school (un)safety

So glad the press got the ball rolling on reporting school safety (or lack thereof) after a teacher got his neck broken. Nothing like preventative medicine...

I love that the Inquirer also came out with this story the same day the eighth graders started rioting at my school. Kind of underscored the whole point for us. I can't believe they actually kept it under wraps for as long as they did. Talk about shady...

"The report - completed last summer but kept under wraps by the district until yesterday - was released six days after a Germantown High School teacher's neck was broken when two students attacked him after he confiscated an iPod. It was released at The Inquirer's request.

District officials, who hired Green-Ceisler in summer 2005 and paid her $25,000, immediately criticized the report as being full of vague generalizations and for using words such as "numerous" and "some." They said they had asked Green-Ceisler to visit the most problematic schools to expose troubles and had expected an earful - although Green-Ceisler said she also had visited schools where things were supposedly working well.

And the officials contended that the report did not include a wide enough sampling.

However, a separate survey by the district of more than half the 11,000 teachers also found widespread concern about discipline. In the May survey, released yesterday, more than half the respondents said they did not think their schools were addressing discipline issues effectively or consistently."

So, their independent monitor was wrong for getting the exact same results the district did? The logic is breathtaking.

The union's even starting to get off its ass on this issue. Not quickly though, or particularly effectively. It makes me crazy after four years working with labor leaders and doing really radical labor solidarity work in college with people who were just incredibly well organized and mobilized (like the CIW) to actually be a part of a union whose members complain bitterly about conditions but who won't go to a damn meeting or vote in the elections. It could be doing so much more, and it would take so little to get people reinvested in it.

"In light of the attack on Burd, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers yesterday sent an e-mail urging its 18,000 members to participate in an online poll on school violence.

The Web survey was launched in September, but union officials said Burd's injuries had heightened concerns for safety in the schools.

"This may be one of the most dramatic and terrifying examples, but this is happening in big and small ways every day in schools," Goodman said."

An online poll... man that's some radical action... grrrrr.... anyway, if you are a Philadelphia teacher or know one, encourage them to take the poll and show up to the next union meeting (I believe it's March 15). This has gotten to a level that's beyond absurd, and there is obviously no one in the district who could care less about the teachers, and, by extension, the students, and the union needs to actually start being accountable to its members.

I hate adults some days... if the eighth graders can get organized, why can't we?