What Do You Do, When School Is Not Safe?...for Students and/or Teachers
Behavior is learned, and in my current school the middle school students’ behavior is so bad that no one feels safe. My latest assignment in the Buffalo Public Schools is as a Technology Teacher at a pre-K through 8th grade school. The school is located in the worst section of inner city Buffalo, and is among the numerous BPS schools that performs so poorly academically and on the standards testing that New York State has given it a deadline for turnaround of 2 more years or it will be closed. The previous administrators had allowed the culture in the school to become disruptive and wild, and the students can’t be trusted to behave in the hallways, classroom, or even the bathrooms. I always took it for granted that it was a given that school was a safe and secure place to be. Now, after experiencing first-hand 3 unsafe BPS schools, I have come to understand that teaching and learning cannot exist under these conditions.
During this Fall, I am not teaching and setting high expectations for my students, instead I am trying to calm the constant threat of violence and the building-wide disarray of chaos. On my hall, three Home and Careers Teachers have already resigned this year because they don’t feel safe. To this point, I have personally broken up 20+ fights, and the school year has just begun. My classroom is very organized, my procedure is consistent and busy, and my expectations are posted and have been reviewed with every class. I am an excellent classroom manager, and usually establish a feeling of respect and atmosphere for learning. There are many reasons for the current culture in my school, but the fact is that it has to change, and quick. My classes have to be escorted to and from classes, either by myself or one of my colleagues. Each class has at least 28 students, and the students’ behavior in the hallway is atrocious. Pushing, disrupting other classes, running around or away from the line, yelling profanities and insults, and knocking books out of each other’s hands is the norm for each transition through the hallways. Once in the classroom, it is an almost impossible task to get the students to sit in their seats, get prepared, and stop talking. The students throw things continuously, and the air of animosity and confrontation escalates throughout the period in the form of verbal taunts and/or physical skirmishes. Taking attendance can take most of the period, and I am constantly yelling to be heard and to quell the noise. My “Do Now” opening activity which is to be completed in the first 5 minutes, is ignored by many, completed by a few, or wadded up and thrown at other classmates or at me. A number of students feel free to leave at their own discretion, or to hang out the door for the majority of the class. Each student spends every class and every day together with the same 29 other classmates, and the majority of their interactions with each other are filled with animosity and hate.
At this time, I have consistently managed my classroom, and shown the students that I won’t back down and that we need to establish order. I have extended respect to all students, and have maintained that they should respect each other and me. Literally every day, I come in with a positive attitude, and constantly try new approaches to establishing a safe classroom. On a daily basis, I make at least 5 negative or positive phone calls home in order to stabilize, inform, and to establish a partnership with the parents. I realize that inconsistency and high teacher turnover represent part of the reasons that students are behaving improperly. The fact is that to change this culture in my school, it will take a concerted, long amount of time and effort.
True Story: I introduced myself to a well-built, black man that was escorting the 6th grade class that was just leaving my room. He told me his name, and when I asked him if he was in college trying to become a Teacher, He said “No, he was here as a Substitute Teacher, but his full-time job was as a Correctional Officer at Attica Prison,” the NYS maximum security prison in our area. He then followed up by telling me that he was trying to earn some extra money, but that this job was much more difficult than his other one, and that he felt that the environment and behavior in this school posed more danger to him than at Attica.
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