Thank you, Senator Byrd, and
President Hardesty, for this opportunity to talk about building safe schools. With three teenagers in Wood County's public schools, I speak as a parent today. For the record, I'm also the county's current school board president.
I surveyed over 40 parents and school board members via e-mail, asking the same questions posed to me for today's panel. I asked for information regarding any specific school safety program involvement by parents in
their communities, and thoughts concerning the national response to school violence.
It was unusual that my first e-mail elicited only two responses, as usually these folks are chatty. The majority ignored the first note.
So, I sent a second request asking, "Is there a message in your silence?"
This generated several responses. One I best recall said, "Was not President Reagan wounded by a deranged person, while being literally
ringed by trained Secret Service personnel? If a small army of watchful Secret Service personnel could not absolutely assure safety for just one man, I doubt whether there is any way to ensure that all public schools are 'absolutely'
safe."
Some cited fear of legislative overreaction, in an attempt to craft a one-size fits all solution to societal violence. A lot of ambivalence was expressed, and concern that our nationwide shock over
Columbine's tragedy and other random acts of violence, makes school violence a politically expedient topic.
The common thought was, as Forest Gump said, "Whatever you do, try to have a reason to do it."
People want to know that any legislative reaction will make some sense to those of us in the local communities.
The best solutions for West Virginia, with our perpetually low crime rate, may differ significantly from those
that would benefit other parts of the country. We hope that our legislators will deal with our realities, not only those elsewhere in the country, in proposing solutions.
Unfortunately, public safety, and
sufficient response to our nebulous fear of possible violence are not just concerns for public schools. A public school is just one of many public places where violence could play out. This issue can never be resolved by
implementing school-based proposals alone. Nor can potential for violence be resolved by focusing on passive measures such as metal detectors or video surveillance, which absolutely fail to address the underlying causes of violence.
I commend you, Senator Byrd, for coming here to speak with us. Maybe we can thus avoid the impulse to be reactive and provide something more productive to the outcry over this topic as a result of your leadership.
I believe that our students' safety in West Virginia is far more threatened by schools' apathetic emotional climates, by some of our facilities' physical conditions, and by our inability to provide sufficient counseling and
nursing staff at most schools, than it is from the threat of random acts of violence.
Today's invitation said, "Protecting our nation's children is a team effort, and no player should drop the ball on helping to make our
schools safe havens for teachers to teach and students to learn."
I agree. But, from a parent's perspective, the real issue isn't whether anyone drops the ball on safety in our public schools. From a parent's
eye view, the fact is that there are some kids at every school, in every county, in every state, to whom that ball never gets passed.
Every school has some students whom no faculty member can greet by name and who will
slip through four years without too many people noticing their presence.
Too many times, economies of scale force larger schools for efficient operation. But the larger our schools, the more removed students can
feel. Larger schools don't have to mean isolated students. We talk a lot about creating student-centered environments, teaming, and other concepts creating schools within schools, to make for the feel of a smaller school within
a larger one.
But the plain reality is that there are hidden costs associated with large schools, because despite all the rhetoric, we still don't do a good enough job of reaching out to every student. Too many
times, despite enthusiasm and new initiatives, large systems are unable to change routine patterns of operation.
Thus, the first message I want to offer in response to school safety is directed at school personnel. Make the
effort. Know my child.
I have a close friend whose family moved a few years ago, taking her well-adjusted child from a small school in my county. In 1996, he became one of 2,500 students in a huge 7th-8th grade middle
school. And, two years later, at age 16, he hung himself.
Coming home from his funeral, I told my husband, "I feel like hell and it wasn't my child. I can't even imagine how she and her husband feel."
Everyone wondered what happened. His parents concluded that among 2,500 kids, their child never found a niche. He was a little athletic, but not athletic enough. A little bright, but not bright enough. A little
musically inclined, but not enough. He just couldn't find anything he felt good about doing or that caused him to feel a part of the school community.
No one wanted him in their group; not the athletes, not the
academically talented or the musically or artistically gifted. The only kids who accepted him without question were the "misfits" the others shunned. Kids from problem homes, whose music focused on themes of death and violence,
with a lot of emotional baggage of their own.
These parents cared deeply for their son, but that wasn't enough. They couldn't make up for something he didn't want from them. This boy wanted to feel that his life had some
importance among the people whose attention mattered to him at that point in time -- his age group peers.
His mother said it amazed her how many students and school faculty members came to his funeral that she had never
met while he was living. She said that she wished these same people had shown him the attention in life that they showed him in death.
Now, it doesn't take a quantum leap of logic to understand that a student who is
upset enough to take himself out, could well decide to take others out to. The next part of my message is this: Make the effort. Engage my child. Another boy entered junior high school loving basketball. Now this tale
could just as easily be about choir, band, student council or any activity group where membership is restricted.
He left elementary school as a very active 4.0 student. Like many young boys, he wasn't very tall yet,
though he now is 6'5". His 7th grade class had 70 boys hoping to make a 12-person basketball squad. For two years straight, he was cut towards the end of tryouts, as six times as many boys as could be taken, vied for
team status.
Check his grades beginning in 7th grade. They moved from 'A' to 'B' to "C' to 'D'. At the end of 8th grade, we had a previously well-adjusted and stellar student, whose ego was now rolling around at ground
level, and despite 99th percentile test scores, now qualified for special education as a "gifted underachiever" -- someone with great potential and abysmally low grades.
He desperately wanted to be part of these boys who
were his elementary peers, but having been cut two years now, previously close friends shunned him.
However, last year as a junior, he was transformed back into a really engaged student, with a 4.0 GPA. What
happened? Basically, his school life began again in 9th grade, when he tried out for high school soccer.
The coach's policy was that any kid who didn't miss the twice-daily practice, during the whole month of August in
the heat, made the team, even if it meant that the team was huge. Not everyone played all games, but everyone practiced, every time. And, despite having a huge team, they've come darn close to state championship status. It
hasn't hurt them a bit.
Soccer wasn't his best sport initially, but when you get to play something for three years straight, you improve significantly, until at some point, you wake up and you're varsity. Thanks to this
coach who made the effort to engage this young man, his senior year is going to be a great one. These boys turned their upset inward. But how much does it take for some students to turn anxiety outward and to strike out at
others around them?
A lot of student violence ultimately is just the end product of something else with a long history preceding, if only we are watching and we act. At DuPont, there is a saying that "every accident is
preventable." We can't anticipate every violent incident, but many could be prevented if people acted on the obvious instead of ignoring it.
Those boys at Columbine didn't build their arsenal in a vacuum-sealed
environment; they crafted it at home. Someone noticed it surely. Someone should have acted.
With our wonderful computers, if the charitable organization that I am the Executive Director of can track donor
participation with software, why can't we track student levels of participation and keep a little more careful eye on the students who can't seem to find a niche?
There are usually 101 stupid reasons given as to why student
participation must be limited. We must operate from a presumption that all children will be allowed, in fact, will be called upon to be participants, and not spectators in life. It's sad, but humorous, when you ask sometimes why
we have certain restrictions.
Where athletics are concerned, the standard answer is that, "we only have so many uniforms." One elementary school mother in our county decided one year that she didn't buy that
answer. Forty girls at her child's elementary school wanted to be cheerleaders, but they only had eight uniforms. Rather than turn girls down, parents raised the money, as they often will, and that year, this school had more
cheerleaders than spectators at most games.
When no one is focused on making a professional production out of an elementary school squad, it's amazing how many kids can have a great time.
With all our athletic
regulations, maybe a high school can only have one competitive basketball team. But it can run multiple squads, with the top team entering out-of-school competitions, or a strong intramural program for the children for whom school
team play is not possible.
One junior high's 80 member track team members compete in-house for slots on the squad going to the county meet. Everyone who practices regularly with the team is treated as a full team
member for all other purposes. When you have 70 children try out for 12 slots, what you do with the other 58 who don't make the cut can has a major impact on whether they ever connect with their school.
How would we as
adults handle constant rejection for years? For example, if I wanted to join Rotary and went to a local group planning to do so, but then was told I wasn't good enough to join -- for a few years in a row sometimes -- how would that
affect me? We need to find more and better ways to involve students in the life of their schools. We must spread the opportunities to participate around. We must expect students to be participants and not compel them to be
spectators.
Involving more students frequently means more money for physical needs or adult leaders. Many of the limitations in my county are due to inadequate facilities or limited funding for additional personnel. If our
government decides to make money available at some point for metal detectors or surveillance equipment, then I say shame on them. Students shouldn't have to wear name badges to be known. If the schools and classes were smaller, maybe
teachers and administrators would know their pupils by name.
We need funds for gymnasiums and auditoriums, and to improve antiquated or limited physical facilities. We need money for coaches, teachers, counselors, nurses,
and other personnel who could engage students more. Metal detectors, security guards, telephone hotlines, or surveillance cameras won't cure what ails students emotionally.
We also need more resources for
additional teachers, and not only in Title I classrooms, where teachers only focus on the lower income schools, which actually, in our county, may already have the smaller class sizes due to additional resources.
We also need to have the courage to address some of the root causes. Advertisers spend billions of dollars annually to buy 30 or 60 second spots of time on television to convince the public to buy their product or support their
cause. If television didn't have the capacity to affect human behavior, there wouldn't be the amount of money thrown that direction that there is. Our children are exposed to a steady diet of filth, violence and aberration on
television that no "V-chip" will cure.
We need to acknowledge that many children will watch television unsupervised and focus on cleaning up the offerings on television from 3 - 8:30 p.m., when children and families are
most apt to be watching. I'm tired of the language coming out of my television, I'm tired of the violent shows my children can be exposed to, and I'm tired of the filth that passes for entertainment on television. Advertisers
know that television has the capacity to influence our behavior. If we don't want violent children with vulgar vocabularies, we need to clean up what they are exposed to via our national media.
Communities can help craft
the safety net we need to build for our children. One unique program in our county last year at three schools recruited parent volunteers to help monitor halls and provide a regular presence. Children learn that their well being
is important when they see their parents make the effort to be present.
A church nearby Parkersburg South High School has opened its recreation hall one lunch period a week for a couple of years now, as we still
have open campuses. Students are invited in for recreation and pizza and no church affiliation is needed. This welcoming offer helps better connect students, parents and the school community, improving the whole school
climate. Because this church makes an effort, students know that this congregation cares about their well being and they appreciate it.
To sum up, we must create climates in our public schools, such that each student
clearly knows he or she is a welcome, and a necessary part of his or her public school community, and parents and our communities feel welcomed, and supported.
If we are ever to create safe schools, we must make the
effort to know each child, and to engage each child in our schools.
