Safer schools

This time last year, as the nation was gripped by an epidemic of school shootings, a group of educators and other community leaders came together under the auspices of the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development to form the Task Force on Safe Schools, to find answers, to prevent it from happening here.

Today, the grip has loosened and school violence is no longer at the top of the American agenda. Yet the local effort continues. As the Task Force continues its search, it comes ever closer to unearthing the roots of violence.

The group chose an especially appropriate venue for its meeting last week — the Bangor Theological Seminary. For although the problem is non-denominational, it is increasingly clear that the ultimate solution, the solution that lies beyond policy and procedure, is ethical, humanitarian, perhaps even spiritual.

At the Task Force’s initial meetings, there was a gut feeling that the shocking bloodshed may be the result of something as mundane as taunting and teasing, that the kid who explodes in violence often is an outcast and the target of relentless insults. As the details of several schoolyard massacres have emerged in court, that has been proven true.

Teachers, students and administrators participating in the Task Force agree that abusive language — from homophobic remarks, racial slurs and sexual harassment to just picking on the nerd — is the leading cause of a hostile school environment. There also is agreement that school staff often feels powerless to stop it.

That power must be restored from several sources — better parenting for one — but the day is fast approaching when lawmakers must take an active interest in the Task Force’s work and legislate accordingly. The 3,000 bills working their way through the State House this session deal with virtually every issue imaginable except the roots of school violence.

Lucy Girodet, a Brewer English teacher, pointed out that, although the atmosphere at her school has improved with the initiation of stronger discipline programs, teachers are hampered in dealing with troubled kids because they are prevented by law from having knowledge of the offending student’s criminal record. Other Task Force members have observed the relationship between poverty and anger, a relationship that can be broken with a stronger state commitment to mental health services, substance abuse counseling and the juvenile justice system.

Beyond their willingness to tackle an issue that is so difficult, so complex, so inextricably tied to the very nature of society, the remarkable thing about the Task Force is that it continues on long after the issue has fallen off the front page. Robert Cobb, dean of the UMaine College of Education and Human Development, said the session last week was especially helpful in further clarifying the relationship between cause and effect, problem and solution.

“What I heard was reaffirmation of how many elements there are that go into this definition of school safety and school violence,” Cobb said. The question is whether that reaffirmation is being heard beyond the walls of the Bangor Theological Seminary.