Testimony
of
Randi Weingarten, President, United Federation of Teachers
before
The New York City Council Education and Public Safety Committees'
Oversight Hearing on School Safety
January 28, 2004
Good afternoon Speaker, Committee Chairs Moskowitz and Vallone, and thank you for your attention to this critical issue of school safety. We all know that kids can't learn and teachers can't teach in an environment of fear. I think that's the message you heard from my members, no matter where they work or at what school level.
And parents will tell you that too. No parent should have to send her child to school in the morning worrying if he or she will be safe. No child should make herself sick because she is afraid to go to the bathroom in school. And no student should have to transfer out of a school because he's been the victim of shakedowns while the perpetrators remain. So the first order of business for any school system is to protect students and staff from harm.
I tried to catch as much as I could of the DOE testimony earlier. I guess I heard good news and bad news. The good news is that DOE has finally awakened to the primacy of safe and secure schools, and I commend the mayor for taking the driver's seat on this issue.
However I must add, it's about time. That's the bad news. The UFT has raised alarms about growing safety problems in our schools for more than a year now.
Since then there have been several plans and promises, most of which were on the mark. The problem is they never happened, or they happened late, or were implemented poorly or only in part.
The truth is, Tweed simply never took those plans seriously. We have heard too often from officials there the misguided belief that better teaching would solve all the safety problems. While they managed to get hundreds of thousands of books into schools and establish new instructional programs, safety fell off the radar screen because it didn't have the same priority.
For example, while they dismantled the old suspension structure, they never installed a new one. As a result, only one hearing center was open this fall, instead of the borough-based ones that had existed before, and parents, students and school staffers all had to spend days at 110 Livingston Street waiting for hearings.
Similarly, the new discipline code was not ready until November, and while the typos gripped the headlines, the content, albeit late, was good. Yet, to this day it has not been fully disseminated and explained to students and staff. Our chapter leader at Grady High School called us just yesterday saying his school wanted to distribute the code but has never received it and DOE has not responded to their e-mails. In the meantime, enforcing discipline in the schools without a discipline code is like trying to run a criminal justice system without a criminal code.
Many of the promised alternative sites were not opened in the fall either and, on top of that, many schools lacked on-site suspension centers. (Apparently principals weren't informed that budget allocations sent to them were for that purpose.) So as early as September we were receiving reports like this e-mail from my high school vice president, dated September 15:
Randi: I wanted to inform you about a DOE blunder that could result in a serious safety situation for staff and students. Rona [our Queens high school representative] called me this afternoon to alert me to the fact that students who committed assaults, were found with weapons, attacked teachers, etc., were still in their schools, due to the fact that some of the regions have not put in place procedures for dealing with suspended students. The principals of some regions have no one to refer them to, and no place where they can send them. Tom Dromgoole also called this afternoon to relate a similar situation in one of the Manhattan regions.
Both Jim Baumann and I spoke to the DOE. They said they were aware of the problem and were working on it. They hoped to have a plan in place for the Queens district for Tuesday. I fear that if this situation is not remedied soon we will have a very dangerous safety situation in our schools. We will be following up on this.
The SOS and New Beginning Centers announced last year are now up and running. However, the additional New Beginning centers and the new alternative sites are still in the planning stages. The delays took their toll. Again, as I said to you in September, it is analogous to having a criminal justice system with arrests, but no enforcement procedures.
I hope the DOE's assertion that the total number of incidents has remained fairly stable is true. We collect data only on incidents against employees, and that has shown an increase, as we have publicized over the last two years. If the city's data are correct, here is the great irony: the Children First reorganization, by not contemplating how to replace the district-based suspension structure, has created the safety problem we now have.
Of course, we don't really know the numbers of incidents by type and school because there is no public accounting of them, except if they rise to the level of criminal offenses. Parents today are entitled to all sorts of information about their children's schools: students' test scores, attendance rates, teacher qualifications - but not how many incidents of intruders, class cutting, disruptions, harassment, threats.
Even criminal acts, which are supposed to be included in the state-mandated school report cards, are missing. Any parent attempting to evaluate safety at her children's school compared to others can't do it because those lines in the school report cards simply say N/A, Not available - not for the school or for similar schools or for the district or superintendency or for the city as a whole, and not for any school year since 2000. This is not acceptable.
But now, the biggest problem in making things right is that in the meantime the situation got out of control and is harder to fix, especially at midyear. Delays and false starts and threats of action that never materialize - all that fosters cynicism. Many people don't believe that anything will really be done or that the situation will improve. And some kids, knowing they were returned to school before without a suspension hearing, will test the limits now. Even if they see a crackdown, they are confident that once the spotlight moves on, the heat will be off.
Frankly, it's too bad the system had to resort to armed police to control a few kids at the expense of the many. Most of our kids who attend the city's schools are terrific and ask only for an opportunity to chase their dreams. We supported the mayor on an expanded police presence in schools because it was the right thing to do given the circumstances. We know that many of the community policing and drug prevention programs that bring police into the schools are well-liked and successful.
However, the Impact program is probably a short term measure and the department must be prepared to assure students and staff that once order is established the police will be replaced by more and better trained agents and by a discipline code that is fair and consistently enforced. In other words, there has to be a credible long-term plan.
There are many specific steps that can and must be taken. Like the mayor's plan, the Speaker's plan for action contains parallels to our own, and I'll specify some of those we consider most urgent in a moment.
But first I'd like to focus on some elements of school tone that must be addressed because they lie at the root of the unrest and tension that make too many schools into tinderboxes.
Bottom line? Every school has to be a place where students and staff want to be. Here's what that takes:
- Enough space. Overcrowding in the classrooms, halls, stairways and cafeterias creates stress and conflict, whether the school is an elementary middle or high school. Some of the schools where we've seen high incidents recently - Sheepshead Bay , Columbus , even Washington Irving, would not be on the list were it not for the overcrowding, sometimes exacerbated by the placement of new schools within them. Creating small schools can be a good thing, but not at the expense of the larger school, which can quickly go from being a successful school to a dangerous one by the addition of several hundred students.
- Time to let go . Tension has soared since the focus on academics to the exclusion of all else, right down to the primary grades. My VP for elementary schools likes to say, "Put crayons back in the elementary schools." Kids at all levels need "release" time - phys ed to expend physical energy and learn about their bodies; play time to learn social skills; electives, art and music to identify and develop talents; extra-curricular activities to pursue emerging interests. The elimination of these classes and the tension of constant test prep have taken all the pleasure out of too many schools.
- Smaller classes . Fewer students in a class enable teachers to identify kids' needs, nip trouble in the bud and give children the individual attention they crave so they don't feel compelled to act out. Oversize classes mean more disruptions and less instructional time.
- Appropriate services . Too many special education children are not getting the services they need and are entitled to. Some who shouldn't be are in general ed classes. IEPs are lost or are being ignored. Academic intervention is spotty. I will be addressing this alarming situation in greater detail soon, but it's easy to see how giving special needs short shrift puts an entire school in harm's way.
- Finally, kids need adults to model courtesy and respect . Administrators, under pressure from their superiors, set the tone. Those who continually interrupt classes on the PA system and who reprimand teachers publicly or bark orders at them or otherwise disrespect them set poor examples and destroy the collaboration and cooperation that make a school a community. Even worse are those who, fearing a bad rep at headquarters, sweep incidents under the rug, fail to enforce rules and undermine teachers' authority by not disciplining troublemakers.
In addition to the specific actions in the safety plan, the chancellor would do well to address these quality-of-school-life issues so students can get the message that learning can be fun and schools are good places to be!
Now for the specifics to promote safe environments for learning. You know, I visit many, many schools every week from one end of the city to another, and what's amazing - no matter what level the school or what kind of neighborhood it's in - it's amazing what unanimity there is about what's needed to make our schools safe. Here are the must-haves:
- Public airing of the facts. Transparency through public data sharing, for criminal and non-criminal acts, with consistent definitions
- Adequate security . A needs assessment to determine how many School Safety Agents are actually needed, including floaters for absences and special situations so full coverage is assured.
- A place for disruptive children . Compliance with the SAVE law in every school. Timely suspension hearings, immediate removal of students from school, and appropriate alternative education sites for those who can't or won't function in traditional school settings.
- A technology needs assessment including video cameras and - absolutely critical to my members - a functioning emergency communications system in every classroom.
- Prevention / conflict resolution/ peer mediation programs at all levels teaching students values of respect, tolerance and understanding. Council for Unity, which you have funded, is a perfect example. Also, more guidance services including a counselor in every elementary school and reasonable caseloads in the middle and high schools so counselors can work with troubled students.
- Strict, fast and consistent enforcement of a uniform discipline code across all regions. News of gets around fast - of both lax security and of better security. Just go to JFK High School for examples of both.
The teachers who are here with me today have told you just about the same thing. This isn't rocket science. It's not nearly as hard as figuring out how to teach every third grader to read. But it does take commitment, a real understanding that safety doesn't happen by itself; it has to be made to happen; it has to be a priority at the highest levels. I hope that is what is starting to happen now.
Thank you.
