This article has been corrected.
Mandatory and ongoing anti-racism training for all school personnel tops a list of recommendations from the Rochester Community Task Force. The training should begin with district leaders, the report says, and the task force should help pick who does the training.
The task force, which is made up of about 50 people including parents, teachers, administrators, and community leaders, was formed more than a year ago to improve student behavior and reduce suspensions, which have been disproportionately impacted students of color.
“It’s great that we got to this point, and now we can get to process [of implementation],” says Eamonn Scanlon, an organizer with Metro Justice, which is on the task force. “It’s a huge undertaking and not everything gets fixed at once. This will take years.”
The anti-racism training should include culturally relevant curriculum and instruction, the report says, to better engage students.
The task force also recommends creating a youth-led “Office of Student Life,” modeled largely after similar offices in higher education. The youth would be charged with setting a positive tone in each school building.
Suspensions, expulsions, and arrests should be used only as a last resort, the report says, and Superintendent Bolgen Vargas should personally review all long-term suspensions. Restorative justice practices should replace punitive measures, the report says, and the district should end suspensions for minor infractions such as using cell phones or violating the dress code.
Improving parent engagement and communication is another key recommendation.
“It is important that there be a true voice for parents,” Scanlon says, “and part of that requires eliminating language disparities. Parents who don’t speak English often can’t advocate for their children.”
In some cases, students have been suspended multiple times because parents couldn’t explain underlying medical or mental health issues.
The recommendations were developed by two work groups within the task force and the recommendations are designed to complement the new draft Code of Conduct policy for students.
It is unclear how the long-term effort will be funded, and some teachers have expressed concern about what they see as a move away from discipline and rigor.
The recommendations are being forwarded to Vargas and the school board. Fifteen city schools have already initiated the shift toward restorative justice, Scanlon says.
“There’s been a lot of sincere interest and focus on this,” he says.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2015.
Ever since Ferguson, Obama, former AG Holden, and a lot of,big city mayors have been applying restorative justice,principles,to the problem of violent crime in our cities. The result has been a significant jump in the number of murders in U.S. Cities in 2015. If Rochester’s task force is successful in getting discipline thrown out of the schools, as it is doing its best to do, one can expect that delinquent acts in the local schools will increase.
One thing’s for sure. 5, 10, 15…..years from now City News will be publishing the very same articles almost word for word, as they have been doing the previous years. The problems won’t be corrected with ideas and theories.
This is all about the socially ‘in crowd’ applying feel good ideas driven by grants and foundation money to a problem that is systemic and can’t be improved through training, directives and policy changes. The parents themselves do not even want this. They want a more just system that is based on ownership and responsibility. This requires that the schools be developed and run by those most invested in them. The outside groups and district leaders pretending to help are not fooling anyone. They are simply making the water dirtier because they know that if the water was made crystal clear many of these do-gooders would no longer be needed. Shame on them.
In news shocking to nobody, first and second day attendance rates were terrible.
“First day attendance was 76.6 percent, improving slight on day two, with 78.8 percent showing up for class on Thursday.”
Why can’t little Billy graduate? Why can’t little Billy show up for school is a better question?
Mr. Maloney ,
An even better question is: Why can’t little Billy’s teachers educate him effectively when he does show up? — as MANY do daily.
“Gotta Say It” (WHY ARE YOU FEARFUL OF USING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY)??? SOME OF WHAT YOU WROTE IS ACCURATE, BUT YOU SEEM TO BE CONFUSED ON SOME POINTS, I.E., THE FOLLOWING IS ABSOLUTELY ACCURATE:
They [PARENTS, PARTICULARLY MANY PARENTS OF COLOR] want a more just system that is based on ownership and responsibility. This requires that the schools be developed and run by those most invested in them. The outside groups and district leaders pretending to help are not fooling anyone. They are simply making the water dirtier because they know that if the water was made crystal clear many of these do-gooders would no longer be needed. “
.YOUR CONFUSION CENTERS AROUND YOUR ERRONEOUS BELIEFS THAT:
– “The parents themselves do not even want” anti-racist professional development for all RCSD employees. MANY ABSOLUTELY DO. In fact — “a more just system” is impossible to achieve without thoroughly and effectively addressing the dual-headed monster and illness of individual and institutionalized racism — period.
This is [NOT] all about the socially ‘in crowd’ applying feel good ideas driven by grants and foundation money to a problem that is systemic and can’t be improved through training,” I DO UNDERSTAND WHY YOU BELIEVE THIS (BASED ON WHO, SPECIFICALLY, WAS QUOTED IN THE ARTICLE), i.e., ” Eamonn Scanlon, an organizer with Metro Justice.” The truth of the matter is that Mr. Scanlon had little to do with developing this specific recommendation. He does NOT serve on the Work Group that worked our tails off to make sure that this recommendation was included in the Report. He and others did vote to approve it, after many, many discussions in which people attempted to water the language of the recommendation down, i.e., many did not want to use the word “racism” — for fear of “turning” white educators “off.”
In this particular case, those of us who primarily developed, and fought for advancement of the recommendation HAVE NO DIRECT CONNECTION TO “grants and foundation money.” Namely, we are members of FREE’s Race and Education Action and Change Work Group.
So another question becomes — why do white reporters (such as Tim Maculuso) routinely run to white operatives (who in many cases ARE directly connected to “grants and foundation money), and ask them to comment on matters that they know little about, and did little to advance — as opposed to coming to those of us who are directly responsible, and “most invested”? I bet if you think real hard — you can answer my question.
Howard,
You are correct about some parents wanting the training. I apologize for making such a general statement. What I meant to say is that parents really want much more than training, something goes much, much deeper. I also think based on past experience that the training will not be genuine or consistent. Thanks