The Penn Hills School District has decided to replace security guards at its middle school with youth engagement specialists who officials believe are better equipped to handle the needs of students in that age group.
The specialists will begin to roam the halls of Linton Middle School this fall.
Though the change comes amid nationwide calls for schools to invest in restorative justice services in an effort to end the school-to-prison pipeline, it is a move that the district has been working toward for more than a year.
“This is something we have looked at,” Superintendent Nancy Hines said Thursday in a phone interview. “It was approached in phases.”
The Penn Hills school board voted unanimously in June to bring in seven specialists from the Pressley Ridge child care and consulting agency who will replace about the same number of security guards. Two specialists will be assigned to each grade level, and one will move around as needed.
The district will retain one security guard — a retired police officer — at the middle school.
Ms. Hines said the move was part of the district’s approach to increase restorative justice initiatives. Much of the district’s focus in that area has been placed on the middle school because it can be a tough time in a child’s growth, according to Ms. Hines.
“Kids are finding themselves, they’re very cognizant of peer pressure, now you throw in social media, people saying things,” she said. “It’s just a hard time to get kids to focus, to be confident and so forth.”
The middle school, as well as Penn Hills High School, has two therapeutic classrooms geared toward students with disabilities and those who need extra emotional support. The classrooms are staffed by specialists from Pressley Ridge.
The district also looked at its in-school suspension model and decided to create a so-called “new directions” classroom at Linton Middle School where experts can provide meaningful interventions to students who make mistakes.
Under Linton’s old in-school suspension model, Ms. Hines said, students would be placed in a “very sterile” classroom at the end of a hallway behind the school’s kitchen with concrete walls and floors, and without motivational items, such as posters. Teachers would send work for students to complete, and there was little social interaction.
“Last year, we moved forward and implemented this new directions classroom where we said [that] when you are assigned to in-school suspension, it’s going to be meaningful,” Ms. Hines said. “We’re going to bring kids together ... who are having the same issues, struggling with the same decision making and talk through what the issues and problems are.”
The district then decided to reinvent Linton’s security by replacing traditional guards with youth engagement specialists. The specialists will be an extension of the same type of behavioral professionals in the therapeutic classrooms, but they will be in the hallways and available to all students.
Ms. Hines said she expects the specialists to familiarize themselves with the students, teachers and staff members so they become knowledgeable on what typically happens in the school and what may be unusual.
“Let’s say a teacher in one classroom is very animated, very lively and that’s just their personality and their teaching style, and that room is a little bit loud,” Ms. Hines said. “The youth engagement specialist will know that personality and know what’s customary for that classroom. ... Maybe when that particular room is quiet, maybe that will concern them and they will check it out more closely.”
She said the specialists will be able to engage with students, bring students to the new directions classroom, and participate in mediation and family conferences.
“When you have a security officer, boundaries are different than for a youth engagement specialist,” Ms. Hines said. “We wouldn’t want a security officer who has limited training with youth engagement to try to counsel a student. In most cases, a security officer is not going to be brought into a family conversation or sit in on an IEP (Individualized Education Program) team meeting for a disabled child who’s maybe struggling and needs more support.”
The school will continue to have a security guard at the front door because of the possibility of violent threats, Ms. Hines said. But, she added, if the relationships between students and staff are good enough, there is a chance violence can be prevented.
“Even when you look at school safety, and the reports you hear from these horrific situations that have happened over the years, a lot of times some of these crises are averted because there’s trust between students and staff and the students alert the staff because they’re concerned somebody might get hurt,” she said. “That’s the type of relationships [that are] really, really beneficial in a school environment, and you have to have the right personalities.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: July 6, 2020, 9:45 a.m.
Updated: July 6, 2020, 9:50 a.m.
