This is my question:

Given that we know from the public details that the student killed was a known problem-to the law enforcement community and to the school community-and the perpetrator was a student with no record and was the victim of bullying, does it SERIOUSLY call into question the abject failure of a soft code of conduct with a graded scale of interventions that continually fails to effectively punish students who are chronic problems?

Administrators, teachers and other staff are too often powerless this year to remove problem students because not enough interventions have taken place. While I never hope for catastrophic events to take place in our schools, I do hope that a lesson from this awful tragedy is that we listen, observe and act with forceful punitive measures against kids who are chronic disruptions.

Someone within this school community, from the people at Lemmel to the North Ave. bureaucrats, has to answer this question. We failed a child who left school because he was fearful of bullying and he resorted to the most socially reviled act because we were so focused on making sure that those who are nuisances to the school are having their complex needs met.

While the extreme nature of the act is surely isolated, I dare say that the conditions within which those feelings blossomed are not isolated at all.

Alonso speaks ad nauseam about social justice for all our kids. He and his team failed a child because they were concerned about the justice of a child that needed to be in a more restricted environment.

Sad. Sad. Sad.

Your statement "we were so focused on making sure that those who are nuisances to the school are having their complex needs met" is exactly what I argued about with Interesting Observations last week on the topic of the 'great' kids coming back and wreaking havoc (though you have stated it much more articulately).

I am absolutely terrified of who it is we are actually sacrificing in an attempt to salvage the rights of students who obviously need more time and intervention to remediate their ways.

I hate to sound plaintive and whiny but welcoming back bullies and criminals is JUST NOT FAIR to the parents and children who are, everyday, struggling through a damaged system and being relentlessly optimistic about the future that an education-and yes I know it is not yet at the ideal level of education-will offer.

And yes, the optimist in me said 'not yet'...

Sara:

I wonder how many spaces are available at schools that target troubled students - maybe something you could check on? If we do have resources that are going underused, I wonder about the structure of the conversation. As you state in a later post, Lemmel does have programs in place, did have teachers making home visits, did try and make contact. And as you also said, even with all of this it's not enough. Another question that was raised was did the school and system know about the report the police had and how we can get better coordination between city players?

AT: Yes, this is the issue we discussed, argued about. It's a really hard one - how do we deal with the types of kids who are so damaged that they view bullying as the way to deal with peers and those who think that a violent response is the best solution? What I know is that suspending either set by itself does nothing to SOLVE either groups issues.

Hi, thanks for sharing your experience about the Bad day gets worse. Keep posting.