An Unpleasant Thought

I got a bit derailed last time.  The question my professor posted on my most recent post was “what does this have to do with student experience outside of class?”  Well, to be honest, not much. I had in mind that teaching a book like Lord of the Flies would give me a perfect lead-in to discuss gangs in class, which connects it to the student experience outside of class from my first few posts.  So it made sense in my head as a topic, but it didn’t fit with my chronology, having departed from the topic of gangs. For a moment, this blog turned into my “thoughts about education” and lost the focus of 90 vs. 1350 minutes.  I apologize for the digression. (Although I still think it’s useful and hope it was edifying.)

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I’m going to cover one of the other topics I promised to address in my first blog: child abuse. This is a tragic topic, but one that I want to be prepared for when I become a teacher.  I’ll share with you a bit of information that I received a few years ago that gave me great relief.

If a student is being abused, it is NOT your responsibility to save that child.

Let me clarify, and I’ll start by identifying my source.

As part of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program, I spent a week as a guest of Cleveland County Schools.  I toured schools, met administrators, observed classes, even got a sneak peek at the bus garage.  One of our meetings was with a school counselor.  The counselor explained to us where the responsibilities of a teach end and the responsibilities of a counselor begin. I was relieved to hear what she had to say.

Teachers are in a unique position because they interact with students most frequently in the school setting, and stand the most chance of finding out if something is wrong at home.  And they are legally obligated to report any whisperings they have of domestic violence.  It’s a misdemeanor if a teacher does NOT report it.  However, that is where the teacher obligation ends.

I want to be careful as I say that.  That doesn’t mean involvement ends, but the legal steps that need to be taken to place the child in a safe environment are not the responsibility of the teacher.

Now, the teacher will have some responsibility in reporting their findings, and may have to remain involved if there are subsequent legal proceedings.  Just a few tips:

• Document everything.  Every conversation with the student, every conversation with the parent.  For the sake of the child and yourself, you need a paper trail that will CYA (Cover Your “Butt” in the case of legal proceedings.
• Bring someone else in on it.  Now, don’t go gossiping to other teachers, but confide in a school counselor or administrator so that you have some accountability with a person of authority.  It’s likely they will be able to assist you and the child in confirming the suspicion, getting more information, and then they will have the necessary background to get the student the help they need.
• Keep in touch with the child.  Since the proceedings to find a safe home for the child will not end with you, it’s imperative that you remain a trusted adult in their lives.  My own speculation tells me that a child who has lived with abuse into their high school years has learned to cope.  While it may be a great relief to be removed from that situation, it must be traumatic as well.  Demonstrate understanding as the student copes with the results of the necessary changes.  Don’t compromise your expectations, but be supportive.

I found this PowerPoint to be a helpful starting place in thinking about this issue.  I also found a report from the National Education Association that goes into great detail about the process of reporting child abuse and the process from there on out.

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Let me just say that, even though the class for which this blog was assigned is coming to an end, I fully intend to continue to use the blog as a place to write about my teaching experiences, reflect on assignments, student experiences, and anything else that will affect the 90 minutes I have with my students.

Let me leave you with a little math: 90 minutes x 180 days = 16,200 minutes

That’s 16,200 minutes that we teachers have to make a difference in our students’ lives.  The challenge is before us.  Let’s go!

Lord of the Flies

I think the English discipline leaves a lot of room for teachers to explore students’ personal issues and still remain within the curriculum. I want to be a teacher who sticks to the standard course of study; gives students the tools they need to make it, not just in school, but in the real world; and who makes learning relevant to their lives. All good goals, right? I want to take some time today to explore what that might look like in the classroom.

The objectives for English I in the NC Standard Course of Study are as follows:

• Express reflections and reactions to literature and to personal experience.

• Explain meaning, describe processes, and answer research questions.

• Evaluate communication and critique texts.

• Make and support an informed opinion.

• Participate in conversations about and written analysis of literary genres, elements, and traditions.

• Use knowledge of language and standard grammatical conventions

What might these look like in the classroom? Well I just finished reading Lord of the Flies, one of the books I’ll read with my students and mentor teacher in English I this year. I want to explore what teaching this book might look like in the classroom in accordance with these standards, highlighting the relevance to their own lives.

In order to “express reflections and reactions,” students can writer journal entries that address ideas and themes within the book and apply them to their own lives. For example, one prompt might read, “Imagine that you woke up today and couldn’t find your parents. You were confused, but you went to school anyway and when you got there, realized that there weren’t any teachers. You and your classmates were confused, so you called the police station, but there was no answer. It appears that all of the adults have disappeared. What do you do? How will you spend your time? How will you eat? How will the other students at your school react?”

In order to “explain meaning, describe processes, and answer research questions,” students can explore issues of civilization. What is a civilization? How are civilizations formed? What examples in history inform the creation of a civilization? What does this look like in a microcosm?  What civilization is created at school?  How do students know their role in that civilization?  What laws rule the community?  A clip from Mean Girls might be appropriate at this point, highlighting the self-imposed social structure that students may recognize in their own high school. The first part of this clip illustrates it perfectly (I don’t now what’s going on with the “Futurama theme” thing).

In order to “evaluate communication and critique texts,” students will examine Lord of the Flies as a novel, taking into consideration the setting, characters, and conflict. What is it about the setting that makes it a good location to explore the theme of “civilization?” Do the characters’ responses reflect what the reader might expect? Why or why not? What conflicts do the characters face? Is the resolution realistic? How might this story look different if it were to play out in a city, or if they were all girls on the island? How might the story be different if it was adapted to a dramatic genre?

In order to “make and support an informed opinion,” students will explore Golding’s opinion of civilization. What is Golding’s perspective? Does he value civilization? What reasons does he give in favor of civilization? What reasons against civilization? What in Golding’s background might have influenced his opinion of civilization and social organization?

In order to “participate in conversations about genres, elements and traditions,” students will adapt the storyline, character behavior, and themes to other genres, examining the difference in effectiveness between genres. What does one genre accomplish that another does not? What does one storyline communicate that another does not? How does a character behave in a particular situation that may change with a change of setting?

In order to “use knowledge of language and grammar,” the student will write from various points of view. One piece will be written from the point of view of a character exploring the story and themes, another as a historian examining the development of their civilization, a third as a literary critic examining Golding’s effectiveness in communicating the value of civilization.

The added value of using Lord of the Flies allows students to examine group mentalities; the situations that make individuals vulnerable so that they turn to strong characters in their community. Exploration of these issues may correlate nicely with any encounters they have with gangs. The boys split into two groups on the island, commit allegiance to two different leaders, and then the tension between groups escalates to the point of death. The consequences are serious. This isn’t just a game played amongst 12-year-old boys.

Examining the characters, the story, the themes, the author’s perspective, and their own response may lead students to reflect on the groups in their lives; to explore their own commitment to groups. Students may discover why they are drawn to group membership, the consequences of becoming a follower rather than a leader, and the wisdom in being thoughtful, deliberate, and discerning.

The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers…

…is Tiggers are Wonderful Things.

I just read this blog about building hope and optimism. This post lists several factors that have been predictors of resiliency for high-risk children as they grow into accomplished adults.

Resilience. The ability to bounce back (thus the Tigger reference). That’s a word I’ve heard in courses and conferences in the past, but I haven’t thought about it in a long time. In talking about influences outside of my classroom that affect my students’ learning, I never thought about their past experiences in school. I mean, I thought about them in a social context – that having been inducted into a gang as a freshman will impact their behavior as a junior. But for the purposes of this blog, I had yet to think about the fact that students who have struggled in school all their lives expect to continue to struggle.

What battle is it that needs to be fought here? We’ve been talking in my educational psychology class about self-efficacy, a student believing in their ability to accomplish something if they work hard. This is a battle between brains and work ethic, between natural talent and diligence.

Students who have failed in the past may fall into the habit of believing that they are dumb. They may believe that school is just too hard. They may believe that they’ll never amount to anything more than a fast food employee or a janitor, because those skills don’t require thinking.They would be wrong on all counts.

I’ve been challenged to be explicit in stating that since I believe some students are naturally bright (intellectually), others must be naturally dull. It’s not something that I like to articulate, but it is the logical conclusion of my presuppositions. What I need to address with my students is this idea of fixed intelligence: the assumption that you’re either smart or your not and there’s nothing you can do about it. I need to encourage my students to take an incremental view of intelligence, to believe that they can become smarter, and that they can have success in school.

Great. Another “pie in the sky” hope. What can I actually do about this? How can I change my kids’ views of their ability to succeed?

• Have your students write goals for themselves at the beginning of the year. We did this exercise in my educational psychology class using SMART goals. Students not only need to articulate their goals, but they need to be encouraged to follow through. They need to devise a plan of action to achieve those goals. For example, if a student wants to get a better grade on a paper, there are several things they can do. They may meet with the teacher to discuss their topic and a plan for writing. Or they may get feedback from several readers, including students in class, a parent or caregiver, a worker at an after school program, or another teacher.

• Give students assignments that will enable them to succeed. Not at the expense of a challenge, give students reasonable assignments. Give them adequate instruction and guidance in class so that they can feel confident approaching the task.

• Give students the opportunity to revisit their work. One draft of a paper may not be adequate work for their grade level, but with constructive feedback and a plan of action, they can revise the paper to reflect what they have learned about a topic, about voice, and about the mechanics of writing. Use the draft as a formative, rather than summative, assessment.

• Dare I say it? Make the work less academic. Students have been trained to believe that they have to write everything as a 5-paragraph essay. Let students write letters, biographies, stories, news articles, resumes, dramas, travel journals, etc. Literacy takes many forms in this 21st century. Give students the opportunity to demonstrate their literacy in something other than academic writing. (Just as an example – sorry this is so heavy on the English today.)

There’s a lot that students need to learn in school. But the most important thing we can teach an at-risk student is that they are not bound by their past. Just because they’ve failed in school to this point does not mean that they must fail again. Promote resiliency, and help students resist the urge to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Takin’ Care of Business

I wanted to find a song that had to do with work, and unfortunately the first one that came to mind was “She Works Hard for the Money.”  I didn’t think that would be the best song to use as I think about the jobs my students will have after school…

I never worked growing up.  My first job was the summer after my Senior year of high school.  My parents believed firmly that my job was to be a student, and my academics should receive all of my attention.  As a result, money was tight, but we lived comfortably.  I feel even worse not working now that my expenses have increased, once you add the car, gas, friends, and other things that I didn’t have in high school.

I think I need to deal with the reality now that many of my students will have jobs outside of school.  They may bag groceries, they may mow lawns, they may provide childcare, they may manage the drive thru, or any number of other things.

Some students may work because their parents (caregiver, whoever is responsible for them) insist that they provide their own spending money for movie tickets and dinner out and whatever else.  Other students may work because their parents don’t make enough to support the whole family.  I think we need to brace ourselves for the reality that some of our students work to put food on the table for their younger siblings.

What does this have to do with the 90 minutes they spend in my class?

Well, for one thing, they may be tired when they get to class the next day.  If they work 4-10 on a weeknight and then go home and do their homework, they may be staying up too late to really be productive during the school day.  Is it worth assigning homework if our students lose sleep over it?

My older brother teaches in Winston-Salem.  It’s his policy not to give homework.  Ever.  All the work his students do, they do during class time.

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this policy.  I love the idea of never giving homework.  Not because the students will love any teacher that doesn’t give homework, but because it reduces the risk of busy work, it takes the pressure off for those kids who are working who don’t have time to complete it, it doesn’t give the troublemakers the chance to slow the class down by blowing it off, and it gives students less chance to complain.

But these arguments aren’t convincing enough for me, yet.  I just cannot picture an English class where homework is not assigned.  How can they possible have enough time to read an entire novel in class?  Not to mention write papers.  (Of course I mentioned the two most mundane activities associate with English classes, but you get my point.)  I believe that it will be best for me to start most of these assignments during class: have students start with an outline, start writing the rough draft, read the first 10 pages of a book, etc.  But I think the time constraints are such that they’ll need to do work outside of class too.

Then what’s fair to expect?  I don’t want to penalize a student who has to work to help their family for not completing a homework assignment, either through a poor grade or by letting them fall behind the rest of the class in their work.  But I also think that it’s reasonable to expect students to do some amount of work outside school.

I think understanding the reality of how students may be forced to spend their time outside of school should make teachers think about the quality of the work they assign.  Rather than assigning 100 math problems to complete in 1 night, perhaps the practice from 20 problems at varying levels of difficulty will give students sufficient practice and reveal need for improvement.  Perhaps 100 pages of reading will frustrate a student and they’ll give up.  Filling out a study guide of 20 questions might also be a waste of time.  If I need to assess whether or not students are reading, I need to do so with purpose, to help students uncover the meaning of the text.

The most tempting option for me right now comes from an ongoing discussion I’ve been having about reading.  With my cohort of English teachers, we’ve been talking about not only teaching how to read, but developing lifelong readers.  I want students to pick up a book for pleasure.  At this point, the most appealing assignment is to require that students to read a book of their choice for 30 minutes every night.  I should have a diverse library of books in my room, they should use the school library, and I should make them familiar with the public library so that they can have a world of literature at their disposal.  And perhaps by introducing them to the routine of reading, I will develop a lifelong reader.

I hope that teachers will consider the lives of their students outside of class and the quality of the work they assign.  An engaging lesson should motivate a child even if they are feeling tired from longs hours at school and work.  A meaningful homework assignment does not have to take a long time, and should be an equally engaging experience.  Beware busywork.  Beware boredom.  Beware the banausic.

Love is in the Air

I’m going to take a brief hiatus from my series of blogs about gangs.  I’ve gotten in touch with a local law enforcement officer and a North Carolina gang specialist.  I’m still working on an actual interview with both of them.  Once I’ve had the chance to pick their brains, I’ll relay more information to y’all.

For now, I want to return to the original purpose of this blog, which was (do you remember?) to explore several aspects of students’ lives outside the classroom that may affect their performance in the classroom.  Today, I want to talk about relationships.

It seems that teenagers are constantly coming up with new phrases that mean “dating.”  What once was “going steady” is now “going out,” even if they don’t actually see each other outside of school.  “We’re talking” can even be an indication that two people are interested and exploring a commitment to each other.

But wait…commitment?  What does commitment look like for a 16-year-old?  They’re not settling down, buying a house with a picket fence, raising a family, growing old together.  They talk to each other in the hallways.  She goes to all of his soccer games in the fall, and he goes to all of hers in the spring.  He takes her to the Homecoming dance and to prom.

These all seem relatively trivial, right?  May I remind all of those jaded lovers what it was like to be young?  To be in love?

High School relationships may not be as serious as marriage, but to a high school student, they are the world.  Of course, the hormones that kicked in during middle school are still raging.  Every new class period is a chance to check a guy or girl out.  Everyone you meet in the hall has potential.  And when you’ve found someone, they’re yours.  You belong together.  You’re going out.

What exactly will this have to do with a teacher’s classroom? While I don’t expect that this will happen in any of your classrooms, there are reasons for teachers to be aware of their students’ relationships.

For many students, not much actual “dating” happens outside of school, which means the interaction happens in the halls and during class.  Beware couples in your classroom.  Students may choose assigned seats based on who they’re going out with.  Or they may form a relationship after the school year has begun.

Trick of the trade: switch up the seating assignments at every quarter break.  Not only will it give the room a fresh new look, it’ll give you the chance to rearrange students after you’ve identified potential problems and distractions.

Be aware, too, that just as students are starting relationships, students are also ending them.  In my Senior English class, one couple chose seats next to each other at the beginning of the year, having already dated for awhile, and were quite happy to be so close.  However, after something went awry in the relationship, they were still stuck sitting next to each other.  I remember hearing about it in the hall that morning “P and J broke up!” and then watching the two of them enter the classroom, wondering if one would be bold enough to change seats.  But neither did.  They just didn’t speak to each other for the rest of the year.  An unfortunate and awkward circumstance for the classroom.

I don’t bring up this example so that you’ll reassign seats every time somebody gets together or breaks up (although I’m still a proponent of the quarter break switch-a-roo).  I want to remind teachers now- we are all human!  Just as we will have our bad days, our students will have bad days.  We need to know our students well enough to know if it’s a bad day.  To know if something’s really happened and we should cut them some slack, to know not to push emotional buttons, and to know that their attention may be elsewhere for a period.

At the same time, we need to encourage our students to push through the heartache.  It’s a life lesson.  Life goes on, and they need to keep up with it.  A day of grief may be reasonable.  A week of inattention and moping may be excessive.  (Remember, we’re still talking about moping over a break-up, not some other extenuating circumstance.)

Teachers should keep an ear open to keep track of these relationships.  It’s helpful to know, not so that you can embarrass a student during class, but so that you can keep track of those external influences and safeguard your classroom when they may become distracting.

Out to Dry, Up a Creek, Pipeline to Prison

After learning about the situation of gangs in Durham, I want to know about gangs in Durham Public Schools.  What are the measures for dealing with problem behaviors, particularly those that are gang-related.  Here’s a summary of my limited knowledge of school discipline.

Out to Dry

• Detentions are usually the most basic punishment.  “Stay inside rather than sitting with your friends at lunch,” or “Stay 30 minutes after school and clean my white boards.  This is more of an annoyance for students than anything else.  For some, it may be a deterrent from future misbehaviors, but for others it doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Up a Creek

• In-school suspensions remove students from their regular classrooms, but usually this consists of moving them to a much smaller room where they sit at a cubicle and do busy work for days at a time.  Theoretically, this is keeping them from causing disturbances in class, and maintaining their presence in the school, but it’s really just a waste of time.

Pipeline to Prison

• Expulsion is the total removal of a student from the school.  Expelled students are not allowed to return on campus (til the end of the year? Or ever?).  Their behavior has caused enough trouble for teachers and students alike that learning has been disrupted, their presence may be dangerous, and so they must be removed from the “safe school” environment.  While I understand the need to remove students from a classroom, this seems idiotic to me.  If the studies clearly show that a disassociation from school puts students more at-risk of joining a gang, and certainly more at risk of acting up regardless of affiliation, then we are doing a disservice to these students to expel them.  I understand that they cannot remain in the classroom, but there must be an alternative to sending them out into the streets.

• Ironically enough, the disciplinary format that seems most effective to me is called an “alternative school.”  Alternative schools (like Lakeview School in DPS), is a school for students who have been suspended for 10 days or more.  Those students attend this school, which is characterized by a rigid classroom setting, a staff who enforces rules, standards, structure, and discipline, and ongoing education beyond doing worksheets.  The alternative schools that I am familiar with implement programs to encourage students to articulate goals, both academic and behavioral, to set high standards for themselves.  These schools enforce discipline, both on the classroom and personal levels.

It seems to me that ISS programs need to take a hint from the alternative school format.  Students shouldn’t just sit in a cubicle all day.  They should be instructed.  They should be forced to reflect on the consequences of their actions.  They should impose structure on the lives of those students for however long they remain in ISS, such that the discipline will carry over into the classroom upon their release.  (I know how it sounds; I’m keeping it on purpose.)

In addition, programs like the alternative school should be made available for those students whose behaviors have merited expulsion.  By removing these students from school, we place them out on the streets without any accountability.  It just seems to me that it’d be easier for law enforcement to keep an eye on them if they had to attend an alternative program.  Maybe something even as rigid as a boot camp.

1 Hot Meal

As long as our students are legally obligated to attend school, the schools should have a legal obligation to carry out their education.  It wouldn’t be an easy job.  It could, in fact, be quite dangerous.  But cutting our students off from school, perhaps from the only hot meal they can afford to eat all day, we do our youth a disservice.  These students should be held accountable for their actions, just as we the educators should be accountable for ours.

Too Cool for School

3.  For the Sake of Durham youth, a concentrated effort needs to be made to deal with the gang problem.

Durham “has recently received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, shared with Raleigh, to address gang problems.” I’d say it’s time to do something. The thing about the Comprehensive Gang Assessment is that it divides its attention between so many organizations that have a hand in lives of gang-member at-risk and participating students. DPD, DCOS, SROs, DPS, PBS, GREAT, JJD, ETC. It’s hard to keep track of everyone’s particular responsibilities.   I want to clarify the role of teachers in all this.

School Resources Officers (SROs) and Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) Officers were surveyed as to the safety of Durham Public Schools (DPS). Here is a glimpse of those results.

Among officers assigned to high schools
Many students are gang members	22%
Some students are gang members	67%
Few students are gang members	11%
Very few students are gang members	0%
Among officers assigned to middle schools
Many students are gang members	17%
Some students are gang members	67%
Few students are gang members	17%
Very few students are gang members	0%
Many students admire gangs	67%
School does not tolerate gang-related behavior	83%
Among officers assigned to elementary schools
Many students are gang members	0%
Some or few students are gang members	66%
Very few students are gang members	33%
Among all officers
Gang problems are worsening in schools	64%
Gangs are down-played in schools	81%
Gang problems are exaggerated	5%
Parents are naïve or unaware of signs of gangs	86%
Students join gangs at age 13 or younger	86%
More in-school suspension options are needed	73%
More community-based programs are needed	77%

SROs and GREAT officers agree, gangs are a problem in school. The fact that the gang issue is downplayed and that parents are naïve demonstrates that the first step to addressing the gang problem is creating awareness. Well, you’re reading, so step 1 is accomplished. Where do we go from here?

I established last time that school, family, and individual problems are the three categories of issues that plague at-risk students and gang members. Connection to the school seems like the problem teachers are most able to address. Take these into consideration:

• In cooperation with the Durham Police Department (DPD), a Truancy Hotline was created so that community members could report students skipping school.
• High suspension, expulsion and dropout rates leave kids disconnected from school and susceptible to look elsewhere for validation.
• Zero Tolerance policies were intended to prevent school crime and violence (particularly as a reaction to the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999). However, Zero Tolerance has resulted in an increase in suspensions and expulsions, which puts kids at greater risk of becoming involved in a gang.
• Students are at a higher risk during transitional periods in school, so from 5th to 6th grade and 8th to 9th grade.
• Suspensions are (perhaps inadvertently) racially biased. More African Americans are suspended than any other group.

I was telling a friend about my blog, the topics I wanted to cover, and she said, “They’re all so negative, are you gonna talk about anything positive that happens outside of school?” My initial answer was, “No. Not with this blog.” Then I realized, “Some of these solutions are positive activities outside of school.”

Studies have shown a correlation between students who are involved in extracurricular activities and success in school. How can we capitalize on this theory? How can we get students involved and “keep them off the streets and out of trouble?”

Solutions to keep students connected include:

• Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Program (PBS)
• Main solution to problems with troubled and trouble-making students – fundamentally a prevention program
• Compilation of effective practices, interventions

Primary prevention – involves all students and adults in the school – reach 80% of students

Secondary prevention – reaches students who have learning behavior of life histories that put them at risk for problem behavior – 15-20% of students

Tertiary prevention – reaches students who have serious and/or chromic problem behavior (5%) o PBS cannot be expected to make the change that will reduce suspension, dropout, and truancy rates

• Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) – school-based gang prevention curriculum – 13-week course for boys and girls taught by uniformed law enforcement officers Community Efforts to Combat Gangs

Appendix 1 of the Comprehensive Gang Assessment describes more than 20 programs that target at-risk youth, from after-school to evening to in-school programs. I’ll review a few that are mentioned elsewhere in the CGA.

• Project Safe Neighborhoods – DPD, NCCU, and Durham Parks and Rec provide mentoring and after-school activities for at-risk youth
• Targeted Gang Outreach – Boys and Girls Club program that works with at-risk youths. Four objectives: community mobilization, recruitment, mainstreaming/programming, and case management
• Programs like the Freshman Academy at Jordan may be helpful in easing the transition from middle to high school. The additional support may reduce the likelihood of their joining a gang.

The recommendations given in the Comprehensive Gang Assessment are:

• Assess and prioritize specific schools for gang violence
• Reduce suspensions, dropouts and truancy
• Understand the school climate. These 10 questions may help:

Do students / teachers feel safe at school?

Do students feel connected to the school?

Do students / teachers feel that they are treated with respect?

Do students feel that teachers care about their success?

Do students have opportunities to be meaningfully involved in the school community?

Do teachers expect the best from all students?

Do students feel engaged in the learning process?

Are parents given an opportunity to be involved in the school?

Are teachers given an opportunity to integrate innovative teaching strategies?

Is the community a viable part of school activities? •

• Reserve zero tolerance for serious and severe behaviors.  Use graduated system of discipline.
• Increase in-school suspension (ISS) disciplinary options
• Increase referrals of most troubled youth to services
• Expand gang awareness training
• Involve outreach workers  ( 3 Outreach Workers are currently employed by Project Safe Neighborhoods, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Durham Parks and Recreation)
• Revise Code of Student Conduct to incorporate a more specific gang definition
• Review and revise local safe school plans

The CGA mentions increasing community-based programs to address the gang issue.  Even though there are 20-something programs already in place, it seems the efforts of these programs need to be coordinated for maximum impact.

Studies show that students with role models who have higher education tend to pursue higher education. Role models who make an investment in children (hey TEACHER, wake up! that’s you!) could prevent an at-risk student from joining a gang, or even prevent a student from becoming “at-risk.” Teachers can’t underestimate the impact that a kind word, a personal challenge, 5 minutes of time can have on a student’s life. I only get 90 minutes a day, but that may be enough.

Every Breath You Take (The Police)

“Every Breath You Take” is about a stalker, but it’s sung by The Police, which is who I’m going to talk about in this post (not the band, you understand).  I’ll explain its relevance in a bit.

I want to take a moment to address a few of the comments left by my readers.

What is the distribution of gangs across schools?

I haven’t mentioned any of the particulars of Durham gangs: names, signs, neighborhoods, schools, etc. simply because I don’t know.  I have ordered the documentary “Welcome to Durham” and hope that it will fill in some of these gaps in my knowledge.  I’ll be sure to share more information as I glean it.

How significant is the number 1,000 gang members for 30 gangs?

25% of gang members are 18 or younger.  So there are likely 250 gang members somewhere in the, approximately, 9,000 high school students in Durham Public Schools.  When you put it into percentages, it’s less than 2%.  However, from my white, middle class, 1A high school perspective, 250 people is a lot.  35% of my high school, in fact.  So, this number seemed shocking to me when it may not have shocked folks from a larger city.

How does Durham’s gang problem compare to other cities’ gang problems?

Among reports from 22 similar jurisdictions across the Southeast, Durham ranked 9^th in the number of gang members.  The average was 608; Durham reported 410.  I suppose we could view this as a plus for Durham.  However, as my professor pointed out, “you don’t want a group shooting people.”

I must also retract one of my assertions from yesterday.  I fear that I misread a statement in the introduction to the Comprehensive Gang Assessment that gave me an incorrect view of the assessment’s assertion.  So, I would like to correct my second statement.

2.  Durham officials are hard at work addressing the gang problem.

The Durham Police Department (DPD) and Durham Count Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) are working closely, particularly using GangNet, to track gang activity, membership, and help keep Durham safe.  In fact, the authors of the Comprehensive Gang Assessment “feel certain that Durham is well-positioned to take a leading role in the nation in developing and implementing a model approach to gangs.”  Wow!  Well, I’ll see if I can do this “model approach” justice in communicating what it does.

The DPD has a 30-person gang unit at work on in the community.  This unit deals specifically with probation, street prostitution, buy bust operations, vandalism, citizen complaints, and warrant service.  It also keeps a high public profile to assure that community that DPD takes the gang problem very seriously.  I think the following is a fascinating statistic:

• Arrests aren’t only made by the gang unit – from 2001-2007, 770 individuals were arrested one or more times for a total of 4447 arrests and 8199 charged offenses (that’s 6 per gang member).
  • 25% of those are for “serious crimes:” burglary, robbery, aggravated assault and threats.
  • “Other crimes” include drug-related offenses (most common), firearms, trespassing, vandalism, failure to appear.

It seems that the same folks are causing all the ruckus.  But it’s amazing what an impact they have on the community’s perception of gang activity.  Folks warn “Don’t go to Durham, you’ll get jumped.  They have gangs!”  Yes, well, so does my hometown, but retirees are flocking there in droves.

GangNet is helping DPD and DCOS keep a close eye on gang members.  (Thus the “every move you make, every breath you take, I’ll be watching you” seems somewhat appropriate.)

Here’s the thing, as good a job as our police are doing protecting us, the judicial system is failing to expedite prosecutions.  3 trials in 2007 were for homicides committed (on average) 3 years before.  With that significant of a delay, it’s harder to get a conviction: witness testimonies get fuzzy, gangs have time to rally and defendants may commit other crimes, and jury intimidation has become a problem.  It seems then that the judicial aspect is the “weak link.”

From a municipal perspective, and this is where it gets interesting for teachers, these are a few of the risk factors that contribute to gang membership:

• Serious school problem
  • Multiple suspensions
  • Chronic truancy
  • Dropout
  • Performing below grade level
• Poor parental supervision
• Alcohol or drug use
• Run away from home
• Mental health problem
• Family conflict
• Family criminality (may be related to the number of adult gang members)

These all boil down to school, family, and individual problems.

So what can we, as teachers, do to influence at-risk students in a positive direction?

• Hold them accountable for absences
• If at all possible, use forms of punishment other than suspension (of course, you may not have a choice within school policy)
• Find a way for students to succeed so that they don’t view themselves as being “bad at school”
• Do your best to teach effectively and bring these students up to grade level
• Give them stability in your classroom that they may not find at home
• Pay attention to student behavior so that if they do suffer from a mental health problem, they can get the proper attention and services

The final section of the Comprehensive Gang Assessment deals directly with schools, particularly from the perspective of School Resource Officers.  Get excited!

What’s in a Gang?

I have never been in a gang.  Have I?

“Gang: a group of people which shares an identity and a common purpose.”

My "Gang" Experience

Well, by that definition, I was in a lot of gangs (but they were more along these lines).  But I hope you understand that I want to address the problem of street gangs in Durham.  The idea of my students being involved in gangs scares me more than anything else about being a teacher; more than grading, more than standardized tests and AYP, and yes, even more than parents.

Why does it scare me so much?  Because I’m ignorant.  I don’t know anything about being in a gang.  I don’t know the pressures my students face to join gangs, the danger they face participating in gang activities, or even the reality of the long-term consequences of their actions.

So I’m ready to learn!  I started with a Google search and found the “Comprehensive Gang Assessment: A Report to the Durham Police Department and Durham County Sherriff’s Office” from 2007.  Hmm…it’s up to date, locally relevant, ostensibly authoritative – I was convinced even more so when I opened the document and found it to be 227 pages.  (When they said “comprehensive,” they weren’t kidding.)

The assessment states 3 things:

1. Durham has a gang problem
2. Durham officials don’t have the resources to address the gang problem
3. For the sake of Durham’s youth, a concentrated effort needs to be made to address the gang problem.

I’ll take these issues one at a time over the next three blogs.

1. Durham has a gang problem.

Durham’s gang problem actually dates back to the 1970s.  Interestingly, Durham has a substantial number of adult gangs.  It’s important to realize that the possibility exists that a child’s adult role model could be an active gang member.  (Has that child’s fate been sealed?  Not if my 90 minutes has anything to do with it.)

The Durham Police Department and Durham County Sherriff’s Office use a joint system known as GangNet to track gang activity and membership.  The data in the Comprehensive Assessment come from the latest GangNet reports, in 2006 and 2007.

Who is in a gang?

• There are 1,000 gang members for 33 gangs.
• Only half of the document gang members were actually arrested for illegal activity.
• Most gang members are 19, although the average age for all gang membership is older.
• 82% of gang members are African-American, 15% are Hispanic, and 2% are white.
• 3% of arrested gang members were female.
• Compared to similar cities in the US, the number of gang members and gangs in Durham is below average.
• GangNet is a useful tool for recording gang members who are victims, indicating that some crimes may be retaliation.

What do gang members do?

• Assault
• Possession of a weapon
• Homicide
• Theft
• Use and sale of illegal substances
• Vandalism

How are students exposed to gangs?

• Students are exposed to gangs more frequently through their neighborhoods than through school.
• “Risk factor studies show that disconnection from schools significantly increases the risk of gang joining.” (Howell and Weisel, 2007)
  • Suspension increase with students in transition periods (5^th to 6^th grade and 8^th to 9^th grade); students might be likely to join a gang at these junctures.
  • A study by the Center for Disease Control linked “out-of-school students” with:
    • physical fights
    • carrying a weapon
    • smoking
    • use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine
    • sexual intercourse  (Howell and Weisel, 2007)

Not that all dropouts are gang members, not that all gang members are dropouts, but the correlation between behaviors indicates that school involvement is crucial to success of our youth and the future of our community.

Tune in next time to find out what is currently being done to address these issues.

90 Minutes

White Middle Class, but cute, right?

I’m a white, middle class female.  I was raised in a loving home, I graduated at the top of my class in high school, I went to college on scholarship, I’ve always succeeded, my faith is vital to my worldview, and I want to teach.

In fact, I want to teach in Durham. Now, Durham gets a bad rap, but I like it. Like any town, there are great restaurants, there are hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and there are great restaurants that are holes-in-the-wall. Like any town, there are cross-town rivalries between schools, and cross-15-501 rivalries with bigger schools. Like any town, a girl has to be careful where she walks at night. Like any town, kids go to school and teachers teach them.

I will teach them. But I wonder…what happens to my students when they leave my classroom? I get these kids for 1 class period. 90 minutes. As a new teacher, I’m still young and idealistic. I believe that I can change their lives during those 90 minutes. Maybe I can.

But I still have to recognize that when 90 minutes have passed, those students will walk out of my classroom into a world that, try as I might, I will never fully understand. Some of my students will walk into the arms of parents who love them, care for them, support them, and will do anything to help them succeed in school and at life. But others will walk into the arms of a gang, a drug dealer, an abusive parent, or they may even provide the loving arms that care for a younger sibling.

Then the next morning, those same students walk into my class for 90 minutes. And I expect them to learn something.

. . .

I wonder about my own students. I worry that I won’t be able to tell when one of these other factors is affecting their academic performance. How do I know if one of my students is in a gang and will it create conflict during class? What gangs are there in Durham, and how do I know who belongs to which group? What if I can’t even tell when a student comes to class high? (I’ve never seen someone do drugs, so I’m honestly not sure if I’ll know the effects when I see them.) How much time should I spend dealing with individual misbehavior and how much should I overlook them for the sake of the 25 other students in the class?

After answering these questions, I want to explore ways to combat the issues. I want to look at the gang and drug prevention programs that are in place in Durham, and other programs around the country that have been successful. I want to learn the steps that I should take if I learn that a child is being abused. Even once it’s out of my hands, I want to understand the process so that, as I continue to teach that student, I have some idea what are dealing with beyond my involvement. I want to figure out a way to help a student who works at night find time to do his homework so he pass his classes.

Finally, I’d like to explore ways that I can address some of these issues through my curriculum. Can I use stories like Romeo and Juliet, The Outsiders, and Lord of the Flies to examine the conflict that exists between groups? Can I try to address these issues and still stick to the NC Standard Course of Study?

I want to teach. And I want to be educated.

I invite you to join me on this journey.