Why does it feel like things are only going to get worse?

It has been over a week now since a teacher was beaten by one of her students, recorded via video phone, and then thrown into the national news spotlight. I cannot get this incident off of my mind. I am not sure which part of this whole affair bothers me most: the reactions of some of my colleagues or the feeling that things are only going to get worse before they begin to get better.

I first discovered the incident Thursday morning, waiting in line for my coffee at Daily Grind, scanning the headlines of the Baltimore Sun. To be honest, I wasn't really surprised. I personally know two other teachers who have been literally attacked by their students this year. I have heard numerous other similar stories. And I do not believe that this is a new phenomenon either. One of the teachers at my school transferred there after a gang of students threw notebooks and textbooks at him in the middle of the cafeteria of another city middle school. The administration did nothing in response. That was four years ago, and I am sure that his experience was not the first of its kind.

So, no, I was not surprised by the headline, "Teacher attacked by student." Based on other colleagues experiences over the past two years that I have taught in this city, I was not particularly surprised to further discover that the student witnesses did little to aide the teacher or that the principal accused the teacher of using a "trigger word," rather than simply coming to the victim's defense.

No, the real shock came when I was discussing this event with some of my colleagues, also teachers, who expressed a belief that either A: the teacher must have done something to merit this beating, or B: that she was wrong to go to the media because "what happens in Baltimore should stay in Baltimore," and this kind of negative attention will only make the world think less of our students. Unfortunately, it's this kind of thinking that has led us to this horrible state of affairs. The conduct of our students, and lack of reasonable consequences for student actions, has been kept private for far too long.

Look at the most recent Sun article on this topic, "Attack highlights 'chronic problem.'" The school year isn't over yet and already 112 students have been expelled for assaulting staff members. Based on the high number of incidents that go unreported, I believe that the number could actually far exceed 112.

Even more disturbing than these current numbers is the feeling that things may get worse before they get better. The worst thing that could happen for a student who assaults a staff person is that they would be arrested. According to the figures in the "Attacks highlight 'chronic problem'" article, less than half of the students who were expelled were actually arrested by school police. A less severe consequence is suspension; 515 students in Baltimore City were suspended for staff member assaults last year. Many student actions go completely unpunished. So what do all of these consequences (or lack of) teach our students? Based on the rising number of incidents I would venture to guess... not a whole lot.

I believe that our students are in desperate need of counseling services. Hundreds (thousands?) of our children and young adults never have any type of adult mentoring or therapeutic counseling, despite the fact that their young lives are in almost constant turmoil. As educators, most of us are doing the very best we can just to teach our students basic content and skills. We are so ill-equipped to give them the guidance, support, and perhaps even mental health care that they need. I have said previously in this post that I fear the current situation may only get worse because I have been led to believe that the number of counselors in city schools will be severely cut back next year. On top of that, special education students are far and away the primary recipients of counseling services, while they are by no means the only students in need.

In the midst of this rather hopeless train of thought, I do have one idea. There is a style of conferencing called "restorative justice" or "real justice" that puts perpetrators and victims face to face and forces perpetrators to take real responsibility for their actions. This type of conferencing has been used mainly in Australia and school systems that have implemented the methods of restorative justice have seen a 100% drop in their suspension rates. I know that many of you are already thinking that this wouldn't work in Baltimore City, but at this point, what do we have to lose?

Restorative justice can be "led" be teachers, uses many practices that are similar to counseling, and has had phenomenal success rates in the past. If you are at all interested in learning more, check out the book "Real Justice" by Ted Wachtel. We ARE the "movers and shakers" in the city and we have to do something before the situation gets worse, because our kids deserve better.