Get to know your Business
Agent today!
Find out how the union
makes a difference on
the job.
 |
Newsline: January 2005
City Deems School Safety "Initiative" a Success
Carl Haynes Welcomes Progress, But Insists There’s a Long Way to Go
 A few weeks after vetoing two bills that would have given the public a rare glimpse into how the city manages crime in its public schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, joined by Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, declared their year-old School Safety Initiative a success.
At a City Hall news conference, Jan. 3, the mayor, Klein and Kelly announced a 43 percent drop in major crime at 16 so-called “Impact” schools as a result of the school safety plan launched last January. The Initiative increased the number of school safety agents and police officers assigned to high-crime (“Impact”) schools and imposed tougher rules on student behavior.
In response, Local 237 President Carl Haynes said, “If it is true that crime is down 43 percent in some city schools, then Local 237 would like to join in the celebration.” But, he added, “We will have to take the city’s word for it, since a quick survey of my members, the school safety agents who are on the front line of crime-fighting in the schools, did not indicate that the situation is that much better in our schools.”
City officials, on the other hand, announced that the 16 Impact schools had an overall 33 percent decline in crime and disorderly conduct compared to the same period last year. Robberies, they said, declined 68 percent while felony assaults dropped 38 percent and weapons offenses declined 75 percent. “Slowly but surely,” Klein said, “we have been resolving the problem of crime in schools. The change in climate [in the Impact schools] is absolutely night and day.”
Based on improvements, officials said, five of the original 16 Impact schools will be removed from Impact status, while six other schools will be added, and the mobile School Safety Task Force, made up of uniformed police officers and supervisors, will be expanded in January to 200 members from 150.
“The Impact model worked well in the schools for the same three reasons it worked in neighborhoods across the city,” said Commissioner
Kelly. “We pinpointed police resources, we responded swiftly to changing conditions and we assigned dedicated police and school safety personnel to the task at hand. We’re confident that the same formula will yield similar results in 2005.”
Countering Kelly’s optimism, Haynes asked, “How do we account for the fact that five schools came off the Impact list, and six new schools were added? We are clearly spinning our wheels here.” Haynes also noted that the Initiative has yet to address issues that affect school safety agents, such as inadequate equipment, the absence of reliable data on the number of school safety agents assigned to each school, and the incidence of school crimes. In November, the New York City Council approved a package of three bills for school safety reforms that addressed these issues.
Underscoring the need for reforms, several violent incidents occurred at city schools in December as they prepared to close for the holidays. On Dec. 3, a boy was stabbed in Springfield Gardens High School, where a fight erupted outside after school hours and three students were arrested in a stabbing. On Dec. 10, there was a student brawl at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, only one day after the mayor vetoed two of the City Council’s
three bills.
Fortunately, on Jan. 5, the City Council voted to override the mayor’s vetoes. “The public must have full and independent access to the information on school violence, and how the city manages school safety,” said Haynes. “It’s not far-fetched to say the mayor vetoed Int. 226-A, which would provide information regarding school violence, and Int. 322-A, which requires the NYPD and DOE to conduct an annual review and assessment of the need for school safety agents at each school, because making the information public would take away the power of the Department of Education to declare ‘good
news’ when in fact there is none to report. That’s why the City Council exists as a counterbalance to the city administration.”
The five schools to be removed from Impact status are MS 222 in the Bronx; South Shore and Franklin K. Lane High Schools in Brooklyn; Far Rockaway High School in Queens and Washington Irving High School in Manhattan. The six schools added to the Impact program are Lafayette and Abraham Lincoln High Schools in the Bronx; John Bowne and Springfield Gardens High Schools in Queens, Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan; and Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx.
|
|
|
