Pittsburgh Public Schools employees expressed concerns over safety and frustration with district officials Monday night, just days after a 15-year-old boy was fatally shot outside of a building during dismissal and multiple employees and students were injured in fights at various city schools.
The violence throughout the district last week continued a trend of heightened unrest that officials have reported in the city schools this academic year.
Staff members who provided testimony at a public hearing Monday night implored the school board to reinstate exclusionary discipline for multiple minor offenses — the absence of which employees say has led to an increase in problematic behavior — as well as increase in the number of security guards and counselors in schools.
"Students know they don't have consequences for their actions, I've heard it in my own two ears,” said Stephanie Miller, a district employee with children at two city schools. “'I don't give an expletive, nothing's going to happen to me.' Day in and day out, this phrase or ones like it come out of the mouths of PPS students. A precedent has been set that no consequences will happen, and students are becoming more and more violent."
The school board in June removed a policy from the student code of conduct that gave the district the ability to enact exclusionary discipline, such as out-of-school suspensions or after-school detentions, on students with three or more minor offenses. The staff members said that ending the policy created an atmosphere where frequent misbehavior is tolerated, fostering problems that grow into larger issues.
The policy came up in November when a group of principals asked district administration and the school board for help to quell the unrest in school halls by, in part, reinstating their ability to enforce exclusionary discipline on student who frequently cause disruptions. But the board declined to put the policy back into place, with opponents saying the district should invest in student supports rather than rely on punishments that don’t solve the root causes of misbehavior.
School staff members, though, said actions need to be taken.
Kristen Johnson, a teacher at Brashear High School, said she was “disgusted” by the violence that the school district has experienced and that “many conversations end without closure or a plan for actual and effective change.”
"Where are you?” she asked board members. “I've not seen one of you ... unless it is a planned tour of a particular program. You must get in the trenches to understand our day-to-day struggle with high-need students and their individual circumstances."
She said staff members feel their school administrators have been “stifled because they are not willing or able to provide the necessary discipline to address minor student behaviors that perpetuate a climate and culture of disrespect for people and learning."
Maria Vondas, a paraprofessional at South Hills 6-8 with children in the district, said she has found herself prioritizing safety over the academics of her children because of the environment in their schools.
“As my son, who is a senior at Brashear, leaves for school in the morning, I say to him 'Be vigilant, watch your back, and remember your escape plan if things get bad. Get into the building as fast as you can, don't linger. Leave in the same hurried and aware manner,'” she said. “Every single day I worry if my son will be injured or worse just being caught in the riotous atmosphere that has littered the halls of Brashear.”
James Fogarty, a district parent and the executive director of the education equity group A+ Schools, noted a variety of ways that the district could help alleviate behavioral issues.
He suggested safety partnerships that bring school staff and community partners together to address root causes of school violence, equitable site-based funding so that the schools with the greatest needs get the necessary investments, child care options for students to have a safe space to go when schools close, and a leadership transition that engages stakeholders and provides transparency.
“A series of serious challenges face our schools and communities,” Mr. Fogarty said. “The tragedies of last week cry out for multiple approaches and the engagement of the broader community and community partners to support our children, families and school staff."
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 25, 2022, 3:11 a.m.
