officials have to announce the topics they’ll be discussing “in as much detail as possible without compromising the purpose for which the executive session is authorized,” along with the legal basis for entering a private meeting.

The complaint filed Friday alleges that the Denver school board’s March 23 meeting was not properly noticed. That could render the closed meeting unlawful.

The law also requires that policy decisions happen in public. The lawsuit alleges that the Denver school board made a policy decision behind closed doors that was merely rubber-stamped with a public vote.

“No public discussion, whatsoever, preceded the Board’s historic about-face concerning its policy of preventing armed ‘School Resource Officers’ inside the District’s high schools,” the lawsuit reads. “None.”

The March 23 board agenda said the purpose of the closed meeting was to discuss “matters required to be kept confidential by federal or state law or rules and regulations as a result of the incident that occurred on March 22,” security arrangements and investigations, and sensitive matters pertaining to individual students.

When board members emerged from the closed meeting, President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán entered a memorandum into the record that suspended a previous board policy removing police from schools, called for police to be stationed at all district high schools, and directed Superintendent Alex Marrero to come up with a long-term safety plan by June 30.

The executive session notice made no mention that official safety policies would be discussed or that new safety policies would be proposed. Nor did the notice mention discussion of a potential executive order from Mayor Michael Hancock placing police in schools. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said several days after the closed meeting that the possibility of an executive order influenced the board decision.

“You need to inform the public what you are going behind closed doors to discuss,” said attorney Steve Zansberg, who is representing the media organizations with attorney Rachael Johnson of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “And even if it had been a properly convened executive session, they are not allowed to make a decision behind closed doors.”

Zanzberg said it was a clear-cut violation of the open meetings law.

“They adopted a policy without any public discussion. So clearly they discussed it and reached that decision and drafted that memo behind closed doors,” he said.

In addition to Chalkbeat, the plaintiffs are The Denver Post, Colorado Newsline, KDVR Fox 31, KUSA 9News, Colorado Politics, and The Denver Gazette. Each of the media organizations filed requests for the recording or for minutes of the meeting after the closed-door session. In each case, Denver Public Schools custodian of records Stacy Wheeler responded that the district has responsive records but would not release them because they are not subject to disclosure under the open meetings law.

The lawsuit asks a Denver district court judge to release the entire recording on grounds that the meeting was not properly noticed and was not a lawful closed meeting. If the judge won’t release the entire recording, the lawsuit asks that the judge listen to the recording and release a redacted version if the judge feels that certain portions should remain private.

A bill under consideration in the legislature would make it harder for the public to challenge closed meetings that are not properly announced to the public. The bill would allow elected officials to fix the way they announced the meeting after the fact and avoid a lawsuit.

Under current law, not properly announcing an executive session can render a closed meeting unlawful. Members of the public can seek the release of recordings of those meetings.

Jeff Roberts of Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition said the Denver case gets to the heart of why Colorado voters adopted the open meetings law in the first place. The law states that matters of public interest and public policy should be discussed in public, and there is significant public interest in how the board makes decisions about whether to have armed police in schools, he said.

Members of the public, in particular some parents at East High School, also have criticized the board’s use of executive sessions.

The school board responded to criticism of its closed meeting with an unsigned statement posted to the district website. “Due to the nature of an executive session we cannot disclose what was discussed,” the statement says. “However, the Board of Education is confident that it has conducted all meetings in accordance with applicable laws.”

But at an April 20 board meeting — after the board had learned of the media organizations’ intent to sue — some members balked at going into executive session, citing public criticism of past sessions.

“We’ve received a lot of feedback from the public and community members about meeting in public and staying in public unless there’s an absolute reason,” board member Scott Baldermann said. “And I think I am going to honor that.”

The agenda listed two items for private discussion: security arrangements at McAuliffe International School, where the principal has been critical of district leadership and announced plans to have parents help with security, and the superintendent’s contract.

Anderson said he believes the board has used closed session meetings appropriately, and public perception was stopping the board from discussing important issues.

“I am very concerned that if we have something about safety that we’re not willing to go into executive session for, what other matters will we start saying we cannot go into executive session for,” Anderson said at the meeting.

The board ultimately voted 4-3 not to enter executive session for either item.

“It’s not a bad thing for them to examine their use of closed-door meetings and whether they are doing more of that than they need to,” Roberts said.

Chalkbeat reporter Jason Gonzales contributed reporting.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Amid mental health concerns, new bill would allow NY students to opt out of lockdown drills

2023-04-26T18:50:46+00:00

New York lawmakers will seek to change the state’s school lockdown drill laws, as some parents argue the drills harm student mental health without clearly proven safety benefits.

Under state law, public schools must conduct lockdown drills at least four times each year. The new bill would drop the requirement to one, among other changes.

Though high-profile school shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, have raised further alarm among parents, educators, and school communities, some parents worry about the damaging effect that repeatedly forcing students and teachers to simulate an active shooter scenario could have on their child.

Two dads with children at a Manhattan elementary school spent the past year and a half pushing to reduce the number of drills and for more guardrails in how they are conducted and communicated with families.

In late 2021, Marco Pupo, a Manhattan parent, was shocked to hear his then-5-year-old son say his class had to lock their windows and hide because “there was a bad guy trying to get us.”

“Kids at that age, they don’t know how to differentiate between what’s real and what’s not,” he said, adding other parents said their kids came home scared or asking what to do if bullets came through the window. “I don’t think there’s any research that needs to be done to say that this is traumatizing for kids.”

Pupo and Robert Murtfeld, another parent at the school, have since advocated for changing the state law.

A new bill introduced by state Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, both of Brooklyn, on Wednesday would do just that.

If passed, their bill would require officials use a “trauma-informed approach” in the creation of lockdown drills — including lowering the required number of annual drills to just one, notifying parents at least a week in advance, and allowing them to opt their children out of the drill. It would also offer accommodations to students with medical conditions, and require schools provide students with “an age-appropriate explanation” of the situation.

For young students, that might mean using codewords during drills — like announcing that a raccoon had entered the building and students needed to remain in their classrooms.

“These drills are incredibly traumatizing for students,” Gounardes said of the current system. “They don’t actually help keep students safe, or make them feel safe, which are both incredibly important.”

The bill would also aim to establish comprehensive training for schools and educators leading the drills, after Chalkbeat last year found teachers across New York City received little to no training before conducting them.

Without a standardized method, lockdown drills can vary in length and content from school to school, or even classroom to classroom. They might, for example, involve teachers locking the door, covering any windows to the hallway, shutting off the lights, and telling students to sit quietly in a corner.

Research inconclusive on lockdown drill benefits

The research on whether the drills help protect students in an active shooter scenario remains inconclusive. But the past five years have seen more than 150 school shootings that resulted in injury or death across the country, spurring cities and states to engage in precautionary measures.

Lockdown drills took place in 95% of American public schools as of 2016, with at least 40 states requiring them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates against gun violence. But the organization advises against conducting them, citing the “collateral consequences to school communities’ mental health and wellbeing.”

New York State is among just a few states that mandate four or more lockdown drills per year — meaning students at its public schools may experience twice as many or more drills than students in other states, according to an analysis from the Trace.

“If you enter the school system as a 3-year-old, and you exit as an 18-year-old, you will have done 60 lockdown drills,” Murtfeld said. “This is not about making anyone less safe — this is about being smart about what is the best mediated solution.”

Instead of drills involving students, Everytown suggests schools use threat assessment programs, provide access to mental health professionals and social support, implement non-punitive disciplinary processes, and conduct emergency planning for teachers not involving students. Gounardes said the bill wouldn’t shut the door on the latter of these suggestions.

“Our bill doesn’t mandate or require that it has to be a student drill, or it has to be a live drill, or it has to be a simulated drill,” he said. “It very well could be that the collective wisdom of all of the relevant stakeholders is that the best way to do this is to have teacher-only drills… We’re not here prescribing that solution, we’re just saying that the [current] mandate is ineffective.”

Gounardes said he was optimistic about the bill finding support in Albany, adding it has backing from organizations like Moms Demand Action and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

National landscape divided on drills

Some states have also looked to change their approach, with lawmakers in Maine considering an opt-out policy for parents and legislators in Illinois passing a similar law in 2021. Others have taken a different approach. In Texas, lawmakers have proposed investing more heavily in armed campus security, including a $25,000 stipend that would be offered to school employees willing to get trained to carry guns.

Murtfeld and Pupo said they understood the fears over gun violence and why the New York lockdown law was initially put in place, but added it was “not the solution.”

“It’s a math we unfortunately have to do between something happening in schools and the risk of creating a culture of fear that is being infused in our kids and traumatizing them,” Pupo said. “We wish we were not in the position where we had to make those decisions, but right now, with the knowledge that we have, this is what we think is the right thing to do.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Could an independent agency solve Philadelphia’s school facilities crisis?

2023-04-26T09:15:00+00:00

As Philadelphia schools face a growing asbestos crisis, one member of the City Council says ‘the moment is now’ to create an independent authority to handle school building construction and renovation instead of the school district.

Isaiah Thomas, who chairs the City Council’s education committee, told reporters he will introduce a resolution Thursday to hold hearings on creating such an authority.

Thomas said in a briefing on Tuesday he hopes having an independent body manage public school facilities would build trust with state lawmakers who have been wary about sending billions of dollars to repair and upgrade Philadelphia schools. And with state coffers flush with $8 billion in surplus funding for the upcoming budget cycle, Thomas said the city might not get another chance to get the money needed to update classrooms, remediate buildings laden with lead and asbestos, and build new and modern schools fit for students.

“If we can’t get this done in this budget cycle, I’m not sure that we’ll ever get the type of down payment that we need to really put a dent in the issue,” Thomas said. “If we wait until June, or July, it might actually be too late.”

Philly students, parents, and educators: How has asbestos in your school affected your educational experience? We want to hear your story.

Thomas’ proposal comes after several Philadelphia schools closed in recent weeks due to failing infrastructure that revealed damaged asbestos, and these disruptions have left families on edge. Superintendent Tony Watlington has said repeatedly the district anticipates more damaged asbestos will likely be found, but the possible scope of these shutdowns remains unclear. The asbestos problems underscore broader concerns about aging and decrepit facilities that have angered students and teachers for years. The average school building in the district is more than 70 years old.

The asbestos-driven closures have also created tension between the district and some city officials (including Thomas) who say school leaders haven’t been sufficiently transparent about the problem.

The school district had a non-committal response to Thomas’ proposal, saying it looks forward “to continuing discussions about how to improve our facilities because all students and staff should have access to 21st century learning spaces.”

The school district estimates it needs $4.5 billion to address the most pressing structural needs. Thomas is asking Harrisburg for $5 billion over five years to fix up schools, and he’s asking the district for a “safe facilities plan” detailing the building needs and costs to demonstrate how that $5 billion would be spent.

Thomas said many of the details regarding how the new authority would be staffed, managed, and funded will have to be worked out. Functionally, Thomas said it could look something like the energy authority in the city.

But Board of Education President Reginald Streater said in a Tuesday statement the board’s current partnership with the nonprofit Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and the Philadelphia Authority For Industrial Development has been helping with school construction and facilities issues. Streater said the priority is to get more funding.

“With the infusion of more sustained, long-term funding the District has the opportunity to accelerate the work that needs to be done,” he said.

According to Thomas’ resolution, the new authority would have the ability to “bond and manage the school facilities” modernization process.

Thomas said his office is also in talks with “experts” to see how other cities and states have handled similar authorities, like New York City’s construction authority.

Across the Delaware River in New Jersey, the Schools Development Authority — an independent agency tasked with funding and managing construction for some of the poorest districts in the state — has been plagued by political scandals. The authority is also essentially out of money, and New Jersey lawmakers are now looking to overhaul it.

But Thomas said he is “optimistic” Philadelphia can get it right.

According to Thomas, some lawmakers in Harrisburg have been hesitant to spend more money to improve Philadelphia’s school buildings because the district has been accused of misspending money in the past, a charge the district has denied.

Thomas said what legislators want to see is “consistency” and a stable system that could guarantee money is spent responsibly.

“In order to get resources in this moment, we have to show Harrisburg a certain level of consistency, and reliability,” Thomas said.

Thomas’ proposed authority would build on an idea former Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez championed last year.

“We’re not going to pretend that this is a concept that we created,” Thomas said, “but what we are going to do is try to grab the bull by the horns and pull this thing across the finish line.”

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee legislature dismisses gun bills in rush to adjourn, defying protests after school shooting

2023-04-21T00:12:59+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free Tennessee newsletter to keep up with the Shelby County public school system and state education policy.

Tennessee’s legislature raced Thursday to complete its business early for the year while refusing to take up gun reform legislation from Republican Gov. Bill Lee or Democratic lawmakers, three weeks after a mass shooting at a Nashville school.

The inaction on guns came despite weeks of daily peaceful protests by thousands of students, parents, and gun control advocates calling for new laws to restrict gun access.

From the Senate floor, Majority Leader Jack Johnson announced the legislature was on track to wrap up this year’s session by Friday after his chamber approved the state’s $56.2 billion budget for next year — the only measure it’s constitutionally required to pass. The House approved the spending plan a day earlier.

Several recent surveys of Tennessee parents and voters show strong support for gun safety measures such as background checks and so-called red flag laws to prevent people who may be experiencing a mental health crisis from having access to weapons. Authorities have said the Nashville shooter, who was shot and killed by police, had been under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed “emotional disorder” before killing six people at The Covenant School on March 27.

But with prospects for gun reform dimming this year, Tennesseans who have been raising their voices were aghast Thursday at the Republican supermajority’s unwillingness to look seriously at their concerns about lax gun laws.

“They are shrugging their shoulders at us and ending their session quickly. But we are not going to stop,” said Nashville mom Leeann Hewlett, who was among the first demonstrators to show up outside of a legislative office building on the day after the shooting.

“We are not going to forget the children and adults who died at The Covenant School. We’re not going to forget that guns are the leading cause of death for kids in Tennessee,” said Hewlett, who has an 8-year-old daughter.

Leeann Hewlett, a Nashville mom, speaks at a rally organized by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America on March 28, 2023, the day after a shooter killed six people at a Nashville school.

Lee, whose wife was a close friend of one adult victim in the Nashville shooting, offered up his own proposal Wednesday after lawmakers ignored his call last week to bring him legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of people deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others. Nineteen states have such a policy.

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association mobilized its Tennessee members this week against any legislation that resembles a red flag law. And the House Republican caucus released a statement labeling any such proposal a “non-starter.”

In a last-ditch effort on Thursday, Sen. Jeff Yarbro delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor asking his colleagues to take up gun reform legislation stuck in a key committee that voted to defer action on any gun-related bills until next year.

Yarbro said his legislation is based on Florida’s red flag law, which passed with bipartisan support after a shooter killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018. The Nashville Democrat is also the sponsor of a so-called safe storage bill to require people to secure weapons left in vehicles and boats so they don’t fall into the hands of criminals.

“How do we not feel shame for failing to do anything?” asked Yarbro, noting that Nashville also has suffered mass shootings at a church and a Waffle House restaurant in recent years.

“We have the substance, we have the process, we have the time. The only question is whether we have the will,” said Yarbro, pleading for at least 17 of the Senate’s 33 members to support his request to call up his bill.

The Senate responded by voting 24-7 to table his motion, mostly along partisan lines.

Afterward, Yarbro tweeted that adjourning the session without voting on a single bill to limit gun access means the legislature is betting voters will “move on” to other issues when it reconvenes next January.

“Prove them wrong,” he said.

The developments came as the legislature has been under national scrutiny over the House’s expulsion of two young Black lawmakers, who have since been reinstated, over their demonstration on the House floor to highlight their body’s inaction on gun violence.

Still, lawmakers sent a bill to the governor this week to shield Tennessee gun and ammunition manufacturers and sellers from lawsuits. That measure had been in the works before the shooting.

Thursday also marked the 24th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, in which two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

From the Columbine shooting in Colorado to the Covenant shooting in Nashville, 175 people have died in 15 mass shootings connected to U.S. schools and colleges, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University. (The database defines a mass shooting as resulting in the death of four or more people.)

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district fires Pasteur Elementary administrator accused of choking a student

2023-04-20T20:35:44+00:00

The Detroit Public Schools Community District board voted Tuesday to fire Ramond Pilgrim, an assistant principal at Pasteur Elementary School whom the district accused of choking a student in September.

The board also voted to demote another Pasteur administrator and suspend her for a month without pay, because she didn’t report the incident for months after she was told about it.

Meanwhile, a teacher from Carstens Academy of Aquatic Science who was facing a termination vote over allegations that she assaulted a 11-year old student with special needs, opted to resign prior to Tuesday’s board meeting, DPSCD spokesperson Chrystal Wilson said.

The board also heard concerns about alleged abuse of students at Moses Field School at the hands of two paraprofessionals, as reported by a community newspaper.

District reports detail student assault

The two Pasteur employees were identified only by initials in documents accompanying the meeting agenda, and Wilson declined to share their names on Wednesday, citing privacy concerns.

But Pilgrim identified himself Tuesday when he spoke in his own behalf during the board meeting’s public comment period, before the board went into a closed session to discuss the termination recommendations.

Pilgrim choked the student and threw them into a chair, breaking it in the process, a report from the district’s investigation said, citing witness statements and video footage. The incident occurred in the auditorium of the K-6 school.

During the district’s investigation, the report added, Pilgrim said that he “acted out of self defense,” claiming that the student had “threatened his life” and that “he thought the student was going to attack him when he stood up from his seat.” He also claimed that the seat was already broken before the incident, the report said.

District officials rejected these claims, stating that the video evidence showed that the student did not walk toward Pilgrim, and that the chair was not broken until Pilgrim assaulted the student.

Pilgrim said at the board meeting that the student was given behavioral and emotional support from other school employees after the incident. He also said he communicated directly with the student’s family to inform them of the incident.

Anthony Adams, a former Detroit deputy mayor and school board president, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting in support of Pilgrim, saying the investigators’ findings weren’t consistent with the video footage.

“This was a man who’s worked with this student who’s tried to help him out, trying to make sure that he is in a positive learning environment,” Adams said. “And now he’s been, I almost say, railroaded with an investigative report that is completely inconsistent with the facts.”

The district’s investigation report said the other administrator was notified of the altercation in November and did not report the incident until January of this year, claiming it was an “oversight.” The administrator later stated that after watching the video, she believed Pilgrim acted in self-defense.

In the incident at Carstens Academy of Aquatic Sciences near the start of the school year, a teacher identified only as “CV” in a district report “lunged at, chased, grabbed, tumbled to the floor with, and tussled with an 11-yr-old student with disabilities throughout the school and onto the school bus,” said the report, which was deleted from the board’s published agenda.

The teacher proceeded to “physically engage the student until the student exited the bus,” after which the bus driver reported the incident to their own supervisor. A police report filed by the student’s parents said the student was found to have scratches.

During the district’s investigation, CV claimed that the student initiated the “playful banter,” and that she was unaware that the student had special needs, even though she had previously taught the student.

Paraprofessionals at special education center placed on leave

At Moses Field, one of the district’s centers for students with special needs, two paraprofessionals are on administrative leave over allegations they abused children who had cognitive impairments. Among the allegations detailed in the Detroit Native Sun’s report, which cited surveillance video: One of the paraprofessionals dragged a student down a hallway by his ankles, and weeks later whipped him with a ruler.

Aliya Moore, a district parent, said at Tuesday’s meeting that she was troubled by the allegations. She said she had heard about them from a teacher at Moses Field, and promptly called into the Michigan Abuse Line.

In an email to Chalkbeat, DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that district officials learned of the allegations in January.

“At that time, we immediately removed one paraprofessional and then another one when additional allegations surfaced,” Vitti said. Both employees are on administrative leave while an investigation is ongoing, he added, and families of students who were allegedly abused have been informed by the school leaders.

“These instances do not appear consistent with a lack of training or understanding of restraint, but abuse,” he said. “The School Board and I have been very clear that child abuse has no place in our school district and when the evidence clearly shows that children have been hit or abused the employee discipline is typically termination.”

An arrest warrant for one of the paraprofessionals was denied, according to a spokesperson from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, citing “insufficient evidence to charge in that case” following a review of the incident by an assistant prosecutor.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Denver Public Schools taps former city official to help draft district safety plan

2023-04-20T19:49:33+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free Colorado newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

Denver Public Schools announced Thursday it has tapped the city’s former top public safety official to help draft a new safety plan, a process that has taken on greater urgency after a shooting at East High School exposed divisions on how to protect students.

The district has agreed to pay Murphy Robinson and his company, Robinson Corporations Security Group, up to $150,000 to work with district officials who face a school board-imposed deadline of June 30 to deliver the plan, said Trena Marsal, the district’s chief of operations.

Robinson left his role as executive director of the Denver Department of Public Safety in January 2022 after a two-year tenure that at times was tumultuous.

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero has expressed a desire to involve experts in developing the safety plan, and bringing on Robinson appears to be part of that thinking.

Robinson will assist in “evaluating current building infrastructure, systems, policies and training, as well as the safety culture that exists within the organization,” the district said.

“We have heard our community,” Marsal said. “We have heard our parents, our students, our teachers, our staff. We are responsible for ensuring a safe and welcoming environment for our students.”

Marsal said that while the district feels its buildings are safe, it wants to make sure good practices are in place to make school communities feel comfortable and reduce “fears that are out there.”

The district has an agreement in principle with Robinson and hopes to finalize a contract by week’s end, Marsal said.

She said the district did not seek competitive bids for the consulting because of the tight timeline, urgent nature, and need for someone with Robinson’s experience. District policy does not require a bidding process in such circumstances, she said.

The district has been under pressure since the March 22 shooting of two deans at East to be more transparent and involve the community in developing the safety plan.

Marrero has promised that educators, students, and community members will have the chance to weigh in on two draft versions of the plan before a final version is released June 26, a few days ahead of the school board’s deadline.

The announcement of the agreement with Robinson and his company came hours before a school board meeting in which safety is expected to be a topic.

Upon news of Robinson’s departure as Denver’s safety chief, city officials lauded him for his work in setting up a centrally located COVID testing center and launching an inmate voting program in Denver’s jail, among other accomplishments, The Denver Post reported.

He also was criticized for how Denver police responded to 2020 protests after the murder of George Floyd and for his response to efforts to reform public safety in Denver afterward.

Marsal said that she was not aware of that criticism but that Denver Public Schools has “complete confidence” Robinson is the right person for the role based on his experience and relationships with various law enforcement and other agencies.

As head of public safety, Robinson oversaw the city’s police, fire, and sheriff’s departments. Previously, he worked as executive director of the Department of General Services and chief operating officer for the mayor’s office.

In 2020, while voting to remove police from schools, the Denver school board also directed the then-superintendent to “redefine school safety” in DPS, clarify the role law enforcement should play, and create a monthly school discipline report that would show the number of students ticketed and arrested, and the number of times police were called to schools.

Some of that work, however, was stymied by the pandemic and turnover in the superintendent role, district officials have said. The pace has picked up after the East shooting, leading the board to give Marrero the deadline for the safety plan.

In recent years, Denver Public Schools’ approach to school safety has become less punitive, minimizing expulsions and emphasizing positive student/staff relationships.

The debate over the new safety plan will put that philosophy to the test, with some saying the pendulum has swung too far toward tolerance, others fearful of a return to policies that harm marginalized students, and still others searching for a middle ground.