Sara:

I'm so glad that you are doing these stories. I'm a middle-school teacher and I try to do the best that I can for my students but I've just about had my fill of the non-stop foolishness, chaos and mayhem.

The halls of our bulding are filled with shrieking, angry students who spend their days fighting, swinging belts at each other, writing gang graffiti on the wallls, running into classrooms and starting fights with students in class, staring fires and tearing up the building.

The comments about the need for additional teacher training made me laugh. I don't need workshops. What I need is a working environment where I don't feel like I am taking my life in my hands when i report to work.

When I began teaching, schools were safe havens where students could escape the neighborhood violence and just learn and be kids. Now the violence has seeped into our buildings and is getting in the way of teaching and learning. Many of us feel like we've been fighting this battle alone. We need support from administrators, parents, community members, elected officials - EVERYONE -if we want to make it better.

Our schools need waaay more guidance counselors/social workers to talk to and help students deal with these situations. Most teachers I know end up being a listening ear during planning periods and after school. These kids deal with so many adult problems that we tend to try and treat them like little adults. But they are still children who haven't yet learned how to cope (I'm a grown woman and I'm pretty sure I couldn't cope with what they go through.)
It's time somebody recognized that city kids aren't exactly the same as other kids and they need different resources.
I never dealt with death and murder as a 12 year old, and these kids shouldn't have to figure out how to all by themselves.

Violence in society is mirrored in our schools. Until society is able to police itself the schools are going to continue to be violent. There is no wonder test scores are not proficient in BCPSS, how can children learn in this environment. Community leaders must start to veilify this behavior in order for things to change

I agree with Shep's comments about the need for more guidance counselors/social workers .

The madness at our school reached a new high today. We had multiple fires and building evacuations. I can't help but wonder where this will all end.

Truancy: The root of all school safety problems! by Dale Yeager

“No child falls through the cracks. They are dropped through or shoved through by lazy, emotionally immature adults and unethical professionals”

After the Columbine shootings I made this statement during an interview on national television. The reporter asked if I really believed that statement and I replied, “absolutely!”

But you may ask what this statement has to do with the issue of truancy? Simple, truant children – who are routinely late or absent – come from dysfunctional homes. Those homes in my experience are lead by caregivers who are more concerned about their own pleasures and convenience than the welfare of their children. Some may say that this is an unkind assessment. My response to them is simple, visit these homes and you will see that this is not an aberration.

While some caregivers have a difficult time because of poverty, work schedules or transitioning to a single parent household; the majority simply refuse to exercise self control or basic order in their homes.

And this assessment is supported by various national studies. Research from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the U.S. Department of Education have found that child neglect and family disorganization are major factors in truancy. The OJJDP also found that “Truancy has been clearly identified as one of the early warning signs of students headed for potential delinquent activity, social isolation, or educational failure via suspension, expulsion, or dropping out.”
More disturbing is a document that I have used for many years in criminal profiling, the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol (J-SOAP-II). In this well respected assessment tool, caregiver issues and truancy become connected as impetuses for teen sex offender development:

• Inconstant and instable caregivers before the age of 10. Multiple changes in caregivers and living situations.
• Chronic truancy, fighting with peers or teachers.

Dr Gerald Patterson sums up the issue this way, “Parenting plays a critical role in the development process of children. Early discipline failures are a primary casual factor in the development of conduct problems. Harsh discipline, low supervision, lack of parental involvement all add to the development of aggressive children”
Bullying, sexual harassment, negative behavior cliques and aggression towards staff are all done by children who come from dysfunctional homes. But beyond the home environment, schools have a big stake in controlling truancy. Not only is it a major part of NCLB compliance but it affects all school safety issues. The US DOE has tracked the following school issues that directly contribute to truancy.
• Lack of effective and consistently applied attendance policies.
• Poor record-keeping, making truancy difficult to spot.
• Teacher characteristics, such as lack of respect for students and neglect of diverse student needs.
• Unsafe environment, for example a school with ineffective discipline policies where bullying is tolerated. [5 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 skipped school because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to or from school.]
Truancy happens in rural, suburban and urban schools and all classes of families. School must take control of their truancy problems or they are bound to be overtaken by it.

A well managed school is a safe school! www.SERAPH.net

Children have one job: to figure out how to push the limits and circumvent the adults. That is their right as they grow up. Our job as the adults, however, is to teach them that limits are firmly in place, that we will consistently enforce those limits, and that because we love our students, any actions they take that are outside the limits, including lying about a teacher hitting them, will always have consequences. The children ARE doing their job. It is the adults, especially parents and many administrators, who are not doing their job and as a result, we find ourselves in our current situation.

Artie's comment about children doing their job by testing limits is EXACTLY RIGHT and is the first accurate assessment of behavior problems in schools that I have heard in 12 years!

It is SO simple if you look at these problems developmentally: kids need consistent boundaries and reinforcement of rules. FEW to NONE of the BCPSS schools in which I have taught classes and workshops have been able to efficiently and fairly implement consequences -- most often, it is adults and their "issues" that cause the problems...