Students Give School Big Brother Bronx Cheer
By Renee FeltzFrom the November 16, 2007 issue | Posted in Local | Email this article
When 13-year-old Chelsea Fraser wrote the word “okay” on her desk at Kyker Heights Intermediate School in April, she was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car, according to news reports.
Arrests like this ignite outrage among teenage members of a South Bronx-based youth leadership program called Youth on the Move because of the heavy-handed tactics used by school security agents in New York City’s public schools.
“We talked about how they treat us like prisoners instead of students,” said Davon Montgomery, 16, a junior at Frederick Douglas Academy.
Montgomery and his peers spent their summer videotaping interviews with students about the roughly 4,500 school security agents who patrol the halls and monitor metal detectors as unarmed employees of the New York Police Department. They produced a video called, “Our Schools: Safe or Not?” and have begun using it as a tool to change how agents interact with students.
In the video, Montgomery said agents fail to make his school safer. “Students don’t care if there is a school security agent. They’ll still fight,” he said.
Two Youth on the Move members showed the video in October to tenth-graders at Bronx Guild High School, where students pass each morning through a metal detector.
“We’re here to talk to you guys about a safety campaign,” said Shantell Peterkin, 17, a junior at the school and former Youth on the Move intern.
Peterkin dimmed the lights, pushed play, and chatter from students in the back of the classroom continued until hip hop music began playing behind the opening credits. About halfway through the video, a question appeared on the screen: “Do metal detectors make you feel safe?” Only one of the six interviewees answered yes. One student urged his peers to tell officials they don’t want detectors in their schools.
The video drew positive responses from the class. Students related most strongly to the dayto-day feeling of being treated like criminals. Jesus Cepeda, 15, raised his hand and described a weekly ritual of having his bag of football practice clothes searched each time he returns on Monday after washing them over the weekend.
“They take everything out of it,” Cepeda said. “Then I have to put everything back in.” All agents undergo a comprehensive 14-week training on bullying, conflict resolution and discipline in the classroom, according to a letter from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to City Councilman Robert Jackson, chair of the Education Committee.
Police took over responsibility for school safety in 1996 after an investigatory commission created by former Mayor Rudoph Giuliani concluded the New York City Board of Education’s Division of School Safety had failed to maintain security. The thousands of agents, and at least 200 armed police officers assigned to especially dangerous schools, amount to the fifth-largest police force in the country, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union’s (NYCLU) March 2007 report, “Criminalizing the Classroom.’’
The video may be the only public record of how students feel about this force. “The youth are the ones who really know what is happening in the schools,” said Chloe Dugger, field organizer for the NYCLU’s Police Accountability Project. Dugger said that is why the NYCLU supplied Youth on the Move with cameras to make the 4-minute film in July during three workshop sessions with a documentary filmmaker. While students are heavily affected by the agents, Dugger said they have no way to file a complaint if an agent behaves abusively or inappropriately.
Students showed the video to City Councilperson Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-South Bronx) in August and asked her to support school arrests as a last resort. “Teachers don’t see themselves as vehicles for conflict resolution,” said Arroyo, who called the video a work in progress. “Maybe one strategy that can come out of this conversation is how to make teachers feel more comfortable in that role.”
Youth on the Move has plans to continue showing the “Our Schools: Safe or Not?” video in more classrooms this year.
“The message is there’s a problem with school safety,” said Montgomery, “and we want it to be changed.”
For more about Youth on the Move, see mothersonthemove/yom.html or call 718-842-2224.
Just Say No: Bronx high school students are demanding changes to how the NYPD polices city schools.
Photo: Renee Feltz
6 Responses to “Students Give School Big Brother Bronx Cheer”
November 20th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
In creative writing class, I once wrote a poem entirely of swear words and naughty words like “penis fuck” and “douche bag.” all I got was a talk outside of class about how “I was better than that” Now I write about sex all the time.
I wonder what would have happened to me if I was in the NYC school system. Scary to think about. Kids should be nurtured, they are fragile, sending them to school in prison like conditions can really mess with them.
–the Douche Bag Writer
November 21st, 2007 at 2:29 am
interesting story. i recall when in 2000, my vice principal called me into his office during my study hall. to my surprise there were two Secret Service agents that wanted to interrogate me about a “speach” i gave in class. I denied ever making any threatening comments (which i did not), yet they continued to ask me aggressively what i said (threatening). they then tried to sketch a profile of me, asking me about my relationship with my family (not the best at the time) and if i tortureed animals and what have you. all in all, i was quite entertained, but pretty upset the vice principal and student liason officer were both there freely offering any information they could about me. i know for a fact they student liason officer and and v.p. performed an illegal strip search on another male student falsely accused of stealing. we also had a CODE BLUE which was an armed intruder drill in which the school was sectioned off by large closing doors and we were to hide. this would do very little for the few hundred virtually locked in the same quadrant as the gunmen. we also were not aloud outside AT ALL during the day while 2-3 people drove around the school’s perimeter in cars. oh, i forgot to mention this was a public school in one of the wealthiest counties of america.
November 23rd, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Writing “OKAY” on a desk (which is still public property) with a magic marker is not cute, it is down right rude. It is called graffiti. It disrespects others and it disrespects the school. Don’t know the particulars of that student’s treatment by security. At the very least she should received 5 days in school suspension, part of that time cleaning off her and others handiwork, and her parents or guardians should have gotten a bill or fine.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:09 am
What amazes me is that the same adults that are supposed to be protecting the children they teach are the same ones treating them like criminals…Schools are not clearing houses for juvenile delinquents they are supposed to be safe places for the children to learn and when they make a mistake they are taught WHY its wrong and WHY they are being corrected….there is a difference between discipline and punishment….I agree that writing on a school desk was inappropriate…My daughter was wrong and went to school on Friday with the intent of rectifying her mistake. A childhood mistake that should have been treated with the same innocence it was done in. She wrote OKAY she didn’t write any obscenity….It was wrong…scrub the desk and move on. However, let me tell you what DID happen to my daughter after SHE admitted to writing OKAY on the desk to the dean. She was detained until the police came then she was handcuffed in front of her classmates, then she was driven to a precinct and handcuffed to a pole for three hours, then she went to a juvenile division during her school break where she was treated like a juvenile delinquent, then she was made to miss school several times to appear in court the last time ON her 14th birthday until someone decided to listen to our ‘ridiculous’ case, and guess what she paid restitution for the desk before the charges against her were dismissed. When she returned to school she was made to scrub the desk during the two days she spent in inhouse detention….Just remember when you decide to charge a CHILD as an adult that you eliminate the trust that they place on the adults around them. If they were born knowing they wouldn’t have to go to school and they definately wouldn’t need you to teach them. So to the teacher who didn’t know the particulars….I hope I cleared it up for you.
December 12th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
okay so my mom basically got everything but just to make it COMPLETLY clear, ms.teacher lady - dont tell me when you were a kid you didnt write on the desk or carve your name on something you shouldnt have. i usually dont but i was bored, and the marker comes off. yes it was public property but ink washes off. have you ever walked into a jr.high school/H.S andlooked at the desk..lets just say mine wasnt the first mark on the desk. before i even knew how much trouble i was in i went to go tell the dean i wrote on the desk JUST because i didnt want to get in trouble.. becuase im NOT a trouble maker.. its kinda funny becuase i knew the deans, they knew im a b+ student who has never gotten never trouble before. not to mention i was in 8th grade so its not like i was only in the school a couple of months lol. they did me wrong. im 15 now and i still have trouble with the situation, and people still make fun of me for it. for those who think the publicity is exciting, its not, its embarrassing. because i still have to go to school the next day and deal with EVERYONE coming up to me. and to most people its not a big deal at all, but when i turn 16 and try to find a job i cant lie on the application. i have been arrested and thats one of the only things that they will look at. btw this is the first time i’ve commented on everyone talking about ME. im not just some kid with out feelings, stop talking trash becuase you obviously dont know the whole story and im tired of hearing my name in a bad way. support is always appreciated.
November 19th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
I found the school safety articles not surprising. In Philly, we have the opposite problem. We don’t have enough security in our schools, so students run rampant. When a teacher is threatened, a security guard might not make it in time. I like the fact that the kids are speaking out, because they’re right about teachers needing to be mediators and not being afraid to reach out to students and help them be problem solvers. I don’t think metal detectors will ever be removed, especially with all of the school shootings that have happened. There’s too much risk.