The causes of this are myriad: poverty, abuse, societal failure, parental
incompetence, and, yes, the failure of the school. No public school in New
York City and probably few schools anywhere in the United States have
a sufficient budget. If they did, there would be dedicated social workers,
guidance counselors, and specially trained teachers with small classes to
address the needs of this small percentage of the school population.
This will not happen. It is simply cheaper for local governments to keep
such children under control than to provide effective but costly programs
to address their needs: that is, cheaper for the school system, but not for
society as a whole. Once these children enter the adult world, they will
cost society dearly.
Who are these children? In a typical inner-city school, they include the
nineteen-year-old sophomore who has amassed two credits in three years;
the super senior still thirty credits short of graduation; the children who
major in “hallway”; the students with criminal records. Left to themselves,
this small group, usually less than 2 percent of the population, will draw
others to their coterie and eventually control the school. This problem is
not unique to the inner city. Every teacher and administrator in any size
school in any location can point to the students in the school who seem to
always be in the middle of troublesome incidents.
This is where security staff comes in. They will not let these students
loiter in the building. They ferret out hiding places, such as the nooks in
the subbasement. They find the graffiti artists. They remove students who
disrupt class, who threaten teachers and other students. The deans follow
up with suspensions and parental meetings. Typically, day after day, the
same students are in the dean’s office for one reason or another. When an
incident happens, the perpetrator is invariably one of the usual suspects.
Are all such children always lost? No. In many schools, some become
the dean’s monitors. The dean then speaks with them daily and often
contacts their parents. They are given responsible tasks to complete under
adult supervision. The dean periodically checks on their progress with
their teachers.
Some of these students find a place in one of the school offices, being
monitors for an assistant principal, where the same type of adult oversight
is in place. Some may be placed in special school programs, designed to
address their needs. Ms. Rivera, our suburban high school principal, had
an Adopt-a-Student program in which a local business leader would take
20 Chapter 2