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01.02 Blaming the Victims - The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas 12.30 Shock, Awe and Lies: The Truth Behind the Israeli Attack on Gaza 12.10 We All Failed Gary Webb US Politics, Policy & Culture
01.07 Gaza Voices, American Silence 01.06 The $6 Million Social Worker 01.06 Bush Spins Scandalous Neglect of Vets 01.02 2009 is Starting Off with a Shameful and Criminal Bang 12.27 Two Dangerous Bush-Cheney Myths 12.24 Madoff Scandal Exposes Government Failure 12.22 Cheney's Contempt for the Republic 12.19 Obama's New Appointments 12.18 Obama v. Washington Mythmaking 12.17 The Electoral College Has Got To Go 12.16 A Million McVeighs Now: The American-Made Insurgency in Afghanistan 12.15 Thinking About Illinois 12.14 Obama and US-Russia Tensions 12.12 A Time Machine to Save America 12.11 Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite? 12.10 Workers of America: Wake Up! We All Need a Union! US High Crimes
12.31 America's War On Islam - The "Fort Dix Five" 12.30 Henry Kissinger: Eminence Noire 12.28 The Grinning Skull 12.22 Obama v. Richard Falk on Israel and Occupied Palestine 12.19 White House Lied About Iraqi Yellowcake Buy, But That’s Not the Biggest Scandal 12.18 Judge Declines to Jail 'Ghosts of the Iraq War' 12.18 Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture: No One Can Be Above the Law 12.17 Cluster Bomb Treaty and the World's Unfinished Business 12.17 Abandoned by the World: UN Declares Open Season on Somalia 12.17 Assessing the Bush Legacy: The Measure of the Man and His Administration 12.16 Cheney Admits Detainee-Abuse Role 12.15 The Abduction, Secret Detention, Torture, and Repeated Raping of Aafia Siddiqui 12.12 Torture Trail Seen Starting with Bush 12.11 Atrocity Unlimited: US Seeks to Turn Somalia into Global Free-Fire Zone 12.10 The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance
01.05 Thinking About the 2008 Numbers 12.29 Thinking About Realities 12.26 Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff 12.24 The Federal Reserve Abolition Act 12.22 Thinking About Expectations 12.12 Excess Debt and Deflation = Depression International
01.07 The Quartet's Hypocrisy and Failure in Occupied Palestine 01.07 Gazing at Gaza's Destruction: Israelis Sip Pepsi, US Progressives See 'Silver Lining' 01.05 Fallujah by the Sea: Aping America, Israel Unleashes Chemical Weapons in Gaza 01.05 Global Human Rights Groups Protest Slaughter in Gaza 12.30 How Hypocrisy on 'Terrorism' Kills 12.29 Israel's Wanton Aggression On Gaza 12.26 Christmas 2008: Hell in the Holy Land 12.17 Canada's Prince of Darkness Assumes Leadership of the Liberal Party We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
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SPEAKING OUT:The High Cost of School ViolenceViolence is under-reported because schools don't want to run the risk of being labeled as "persistently dangerous," which would result in funding cuts.
One year later, this is still happening. When I agreed to go to the media last year, I had no idea that my story about having been assaulted in the Baltimore City middle school would go as far as it did in the local news. One year and two weeks later, another art teacher has been assaulted—and this time, it was caught on video, and her story is making national news. So now the "proof" is there, and yet still, the administrators are blaming the teacher for the attack. Neither my story nor Ms. Berry's story is surprising to anyone who has ever taught in Baltimore City Public Schools. While there are many more teachers speaking to the media about the state of our schools, there are still countless teachers afraid to come forward and tell their stories. This problem is so large, and involves so many people. There is a culture of acceptance towards violence in the city's public schools. Administrators, faculty, and staff shake their heads in disbelief, but do nothing to change the broader picture. Staff members look the other way when violent incidents such as rioting and fighting happen. "It's just the way things are" is a common phrase spoken in the hallways. Student-on-student fights happen daily, and now student-on-teacher assaults are happening more often. Principals purposely mis-categorize violent incidents in schools, filing paperwork that re-names the incident as a less serious event. Schools don't want to run the risk of being labeled as "persistently dangerous," which would result in funding cuts for the school. A small percentage of our schools' children are persistently disruptive and violent. These few children are being given permission to run amok, and then the larger percentage of the school's population follows suit and joins in the melee. Administrators walk through hallways, and kids who are cutting class and being destructive or disruptive are being told to spit out their gum, pull up their pants, and tuck in their shirts. Never mind the chaos in the hallway—gum chewing is not allowed, and that's an easier "situation" to solve. Principals are overwhelmed, and struggling to grab hold of the situation in any way they are able. Teachers struggle to finish one lesson from their lesson plans, while disruptive behavior goes unresolved. Teachers send their students to the principal and assistant principal for disciplining, and the students are sent back to the classroom holding hand-written notes that read, "Ms. ___, there is no one in the office to deal with this student right now. Please do not send any more students to the office today." The disruptions in the classroom, therefore, continue and lessons remain unfinished. Turn-over rate in our schools' faculty, staff, and administrators is very high. Teacher training programs like Teach for America and Baltimore City Teaching Residency are popping up everywhere, in an attempt to recruit young, energetic, and idealistic teachers. These young teachers are "trained" to be educators in a matter of weeks, and are promised a free master's degree in education at Johns Hopkins University. The drop-out rate of these programs is sky-high. Male and female teachers alike are in distress; some are even being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, while some others are turning to alcohol, all because of the shell-shocked sense of hopelessness and helplessness being experienced in a chaotic environment that has been described by many as a "war zone." How can we sit by, and let an entire city's population of children go uneducated? How can we accept this culture of violence as "just the way it is"?
These are our schools, where our children go to learn. How can any child learn in an environment like this?! How can we sit by, and let an entire city's population of children go uneducated? How can we accept this culture of violence as "just the way it is"? We need to collectively decide that enough is enough, and make a conscious effort to stop accepting this. Until we do, our city (and others) will continue to lose great teachers, and our children will continue to be on the receiving end of the biggest injustice in this nation. The writer formerly taught art in a Baltimore City middle school.
Copyright © 2008 The Baltimore News Network. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. Baltimore News Network, Inc., sponsor of this web site, is a nonprofit organization and does not make political endorsements. The opinions expressed in stories posted on this web site are the authors' own. This story was published on April 14, 2008. |
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