Baltimore, MD
Jeff Slattery, a teacher at Baltimore Community High School, was brutally assaulted by a student, causing him to have his jaw wired shut for six weeks. The Baltimore Sun conducted a records check of workman's compensation claims and found that nearly 300 claims were filed by school employees because of injuries received through assaults or altercations on the job.
Mr. Slattery believes a "culture of silence" exists in which school administrators do not report attacks, fearing a designation of "persistently dangerous school" which would result in negative consequences for the school.
Analysis
As a school administrator, I am always leary of such a claim. Reporting a violent act, or even several violent acts, will not label a school as "persistently dangerous". Repeated acts without positive action on the school's part will. Schools are extensions of their communities. If the school is located in a violent community, then it logically follows that violence may appear in the school. The question is not whether violence appears in a school, but rather what steps has the school taken to prevent, mitigate, prepare, respond and recover from violence?
Edmund Burke once said, "In order for evil to flourish, all that is required is for good men to do nothing." In regards to violence in schools, truer words were ne'er spoken. As a person who works daily in the protection of children and those who teach them, I cannot, in good conscience, turn a blind eye to any evil done toward those in my care, neither can anyone else whose job is the protection of others.
In Staying Alive, we write about denial, a powerful negative drive to ignore the negative. We have to overcome denial and face reality, or reality will force itself onto us.
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