Good thing police can still use prone restraint even though teachers cannot because the violence occuring in PA schools is not going away anytime soon.
It seems a bit absurd that teachers — the first and front line of defense – are being precluded from protecting themselves and other students and are being forced to rely on outside and law enforcement assistance in order to maintain safety in the classroom.
This is reminiscent of a situation in Illinois where a group home facility could not maintain control of its residents and were calling the police for assistance every 3 days. To maintain order the police had to use a taser based on police protocols. So now, PA schools are hiring armed police and security officers because teachers are no longer being allowed to assert control over the classroom.
People’s Comments
Posted by jverlin 10:11 AM, 07/17/2009
Mr. Wagner, enough! I do not believe you. Your letter reads too much like a campaign promise. It doesn’t wash. Even in the fullness of time — the final arbiter of truth, it seems likely that it will amount to nothing more. The ends of the problem won’t change unless the means do and quickly. They begin with keeping the children who chronically disrupt out of mainstream schools while at the same time, aligning the intellectual and academic compasses of children who strive to do their very best. Simply put, this is the drama of education and the true nature of the business in which teachers and their students live and grow. Crazy bedizened spins by government bureaucrats will not avail and neither will the moral relativism of the liberal cabal. Both have run public education off the tracks and well neigh ruined it. Student behavior in the city’s most dangerous schools, veritable chambers of horror, misses the form as your writing and its emblematic ghouls of moral malaise miss the point. Stop selling teachers and principals short by celebrating the life which they know and love.
Posted by dim-5 11:26 AM, 07/17/2009
You’re wrong, Thoughtful. Violent incidence in schools are being hidden. Mr. Wagner’s letter is very misleading. This is a serious problem that everyone needs to address. To just sit back and basically accept a “we’re working on it” attitude won’t solve the problem. It really does take a village, however, no one seems to want to take on the HUGE responsibility to the children of Philadelphia. The kids who are being punished by Mr. Wagner’s “politics as usual” attitude are the good kids who are really bright. These are the kids who will be “left behind” unless someone with authority opens his/her eyes to the truth and helps.
Posted by Time4AChange 02:38 PM, 07/17/2009
Mr. Wagner, you don’t know Jack about school violence. Your letter sounds like nothing more than spindoctoring. Nothing has changed for the better in the Philadelphia Schools so I don’t know what schools you looked at. I dare you to sit down with Philadelphia teachers in a public forum. Let’s see if you can stomach the truth or if you’re just another sock puppet for state government. Why would you applaud Ackerman? She’s done nothing about the violence in our schools. If anything she’s made it worse with her racebaiting proclamations. Maybe when Jack Stollsteimer leaves you should think about packing your bags and tag along. Neither one of you has done jack about the violence in our schools. Maybe you can fool yourself, but you’re not fooling us.
Posted by Time4AChange 02:59 PM, 07/17/2009
. . .[V]iolence in our schools is deliberately covered up. I know because I’ve had it happen to me several times personally so it is not a huge “wive’s tale” or otherwise. Read the blogs for teachers throughout the USA: District 299, NAPTA, or the NYC teachers blog. It’s the same story of how violence is continually covered up and also used towards teachers that challenge the status quo. Violence in our schools is sometimes instigated by administrators who want to bully a teacher out of their school. Philadelphia principals fired? That will never happen because their union, CASA, protects them no matter what they do wrong. I know about that too. Maybe you can afford to be so naive about what is really going on in our schools because you haven’t had to work in any, but don’t belittle those of us who are trying to get the truth out. Did you not read about the safety report that Paul Vallas sat on because it told a different story than what the district wanted the public to believe? The woman that did the work on it is now a judge. Guess she was lying too?