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Last Updated: Jun 11th, 2008 - 13:37:34 |
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| Teacher Jolita Berry was attacked by a student |
Video footage and reports of school teachers being attacked by students have drawn nationwide attention to what officials describe as an old but increasingly pervasive issue of such violence.
Jolita Berry, 30, an art teacher at Reginald Lewis High School in Baltimore, Md., was assaulted by a 10th grade female student last month. The attack was recorded on a cell phone camera and posted on MySpace.com, a social networking website. Berry said the attack began when she told a female student to sit down. The student refused and proceeded towards Berry.
"She said she's gonna bang me," Berry said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. "I said, 'Back up, you're in my space. If you hit me, I'm gonna defend myself.'"
Berry was caught off guard when the student attacked her and she recalled her peers shouting “Hit her.”
Berry had a sore shoulder and a broken blood vessel in her eye.
That same week, a group of about nine angry third-graders devised a plan to attack their teacher after she reprimanded a student for standing on a chair, at Center Elementary School in Waycross, Ga.
Word on the group’s attack was released by a student who said she saw a girl bring a weapon to school.
Police found a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight all of which the students intended to use during the attack that included individually assigned roles, authorities said.
According to officials, two students, who brought the steak knife and the paperweight, both females, ages 9 and 10, were arrested on juvenile charges. An 8-year-old boy who supplied the tape was arrested as well.
A Pontiac Northern High School science teacher suffered a fractured skull, broken rib and a partially collapsed lung after he was assaulted by three students inside his classroom late March, in Pontiac, near Detroit.
“This is clearly disturbing,” said Melanie Carter, associate dean for academic programs and student affairs at Howard University, adding that the recent cases of classroom attacks on teachers by students “is not brand new.”
Carter, who taught at a high school in Springfield, Ohio before coming to Howard University, said she heard of students assaulting their teachers at that school where she worked. She recalled that even as a student growing up, she knew that teachers were assaulted at times but the attacks are more vicious today.
The latest report from the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that five percent of teachers in city elementary and secondary schools reported being physically attacked and 10 percent were threatened with injury during the 2003-2004 school year.
According to Kathleen Buzad, the assistant director for the educational issues department at the American Federation of Teachers, an organization that represents the interests of teachers nationwide, is that the report is a year behind and it only shows data from four years ago. Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teacher’s Union, told The Baltimore Sun that her office receives two or three complaints a day of assaults on teachers. (In Baltimore, Berry decided to file assault charges against the girl after she learned that teachers have been discouraged from doing so.)
“Schools ought to be safe spaces,” for both students and faculty, said Carter.
But they are not and, according to Anike Oliver, a teacher at Banneker Senior High School in Washington, D.C., the issue is that the root of the problem is not being addressed.
“All problems that exist in the school system stem from some other origin,” said Oliver, who has been a teacher for six years. “The school has systems in place to react to certain behaviors but it is not designed to get to the root of the problem to solve the problem,” said Oliver. “All they do is address the behavior but why the behaviors take place never gets addressed and that is why the schools are the way they are,” said Oliver. School officials promptly deal with matters of breaking school rules but Oliver added that “We won’t ever go beyond that. These behaviors are a manifestation of a deeper problem.”
Experts, teachers and students cite a number of reasons for why a student may assault their teacher but the leading two factors mentioned were issues of respect and up-bringing.
Oliver who teaches ninth and eleventh graders, algebra, said that “a lack of supervision, neglect and broken homes” can cause a student to flip out. “Students have a lot of responsibility that go beyond what you would expect a child‘s responsibilities to be,” added Oliver.
Imani Shanklin-Roberts, a junior at Banneker, said that some teachers do not understand that students have problems just as anybody else. “Children go through a lot of things and come from different backgrounds,” Shanklin-Roberts said. “When they leave the school at 3:15 p.m. they have to assume the position as an adult in many cases. They come into the building with their adult persona and the teachers don’t understand why they act so grown.” As an aspiring teacher, she added that teachers need to make an effort to understand their students’ backgrounds.
In her years of teaching, Carter noticed that many students come to class angry. “I think students come to school with some issues that play out in classrooms but regardless that behavior is abominable.”
The girl who attacked Berry has been suspended but not immediately. In fact, the principal of Reginald F. Lewis High School was criticized by school officials for her response to the attack. Berry said the principal told her that she had incited the assault by telling the girl that she would defend herself.
“That’s bullshit,” said Jaminnia States, a Howard University sophomore who wants to teach and open a school. “That’s a common human being response.”
On the other hand, Carter wonders whether the teacher could have done something different perhaps like leave the room.
“If you are a teacher and you see escalating violence and you recognize something may take place, saying ’I’m gonna defend myself’… I don’t know what that means” said Carter. “Not to criticize the teacher but you know what kind of students you have. Does that make her deserving of the assault? No, but you can’t say certain things to some people and turn your back on them.”
Many students at Banneker Senior High School also disagreed with the principal’s response.
“The teacher met an injustice and the principal tried to downplay the incident,” said sophomore Jerod Hairson. “The teacher got the short end of the stick.”
“I find it really odd that the principal responded in that manner,” added high school senior Ivory Sherman. “The teacher was the victim, not the student.”
Reginald F. Lewis High School was established in 2002 as a spin-off of the larger disordered Northern High School. According to The Baltimore Sun, the school was placed on probation last summer as a result of the increase of suspensions for violent incidents.
School officials said there needs to be more student-teacher training and not just the placement of metal detectors and suspensions.
“Teachers have to differentiate between being a teacher and an adult and being a friend,” said Shanklin-Roberts, adding that some teachers try to get on their students level to be “cool” but then they “try to reclaim authority.”
“You have to develop that fine-line early-on,” she said. “I’m not gonna respect you unless you respect me.”
Hairson said that parents need to play their part. “It starts at home,” he said. “If parents would put their foot down and teach their children right and not only teach them but reinforce it then maybe we would have better school systems. Everything starts at home.”
Some wonder whether classroom violence will affect teacher employment.
Carter points out that there is already a shortage of teachers in urban areas. She said the issue is “Will they be willing to stay?”
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