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9486 in the collection
Disorder in a Merged D.C. School: Teachers Alleging Attacks by Youths Find Themselves Scrutinized
Ohanian Comment: One
can't presume to comment on this school without
first spending some time there. In my teaching
days I regarded referring a student to the
office as the last resort of the incompetent,
but I also regard class sizes of 35 as
irresponsible. And the book-throwing incidents
described at the end of this article are
disturbing. If I were in charge of this world,
I would change the curriculum--dramatically and
drastically. With just 260 students in the
academy, a lot is possible. For starters, they
need to personalize it.
Also disturbing is teachers blaming students
and administrators blaming teachers. People
need to look in the mirror.
A fledgling teacher with expertise in Virginia
Woolf needs more help than a $100 reward for
students who rat on their disruptive peers.
When I entered teaching with an MA in medieval
literature, my department chair came in once a
week and observed. Then we talked about what he
saw--and he gave me little practical tips of
what I could do to reduce chaos. These were
organizational/procedure things, and they made
a bit difference. He himself taught a very
"difficult" class and periodically, he'd get
someone to take over my class so I could go
observe his. He also had my observe the class
of a teacher who was just a little more
experienced than I, helping me see that
teaching expertise is developmental. One
improves gradually--if one has help and good
models.
I am forever grateful to this man.
In those days, teachers got grades. He awarded
me a "C," which I considered a gift. He wrote
that I responded well to practical suggestions
and one day would be an excellent teacher--
because I had the essential quality already--a
good heart, reaching out to students with
problems.
I like to think that somewhere in the vaults of
teacher evaluations in New York City there
exists a piece of paper that says a good heart
counts for something.
By Bill Turque
Woodson Academy teacher William Pow had just
finished writing on the blackboard one January
afternoon, he said, when he turned to face his
algebra class and saw the textbook "Mathematics
in Life" hurtling toward his head.
He ducked, he said, but it caught him in the
neck and shoulder. His colleagues at Woodson
have not been as lucky. English teacher Randy
Brown said he was hit just above the left ear
by a book thrown by a student last month. He
was treated for a concussion and said he has
since suffered from headaches and nausea.
"They think it's a game to hit people in the
head," said Brown, who, like Pow, has not
returned to school.
They say the 260-student ninth-grade academy,
housed at Ronald H. Brown Middle School in
Northeast Washington while a new Woodson High
is under construction, is overcrowded and
dangerous. Brown and Pow count five other
teachers or administrators who they said have
been attacked this academic year, including one
who was pelted by textbooks and another pinned
to a desktop and choked. Other teachers, Brown
and Pow said, are routinely subjected to verbal
threats of violence.
Pow's and Brown's claims about safety and
discipline issues are the kind that have long
been a source of tension between D.C. teachers
and school officials. They involve classroom
and hallway incidents in which staff witnesses
are often rare and available accounts are
frequently contradictory. It is hard to confirm
all of the teachers' allegations and determine
whether conditions at Woodson are better or
worse than at other D.C. schools. But the fact
that Pow and Brown are willing to go public
provides an unusual window into the problems
facing teachers and staff at the academy.
By the teachers' account, students at Woodson
are high school freshmen stuck in a middle
school, angry at their overcrowded classes and
who take that anger out in the classroom.
Principal Darrin Slade said he knew of three
student assaults on staff members this year. He
said the teachers were distorting the situation
to deflect attention from their own
professional shortcomings.
"These are disgruntled teachers in the process
of being terminated," he said. "We have one of
the safest ninth-grade programs in the city."
Pow acknowledged that Slade has placed him on
the "90-day plan," an intervention program
requiring teachers to eliminate deficiencies or
face dismissal. Brown said he is not on the
plan.
Two other Woodson Academy teachers who said
they were assaulted also agreed to discuss
their experiences with The Washington
Post, but they asked for anonymity because
they feared losing their jobs if they spoke
negatively to the media about D.C. schools.
Teachers who complain or eject too many
students say they are tagged as weak in
"classroom management" by administrators
determined to keep a lid on behavior issues.
Slade wrote in his guide to teachers that any
instructor who refers students to his office
every day "will risk placement on some type of
improvement plan," a probationary status such
as the 90-day plan.
Erich Martel, a member of the executive board
of the Washington Teachers' Union and a social
studies teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School,
said at a D.C. Council hearing Wednesday that
the situation at Woodson was "an example of
blaming teachers for student violence."
"Instead of acknowledging the extent of this
problem, DCPS officials ignore and cover it
up," he said.
There are no reliable statistics on attacks
against teachers. D.C. police and school
officials say they don't break down data on
school crime victims to differentiate between
students and staff. Washington Teachers' Union
officials said the anecdotal evidence is
persistent and alarming. They said that they
encourage teachers to report attacks to the
police but that instructors are often pressured
by administrators to remain silent. Some quit
instead, they said.
D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said
several incidents at Woodson are under
investigation but declined to comment further.
Slade, a former Baltimore school administrator
who was retained by Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee
last year as she was turning over a significant
portion of the principal corps, said he and his
team are constantly patrolling the hallways and
stand ready to assist any instructor who needs
help. But he said teachers are also expected to
pursue other steps before ejection, including
calling parents and employing "various behavior
modification strategies." He also offers cash
rewards, as much as $100, to students who
provide information about crimes and rules
infractions, saying it has made the school
safer and helped break through street culture
taboos against "snitching."
"This is done to support teachers," Slade said,
adding that the money comes out of his own
pocket. He declined to say how much he has
spent this school year.
Lack of space for unruly students is one of the
reasons administrators discourage frequent
ejections. The District is revising the school
disciplinary code with an eye toward providing
more alternative settings for those students.
Teachers said crowding at the school has also
fueled behavior problems. February attendance
records show that enrollment in math and
English classes at the academy averages 35
students, exceeding the contract-established
limit of 25. (That cap can be broken for space
or staff shortage reasons.) Slade said the
records are not correct.
"They're smart. They're not dumb kids. But
they're angry because they are 40 to a class,
which is totally disrespectful to them," said
Brown, a fiftyish, soft-spoken former sculptor
whose master's thesis at Howard University was
on Virginia Woolf's novel "The Waves." This is
his first year in D.C. schools, and he
acknowledges that establishing control in his
classroom has been a struggle.
Colleagues of Brown and Pow's, while not
excusing the attacks, said disorder in the
classroom comes from the failures to build a
foundation of trust, consistent daily routine
and lesson plans that keep students busy and
engaged.
"You don't have books flying around in my
room," said Brandi Drummonds, a ninth-grade
history teacher who remembers counseling Brown
on lesson plans to keep students focused. "You
have to create a plan and stick with it."
Pow, 53, came to teaching several years ago in
Fairfax County after a long career in IT. "I
want [Woodson] to be a safe place to work so
that I can do my job there," he said. "When
Mayor Fenty took over the school system and
hired Michelle Rhee, and I read what those two
were saying, I decided I wanted to be a part of
that."
Another teacher, a 35-year veteran of the D.C.
school system, said a student was suspended for
just one day after shoving her into a desk. "I
ended up going to the doctor the next day with
black-and-blue bruises on my thigh. There's no
real discipline at the school and no
consequences for bad behavior," she said.
Brown thought he'd been making progress
throughout the fall term, which he began with
portions of "The Odyssey." He said he forged a
series of small connections, visiting at homes
with the parents of disruptive students,
something that Slade urged all his teachers to
do.
"They have to know that you're not weak and
that you're not there to belittle them," he
said. "One-on-one is crucial."
But when students came back after Christmas
break, Brown said, they were "crazy and never
settled down."
On Feb. 11, he said, he was trying to move
students back into class after a fight started
in the room across the hall. In the confusion,
he felt a book -- a dictionary -- land on his
leg, thrown by a girl he'd argued with earlier
for singing a raunchy song in the middle of
class.
Brown said he kicked the book out of the way
toward another girl he thought was
"reasonable." An instant later, he said, he was
struck in the head.
Brown named the girl who he was certain threw
the book. But Slade's investigation turned up a
boy. Brown said he had the wrong person. No
disciplinary action was taken.
Another English teacher, with 16 years in
District schools, said she was assaulted Feb.
9. When a dictionary thrown by a student
knocked papers off her desk, she bent down to
pick them up. As she stood up, another book hit
her "right in the face," followed by three
other books in the shoulder, neck and back.
She went to the nurse's office for ice and then
left. Slade said a student was expelled as a
result of the incident.
"It was one of the worst things I ever
experienced," the teacher said.
She has not returned to Woodson Academy.
— Bill Turque
Washington Post
2009-03-13
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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