School safety, negligence documentation, and a need for a school reform
My name is Natalia Garceau. For nine years, I’ve been working at a center similar to the one where Nikolas Cruz was sent to after his expulsion from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. You won’t hear anything from the teachers who work at such centers because they are afraid to lose their jobs and to be taken to court. They have families to feed. By contract, we are not allowed to speak with media about anything related to Broward County Public Schools. Students at our school are NOT allowed to have cell phones. The cameras on laptops that students use are blocked. So you won’t see any Twitter or Instagram posts. Our school is like a ghost that not many people know much about unless they experienced it firsthand.
On April 6, police were called twice to our school. One of the students threatened to shoot school staff. He overthrew the assistant principal’s desk and was taken away by the police. Another student was arrested as well. The following week, both students were back in school. When I came to school earlier than normal, there was not one person in the office. The doors were unlocked, but not a single person was visible inside. I walked to the teachers’ lounge and upstairs to my room and saw nobody. Fortunately, I was just a teacher, not an armed student. After I shared my concern with the assistant principal Dr. Anthony Dorsett and faculty council member Ms. Shonte Butler-Darling, nothing changed. The next time I arrived early, a tall caucasian male was sitting in the office with a large black backpack on. I had never seen him in our school before. On behalf of the LJEC staff, I greeted him and asked what brought him to our school. It turned out he was suspended from South Broward High School for ten days and was waiting for someone to admit him in the Alternative to External Suspension program run by Ms. Linda Walker at Lanier-James Education Center.
It seems that safety has been a serious concern since February 14. At my school, all students, faculty and staff members had to urgently have their photos taken for new ID badges. We now have to wear them throughout the day, so that we know who we are. Mr. Robert Runcie, the superintendent of Broward County Public Schools, who has recently received a “highly effective” evaluation, takes good care of our safety. In addition to ID cards, we also have received decals for our cars, so that we know which cars belong to the employees and students and which don’t. It creates a feeling of safety on campus. Not.
According to our school data, 1,064 incidents have been reported by teachers and staff at Lanier-James Education Center YTD. 57 of them took place on school buses where students have no protection from bullying, harassment, and battery. However, no bus interventions have been mentioned in the School-Wide Positive Behavior Plan. For your information, the student population of our center is under 100. Roughly, 10.6 referrals per student is the annual average. However, some students accumulate more than 20 and even more than 30 referrals. This fact, however, does not prevent them from being released from the LJEC behavior modification program and entering a regular public school.
There are no criteria for exiting our programs. A number of students who had been violent towards other students and staff have been released from our school because the administration simply didn’t want to deal with them. In a Response to Intervention (RTI) meeting held last year in regard to a student who had accumulated 37 referrals (incidents included bullying, harassment, and battery) teachers and staff expressed their concerns. RTI team had to come up with a collaborative solution to solve the problem and help the student correct her behavior. However, no solution was offered. When I asked the assistant principal, Dr. Anthony Dorsett, what I should do in the future when the student threatens me or other students, he responded, “Just keep writing her up.”
Student data such as attendance and referrals can be found in Terms and Basis, databases used by BCPS. It is accessible from any location within Broward County Public Schools. Any administrator, guidance counselor and registrar has access to all the records of every student enrolled in BCPS, even if the students do not attend the school where these employees work. Therefore, any of these people can access the records of Nikolas Cruz. All data is digital. In one of the staff meetings, we were advised by the principal, Mr. Kelvin Lee, to not look up Nikolas’s record. He was not a student at our center, however; Parkland's expelled students are sent to centers just like Lanier-James that are located north of us. We serve the southern part Broward County and used to be known as South Area Alternative. Right now, our former students are in regular public schools, from Hallandale and Hollywood to Ft. Lauderdale, Dania, Davie, Cooper City, and Weston.
What happens at our center is more than simply dangerous and cannot be ignored. Two weeks ago, our staff were to vote for the School-Wide Positive Behavior Plan for next school year. According to this plan, students who have been expelled and accumulated dozens of referrals will be taught how to conduct themselves and use proper language in the media center by their Culinary Arts teacher, ESE specialist, literacy coach and a few other staff members.
Furthermore, those students who exhibit exemplary behavior and accumulate enough points to reach the Golden Knight status, will be allowed to sit in the cafeteria at a decorated table and will be rewarded with fruit, chips, and juice on a weekly basis. According to Anthony Dorsett, Ed.D., “Students who have no lunch referrals and are at the level of “Golden Knight”, as indicated by behavior point levels above 1675 on the school point sheets will be allowed to sit a special “Knights Table” that will be decorated and located in a preferred area of the cafeteria. The students will also be given special weekly treats at the table (fruit, chips or juice) to reward them for their exemplary behaviors” (Dorsett, 2018). This intervention is expected to bring a positive change. “If the “Knights Table” reward program is positively impacting students we should see at least a 20% decrease in lunch referrals by Dec. 20, 2018" (Dorsett, 2018).
These are our interventions created by A. Dorsett, Ed.D., the chief designer of the plan. In the plan, no guidance counselors are mentioned. No mental health counselors, no group or individual therapy, no restorative circle interventions. What for? Weekly snacks should correct students’ behavior. When I criticized the plan, I was rudely told by the BTU steward/leadership team member Ms. Kimberly Maupin Anderson to “stop causing trouble” and “get the fuck out.” When I addressed this issue with the principal, Mr. Kelvin Lee, he advised that if I were not happy at Lanier-James, I should request a transfer.
At the recent forum on school safety held at Plantation High School, Mr. Robert Runcie and his colleagues stated that they were going to continue implementing the current discipline matrix, suspend misbehaving students and send them to Internal Suspension (IS), Alternative to External Suspension (AES), PROMISE program, and, finally, upon expulsion, to alternative centers. No mental health counseling or any counseling services were mentioned. Dozens of students, parents, teachers, and community members expressed serious concerns about school safety. They were speaking very passionately and were not at all pleased with Mr. Runcie’s plan. I shared my concerns about LJEC school safety, behavior improvement plan, and staff reactions with Mr. Runcie as well.
Also, I tried to tell the superintendent that five days after the tragedy, the first National Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools was held in Washington, DC. Hundreds of school and district administrators, teachers, social workers and counselors all the way from Alaska, California, Texas, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Georgia and other states were sent by their districts to attend this conference and learn the latest research on trauma, new strategies for managing school discipline and working with traumatized students including emotionally and behaviorally disabled. Participants were given a large map of the USA to pin the locations they came from. I was the only person from South Florida, and I was not sent by my district.
Upon my return to Florida, I contacted Mr. Robert Runcie, Dr. Valerie Wanza, Ms. Ann Murray inquiring about the trauma-informed approach in BCPS schools. I was interested in conducting research as part of my Ed. D. program to find out what interventions worked best with our students. However, the only response I received was the auto-reply from Ms. Murray. She thanked me and wished me a good day. So I contacted our commissioner in education Pam Stewart to see, perhaps, on the state level, things were different. Alas, I didn’t hear back either. I also showed the guide for administrators written by Jim Sporleder, one of the experts in trauma, to my principal, Mr. Kelvin Lee. Jim used to be the principal of Lincoln Alternative High School in Walla Walla, Washington, school filled with drugs, violence, gang activity and what not. Using trauma-sensitive approach, he completely transformed that school. Students started actually receiving the health services that they needed, and the staff were trained to recognize the symptoms of trauma and to provide appropriate accommodations and interventions. As a result, the school’s suspension rate dramatically reduced while the graduation rate visibly increased. Mr. Lee looked through the book, gave it back to me, and said it looked interesting.
It is sad that our administrators don’t take the time to educate themselves and don’t have the desire to implement new strategies that have proven to be effective nationwide. Lincoln Alternative High School has become famous after director James Redford made a documentary about it, Paper Tigers. It’s available on Amazon. I streamed this film for my students and purchased a DVD to give to Dr. Dorsett, our assistant principal. I also shared free online resources available on https://traumasensitiveschools.org/ where a wealth of knowledge is presented by Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School. These resources include specific strategies for teaching traumatized students.
To cut the long story short, nothing changed after the safety forum. The only person who was interested in learning more was a reporter from Sun Sentinel, Megan O’Matz, who has been following the case of Nikolas Cruz. She seemed genuinely interested in finding out what was really happening inside my school, and how students in similar circumstances as Nikolas, expelled from regular public schools, were getting the services they needed.
There are amazing professionals working in BCPS. Last year, as I tried to find someone aware of trauma, I was fortunate to receive a response from Dr. Charlene Grecsek, the SEDNET coordinator, who has a wealth of mental health counseling experience and knowledge. She was more than willing to conduct a presentation on trauma at my school and provide faculty and staff with information and resources. Last December, before winter break, she conducted a presentation at Lanier-James. Prior to that, I gave a presentation to introduce the concept of trauma, to familiarize our staff with ACE studies and to virtually meet Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a national expert in childhood trauma. In a conversation after the workshop, Dr. Grecsek told me that she had conducted a presentation for Mr. Runcie as well. So prior to the shooting, our superintendent was informed about how traumatized brain reacts triggered by certain events. Nikolas Cruz’s brain was indeed traumatized, especially after his expulsion from school and his mother’s death. Could this tragedy be prevented? Yes, it could be…
After 12 years of teaching at BCPS, I feel obligated to leave my job and tell the world what is really happening to the children inside Broward County alternative schools, why the punishment system called the “Discipline Matrix” has no evidence of success, and what needs to be done in order to change this situation. I also want the world to know that our leaders in education are negligent and incompetent and do not do what is necessary to provide safe learning environment in our schools.
After trying to figure out what causes children to be violent, disrespectful, abusive, and depressed, I had to go back to school and learn. When I realized that the knowledge was not being used by our administrators who seem to only care about their job safety and comfortable retirement, I feel obligated to make them accountable.
For those parents who are now filing lawsuits against the district, I’m willing to testify and provide you with documents that would prove the administrators’ incompetence. Free of charge. This is not about money. This is about our children’s safety. I’m a mother of two and want to see them grow up. I want to see everyone’s children grow up and have bright future. I’m filing grievances within BCPS and am looking into filing a lawsuit similar to People vs. Compton Unified School District, so that children like Nikolas Cruz and many other throw-away kids who are doomed from the moment they are born, who usually disappear unnoticed and end up in the streets doing drugs, in prison or six feet under, could get the help they needed before it is too late.
Sadly, our current laws do not allow us to see medical history of the adopted children. We know that Nikolas and his brother Zachary were adopted at birth. Zachary was born in prison. Why was their mother in prison? Were they born on time and healthy? Or were they born premature and with drugs in their systems? Did their biological parents have any history of mental illness? Even the adopting parents cannot find this out. The original birth certificates are sealed, so we don’t know the names of the biological parents.
Should parents have the right to know? Should teachers, social workers, doctors and counselors have the right to know? Should schools provide necessary interventions for children suffering from mental disorders? Should the community be involved and help each other? So many questions.
After twelve years of being a Broward County Public Schools teacher, I feel obligated to break the silence and inform the public of the reality behind the doors of our schools, so that together we can unite in our search for the answers and solve the problems that our administrators and leaders could not solve for the sake of our children.
United, we can create the change we want!
Natalia Garceau
Reference
Dorsett, A. (2018). School-Wide Positive Behavior Plan. Retrieved from https://www.docdroid.net/bpgKp...r-taylor-johnson.pdf
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