Colin Flaherty commentary News Video "Classroom brawl caught on video leaves teen girl bloodied and with stitches" "New Haven - Suspensions Fall Most On Black Boys"
https://www.wtnh.com/news/news-8-exclusive/classroom-brawl-caught-on-video-leaves-teen-girl-bloodied-and-with-stitches/1498684889
By: Mario Boone
Posted: Oct 04, 2018 06:22 PM EDT Updated: Oct 05, 2018 09:35 AM EDT
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) - Brutal video obtained by News 8 shows a violent fight between two girls at Hillhouse High School in New Haven that left one of them with six stitches above her eye. The brawl happened in September in the middle of a crowded classroom with the teacher present.
"To see the students sitting there so complacent and to see some of them calm and moving chairs and desks aside, I thought that it looked like it was par for the course. They've seen this picture before," Fletcher said.
News 8's Mario Boone talked to the mother of one of the girls in the fight. She declined to be named out of fear of more violence against her daughter. The woman complained the teacher in the classroom should've intervened before the first punch was thrown.
"That's an individual preference, although, I have heard of teachers not stepping in for fear of being injured," said Fletcher. "We have to do a better job as teachers, administrators, school resource officers."
A schools spokesman condemned the behavior and released the following statement:
"New Haven Public Schools takes the issue of student and staff safety extremely seriously. We have defined expectations of student conduct within our learning community through the Student Code of Conduct. We also work to support students to make good choices, particularly when in the classroom setting, as all students deserve a safe and healthy environment in which to learn. When situations arise where bad choices are made by individuals we seek to correct that conduct through restorative practices, mediation and support where possible. In certain cases discipline is required and appropriate consistent with the Code of Conduct and school rules.
While the District is not at liberty to discuss individual student matters, we can say that any form of physical violence or aggression is not representative of our expectation of appropriate behavior. In instances where there is an issue of any form of fighting or similar disruption, School Security and Administrative staff as well as other support staff are in place to respond quickly and immediately separate the students, restore order, check on the well-being of all individuals impacted and set about investigating the incident internally and with local and state partners as needed while seeking mediation/restorative practices within the school community and appropriate disciplinary consequences if necessary."
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/racial_disparity_suspensions_black_boys/
by CHRISTOPHER PEAK | Nov 28, 2018 7:47 am
New Haven’s black students are more than four times as likely to be kicked out of class as its white students — a disparity that’s even worse for boys.
Among the 494 suspensions and 1 expulsion, 43.3 percent went to African-American boys, 19.0 percent to African-American girls, 20.1 percent to Hispanic boys and 10.9 percent to Hispanic girls, said Michele Sherban, the district’s research supervisor. Only 3.2 percent went to white boys and 1.9 percent went to white girls, she added.
Board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur said the starting point was painfully obvious to her, as the mother of two black children. “We need to start looking into how black males are viewed from pre-kindergarten,” she said. “I have a girl and I have a boy, and I see the difference. I had to speak to the teachers from day one, because my son was getting treated differently for the same things that I would see with my daughter or someone who wasn’t a black male. This is happening from the gate, and it continues to spiral out of control — until you have a middle-school male who is viewed as a threat, who is viewed as unable to achieve, as someone who is not going to be anything.
Superintendent Birks said that the district needs to learn more from those schools. “Of course, the goal is to use more restorative practices at large, as a system, not to suspend for every infraction. We need to ensure that we are providing students with the social-emotional supports they need,” she said. “We are going to go to schools, like Martinez and others, to ask them to share the practices that they’re using with all of us, so we can use those pockets to repeat the excellence they’re demonstrating.”
