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Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
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opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
School Must Protect Students, Neighbors
A public school should be a safe place for learning. It should not be a breeding ground for violence that spills into surrounding neighborhoods.
The Academy of Trades and Technology on Yale SE near Gibson was starting to look like the latter, and neighbors are rightly outraged.
The charter school recently was the site of a fight involving about 20 students that included the firing of a gunshot into the air. It's not an isolated incident. Police and firefighters have been called to the school 43 times in the past year, three times for a fight in progress and six times because of a "disturbance."
Not all of the students exhibit such thuggish behavior — some helped renovate a synagogue and did other community service. The school made Adequate Yearly Progress in math and reading last year, but that's been inside the classrooms. The problems are arising outside the school.
"Students are actually mad-dogging neighbors and, for that matter, getting in their cars, going up the streets and disrupting the neighborhood," says the city's chief public safety officer, Pete Dinelli.
Neighbors' concerns go beyond "not in my backyard." Getting a public education on the taxpayers' dime may be considered a "right," but, in fact, disruptive students who refuse to follow the rules can, and should, be kicked out — permanently.
Dinelli offered some solutions — close the campus, add security, extend fences, adopt a dress code, most of which the school on Friday agreed to do. In return, the city agreed not to take action against the school for at least the next three months. The city had threatened to shut it down as a "nuisance."
An official with the New Mexico Coalition for Charter Schools had expressed fear that if the school were to be closed most of the students would likely drop out. "We can't lose these kids," said Lisa Grover.
While no one wants to see any kid drop out, there's a limit to what should be put up with by both the school and its neighbors.
The academy has been given a chance to fix itself. Along with the stricter campus standards, it needs to enforce a zero tolerance, no excuses policy for violence.
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