I've said many times before that the overall school climate goes a long way toward making a school successful. "Climate" covers a lot of ground, including the physical plant and the overall attitude of the adults in the building. These things are naturally going to cross over into the student's view of school.

I know of one example where a school, under one principal, was dirty and poorly-lit, and I hated going into that building. A few months later, under a different principal, the place was spotless and much brighter (not because they'd replaced the fixtures but because they'd CLEANED them). The staff seems to be happier with the way the school is run, with the way the students are behaving, and with the overall feel of the place.

Your story mentioned the principal at Homeland Security HS originally telling the students that the uniform colors were khaki and blue. I don't know this principal, but that sounds remarkably out of touch. You don't have to be in a gang to know enough to stay away from red and blue as uniform colors, especially when the point of uniforms is to reduce violent incidents. Where was the COMAR-mandated School Improvement Team on that one?

I read Sara Neufield's story on the violence in the city school system and can honestly say that this violence begins in the elementary level.
During the past 27 years I have been assaulted twice both as a kindergarten teacher. I know many other teachers who have also been assaulted and told to keep quiet about it. The repercussions of telling are enormous.
The system can not and will not solve
these issues until it begins to take some responsibilty for it's lack of concern.
Currently, the violence at the elementary level is pretty much covered up by administrators. The students and parents are not held responsible yet the teachers are put in harm's way.
I don't see any change or improvement in this situation.
As for the safety of the schools, most of them are not safe even on the elementary level. Doors are left open so that anyone can walk in or out.
The primary care of these building has been left to an inadequate maintenence staff.
In my opinion, the best thing that could happened for the children of this school system is that the state take over the maintenence of these schools. I know it can't be done any time soon due to the expense. But perhaps on a gradual basis.
This school system is a complete mess and it only gets worse as time goes on.

Building conditions have a HUGE impact on school climate and safety. I've personally tried to inform administrators of broken locks/cameras/doors/intercoms/alarms. They don't get fixed, at least not in a timely manner, and repeated attempts to have the problems fixed are met with the clear indication that we are being unreasonable pests. Some of the breakdown seems to be at the school level, some at North Ave. Someone will have to get injured for anything to be done. It's pretty typical of BCPSS, though. The system is notoriously reactive when it should be proactive.

I agree that the violence is covered up and downplayed by the administration. I don't think the BTU is on top of the issue, either. Part of the problem is that teachers aren't well-versed in the protocol of reporting assaults.

With regard to the metal detectors that may be installed I'd like to express my concerns. Many of the buildings are not secure. If students are only allowed to enter through one door, what's to stop them from leaving their weapons in the bushes by another door, entering through the metal detector and then going out the other door, propping it open and retrieving the weapon? Fire code requires that all outside doors be unlocked. Few schools have any way to secure these other doors to prevent weapons or outsiders from being brought into the building. Just something to consider...

I happen to work in a school whose principal puts maintenance of the school as a top priority but that doesn't seem to be supported by North Avenue. When I first started at the school, we had five full-time maintenance workers during the day and another five at night in addition to contract staff that came in at night to do the heavier duty cleaning. We had an electrician on staff who could replace lights and fix the minor electrical problems that come with the constant use of a building by over 1500+ people daily. Now we have one full-time janitor during the day and one at night and contract cleaners who come in at night to sweep and mop. We also have two ladies who mop and sweep during the day but it is an uphill battle for them. Heaven forbid that there is an electrical or heating problem during the day. We have had several occasions during the past couple of years where we lost electricity for over three hours and students were required to remain in the same room with the same teacher waiting for an answer from North Avenue as to what to do next. I know that budgetary concerns cause some of these issues. But a well-lit, clean building with working windows, doors, locks and bathrooms seems to me to be a minimal consideration for student safety and optimum "climate" for learning. My school is one of the better ones in the system but we still fight cold rooms and broken windows on a regular basis. Where is all the maintenance money going? Also we were promised a new elevator three years ago. We have students in wheelchairs who have been restricted in the classes they can take because they fear getting stuck on the elevator that was installed when the building was originally built. I don't know that there is a good answer but there should be somewhere.

Schools Obsessed with Security Equipment: The myths of security equipment in schools and how they create unsafe environments by Dale Yeager

One of the great frustrations we have had in our work with securing school environments over the past 18 years is the obsession many school board members and administrators have with security equipment such as cameras.

In this article we will set the record straight about security equipment; when is it useful and when it increases security problems?

After the Columbine massacre on April 20, 1999 the district spent an obscene amount of money on security equipment for the high school. Six months later a student walked through these systems with a loaded handgun. The district didn’t understand school safety before April 20th and they had learned little after it. Humans manage humans!

Myth 1:
Security cameras can provide a low cost monitoring system for each school in our district.

Wrong:
Security cameras record an incident they cannot prevent it. Even if a school has a monitor in the front office [which is good practice] or in the principals office [also a good practice], someone must see the problem and initiate a team of properly trained human beings to respond.

Security cameras do not have peripheral vision or cognitive function. They cannot see what the human eye can see and they cannot make a decision.

Myth 2:
Cameras will prevent students from acting up. If they know they are being watched they will be more likely to behave.

Wrong:
Please. Many years ago the practice of installing cameras on school buses was instituted in many school districts. To save money only one live [real] camera was actually working in one of the buses. Each day that real camera would be moved around to other buses [hopefully]. We have found as many administrators have found that the students always know whether their bus has the live camera or not. This usually happens because they overhear untrained staff talking about it.

When human beings of all ages become aggressive, they usually lose focus and much of self control. Cameras cannot stop students from being aggressive.

A well managed school is a safe school!

After reading these concerns I grow more frustrated because it appears my concerns are not specific to my school yet system wide. I was hopeful tht if my circumstances were unique, perhaps they would eventually be addressed. Well, after having time off for Winter Break, I feel the decision to leave this to someone else is probably the best answer, regretably! I have bought concerns with corrective actions to school and area based administrators and have not received any response since August 2007. If there is anyone out there with another soloution short of protest (which is against union contract) please advise. My office has a temperatue of 98.6 degrees each day, coworkers and vsitors are unable to use this office yet, I am expected to work there daily, because it is the only area available to me due to the nature of work performed. Additionally, I have had these work conditions since last school year and no one has addressed it!

anon,

it's not just an issue at your school or even with baltimore.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/12/30/AR2007123002242.html?hpid=moreheadlines

while there are many central office staff that care, too many central office administrators/ staff skimp on stuff that makes schools function so that they can get paid and pay their friends. it blows my mind that the dc teachers' union is fighting cuts to dc's central office staff.

The story Jim references appears to be the final installment (for this year, anyway) in an excellent series that's run in The Post over the last several months called "Fixing D.C.'s Schools." Many of the articles echo what's happening in Baltimore. Here is a link to all the articles in the series:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/dcschools/#fullseries

i had a tip for teachers out there who have administrators who won't deal w/ threatening kids. in addition to just pressing charges, you can also go to a judge. there is some procedure for assigning the equivalent of a temporary restraining order (I think it has a different name) that only requires the victim to testify. schools (like any organization) would have to comply and move a student identified in that order. the distance requirements and length of time that the order lasts mean that they could not just put the kid across the hall. sorry that i don't remember the name for this process but i bet a court clerk or some such could identify it.

Several years ago, then Mayor O'Malley, used Citi-Stat to track maintanance issues with the school buildings. Remember the school buildings are still "owned" by Baltimore City government, the school system is basically a tenant. Principals and mainatance workers were encouraged to enter their building issues into this tracking system so that they could be prioritized and handled in a timely manner. It was just beginning to show minor results when the STATE imposed square footage reduction effort started. Since then most non-critical repairs have have been put on the backburner while 100s of millions have been spent on " Facilities Solution" and the receiving schools. The irony is that a lot of this work had to be done so quickly the reports of shoddy work soon followed.

Another option for teachers and other's in school buildings is to contact North Ave and the Area offices. Dr. Alonso has stated clearly that he will respond to issues so if you don't get a response from the Area office, email him directly. He has offered his email address as well as cell phone number.

One thing I do want to remind my fellow teachers is that while these issues exist (and I have been in a number of schools with awful buildings) we need to remember that the kids deserve the best that we have to offer regardless of the conditions. This is not to say that we shouldn't advocate for them, and better yet, encourage them to advocate as well, but none of these things excuse teachers and other school staff from doing everything they can to meet the needs of the kids.

I have e-mailed Alonso several times, but have received no response. Several of my fellow teachers have also emailed him without response. I do not think he has been as reponsive as I believed he would be

I spoke with my roomate who teaches in the Walbrook complex. He's hesitant to bring up certain issues himself for fear of repercussions, but gave me the OK to speak on his behalf.

They often lock various doors in the building. In case of a real fire (not just the toilet paper flames students pull to get out of class) he would have no clue how to safely exit the building along with his kids.

I was appalled by this, everyone, especially the teachers, should be aware of a consistent exit strategy in case of an emergency.