"Incident Report" - Fight in class

In [Mrs. D's classroom], at about 1:00 p.m., I was helping a student with his creative writing composition while the rest of the class was supposed to be working on their own stories. Besides myself and the class, a substitute teacher and a City Year intern were in the room.

Suddenly I saw M. [an always stylish young man with an athletic physique and a spotty attendance record] shoving chairs out of the way. I went over to him to find out what was wrong, and he shouted past me, "Come on, let's do it, we've got plenty of room now." I looked behind me and A. [a known gang member, I've been told, who has yet to crack a book or notebook in this class as far as I can see] was at the other end of the room, taking off his jacket.

Several students went over to A. to try and calm him down, while I tried to prevent M. from getting any closer to A. - without success. They began fighting, and I attempted to get the rest of the class out of harm's way, telling several individuals to sit down and others to stay back. Everyone wanted to see what was happening, and all of my attempts to isolate the combatants failed. Within a few seconds, A. and M. had gone into the hall.

I stood in front of the classroom door to prevent anyone else from leaving the room, holding onto the door frame with outstretched hands and shouting at the students to remain inside. They crowded the doorway, and those in front began pushing me away from the door frame in order to get into the hall. I don't know who was pushing me, but it was gradual pressure from everyone at the door and possibly from those behind as well. I am not even sure the people who were pushing against me were actually trying to physically remove me, or if it was those behind them who were pushing, but everyone I could see was yelling at me to get out of the way so they could watch the fight.

As A. and M. continued to battle each other, with their arms locked around each others' necks, I tried again to get everyone into the room and was completely ignored. I tried to get past the students, who were now coming out of all the classrooms, in order to alert security - but the crowd was too thick. I ran for my cell phone and dialed 911, since there was still no sign of security. I got through to the police for a moment, but then the signal was cut off as it sometimes is in that hall. The boys were still fighting and some of the male teachers were trying to break them apart, so I tried one last time to get the class back into the room and was ignored once again.

There was an opening in the crowd, so I went down the hall and rounded the corner. At the far end of that hallway, past the cafeteria, I saw a lone security guard strolling in the direction of the fight. I shouted, "We've got a bad fight here, get everyone you can over here." His only reaction was to make a downward motion with his hands as if I was overreacting. I turned and went back into the hallway, where the fight was apparently still going on.

I slipped past the crowd and went into the room. One student was sitting there. Moments later, slowly but surely everyone else straggled in, elated by what they had witnessed. Several students expressed their anger at me for calling 911. I asked the class if anyone knew what had happened, and a few reported that A. had just been "playing with" M., but then it got serious. No one knew exactly what had been said.

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I was, of course, distraught. The principal came jauntily into the room a few moments later, and told everyone that A. and M. had been suspended for 10 days and were on their way to being expelled. He added thank-you's to students who regularly come to school in order to do their work, and ended by threatening anyone who mentioned the incident in class with a five-day suspension. He did not spare me or the substitute teacher so much as a glance. As I was leaving the building later on, I ran into him in the hallway and told him that I had tried to keep everyone in the room but they had pushed past me. He told me to file an incident report; I'll bring in what I've written above tomorrow.

Later on, I went to my evening class on literacy strategies. It's full of working teachers, and one of them suggested that I use my cell phone as a video camera instead of calling the police - which I hope I will have the presence of mind to do next time. I feel partly responsible for the whole thing because I didn't do what the textbooks say - I didn't de-escalate the situation, but rather escalated it by shouting at the students and blocking their way out with my body (although in my defense I would add that nothing less than shouting would have been heard by anyone except those students standing within several inches of me). But I have to admit that I still can't think of anything else I could have done to prevent the students from leaving the room - or, for that matter, to prevent the fight - and of course I'll never know whether videorecording them (or pretending to) would have helped either.

Fights in school

A few days ago Mrs. D and I were sitting in her classroom, which has a door leading out into the cafeteria.

We started hearing shouts on the other side. "Probably a fight," Mrs. D shrugged.

I started to get up, and she added, "I don't want them coming in here."

I sat back down.

The terrible thing is, I understood exactly what she meant. Police patrol the hallways, and we knew that they would be in the cafeteria in a matter of moments - even if those moments seemed terribly long to us as we listened. But had the fighters seen the open door and run into the classroom, many more people could have gotten hurt in those close quarters - including us.

Apparently what had happened was that one of Mrs. D's students, a powerfully-built 9th grade girl who is a known gang member, ran unprovoked to another student and began beating her and kicking her in the face. The one who was attacked was the girlfriend of another of Mrs. D's students. He spent the entire afternoon looking shellshocked, his head in his hands.

As I was leaving for the day a few hours later, I saw the gang member being escorted out the door by a security guard. He just let her walk out of the school on her own. "See you whenever," she drawled to the guard.

Later on I heard that a police officer had gone to her home and slapped her mother with a fine, but for some reason the girl couldn't be arrested despite her unprovoked assault in front of witnesses. She had been suspended for ten days. I can't imagine what will happen when she tries to get into Mrs. D's classroom and the boyfriend of the girl she attacked is waiting for her there.

Two days later there was another fight in the cafeteria - once again, between two girls. This time neither was in one of Mrs. D's classes. I couldn't resist this time, and opened the door. We saw security guards arrive and break up the fight.

When the students came back into the classroom after lunch, the principal walked in and read them the riot act. "I don't want anyone talking about what you saw in there and what's been happening at this school this week, unless you want a three-day suspension yourself. This is intolerable. I don't want to hear a word about it, not in MY school."

I was shocked and disappointed. How are the teachers supposed to guide the way the students are thinking about these incidents if merely mentioning them will lead to a three-day suspension? Does the principal think the kids won't talk about it as soon as the dismissal bell rings? This approach is as misguided as believing that a refusal on parents' part to talk about the birds and the bees with their kids is going to ensure that the children remain virgins until their wedding night.

But I shouldn't expect anything different from this administration. Mrs. D is always complaining that they schedule meetings with less than 24-hours' notice, don't let the teachers know what happens with their referrals, and most importantly, dole out harsher punishments for being caught in the hallways without a pass than for cursing out a teacher in the middle of the classroom. The ten-day suspension that the attacker received earlier in the week would have been the same if she had been without a pass; insulting the teacher gets an in-school detention.

The district also contributes to misbehavior, by treating the students like prison inmates. Police patrol the hallways. The district-wide "dress code" - no hoodies or hats, no patterned fabrics, no t-shirts or jeans, only khaki, black, blue or green shirts allowed - is overly restrictive and creates an atmosphere of stifled self-expression without the possibility for pride in the sense of belonging that a real school uniform might bring. It is the worst of both worlds.

At least the kids are beginning to show some interest in my writing prompts. Several of them liked one that I adapted from a University of Chicago program, which involved having them write a chase scene out of a movie. They are enjoying commenting on which details they're finding the most telling, and they are responding more. They're also beginning to work a little better with their partners. I'm beginning to have a tiny bit of hope that my own evaluation, when my professor comes to see how I'm doing as a teacher, won't be a complete and utter disaster because of misbehavior.