CMS Teachers Under Assault
Overall, CMS logged 1,298 reportable offenses for the 2008-09 school year, including 15 assaults resulting in serious injury; 17 assaults involving the use of a weapon; one bomb threat; three cases of burning of a school building; two kidnappings; one rape; 13 cases of robbery; nine sexual assaults; and five sexual offenses.
“That level of disruption, it doesn’t make our jobs any easier,” said Judy Kidd, president of the Classroom Teachers Association (CTA), whose members comprise about a quarter of the CMS teacher workforce. “A lot of it depends on the individual school, and some of them can feel like real battlefields.”
Indeed, the 169 assaults on school personnel represent an average of nearly one assault per day for the 180 days of the school year. And that’s just the reported offenses. In a growing number of cases, Kidd said, teachers are becoming increasingly leery of jumping into the fray, worried not only about their personal safety, but also about their professional careers.
“It’s a situation where teachers can, and often do, find themselves under scrutiny for trying to intervene,” said Kidd.
Recently one of her CTA members was put on administrative leave, she said, pending a review of a case where the teacher filed assault charges against a student. And during a spree of student-teacher altercations earlier this year at Martin Middle, parents in four cases accused teachers of being at fault. In each case, the teachers were cleared.
“You catch yourself wondering at what point does it become a risk to get involved. Where do you draw the line?” Kidd said. “These kids don’t seem to have any lines.”
A disturbing example occurred last September at Myers Park High, where a campus security guard had to be hospitalized with head injuries he suffered while breaking up a fight. Police arrested 17-year-old Angel Brown Vazquez, who was charged with assault inflicting serious injury, assault on a school employee, resisting an officer and carrying a concealed weapon. After the student was arrested, a homemade shank forged from a sharpened screwdriver was found in his book bag.
“Any violence in our classrooms is unacceptable,” said school board member Trent Merchant, “and I think we’re doing a better job dealing with the cases we have. I think one of the reasons some of those numbers are up is because we’ve been more intentional in our reporting.”
Incorporating the learning communities into the district’s tiered disciplinary model has also helped provide more consistency and immediacy in doling out responses to bad behavior, Merchant said.
“Safety is priority One; achievement is One-B,” he said. “You can’t have achievement without safety.”
Merchant said the high number of assaults on school personnel was troubling, but in some cases might be attributed to what, specifically, counts as an assault. In some cases, a simple bump or shove in the hallway can be reported as an assault, he said.
“That doesn’t excuse the behavior,” Merchant said, “but it’s a distinction that needs to be taken into consideration.”
Kidd said she’s heard that reasoning before, and doesn’t think most teachers buy it.
“A lot of times, those bumps, they’re deliberate shoves,” she said. “It’s a form of intimidation and a threat. The students know it and the teachers know it.”
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