With the new school year just under way, the Schenectady City School District is grappling with safety issues and parental concerns.
Superintendent Carlos Cotto calls incidents during the new school year concerning.
That includes schoolyard fights, a 12-year old boy charged with making a terroristic threat against the district, a student who brought a BB gun to school and two students injured in a knife fight on school grounds.
In a message on the district website, Cotto also introduced the District Director of School Climate and Safety, Jeff Russo, and invited "parents, guardians and caregivers" to a listening session Tuesday night. Russo spoke at a board meeting the following night, saying transparency is the district’s top priority when it comes to communicating with parents.
"When things happen, we get facts to people as fast as we can," said Russo. "I mentioned it to parents last night. There is no way we can get messages to people faster than their students can, not just because they have a phone in their hand, but because they're just better on the technology."
Russo proposes the district's recent $500,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security be spent on bolstering student safety.
"Safety is always going to come down to relationships. It's always going to come down to systems, and it's always going to come down to layers. And I think that where I have landed personally as the safety person here is that our next logical layer would be a weapons detection system in our secondary schools," Russo said.
Parent Valerie Torian told Wednesday's board meeting that she is opposed to having police and metal detectors at Schenectady High.
"Cops do not belong in schools, and no adult, especially a grown man, should be laying his hand on any student and minors, our students deserve an enriching, thriving, encouraging and safe learning environment not to feel like they're in a prison and like they're criminals," said Torian.
Board member Jamaica Miles has staunchly opposed police presence in schools. "More than 10 years of peer reviewed research on the topic of metal detectors, weapons, detection and surveillance in our schools consistently demonstrates overwhelming evidence that preventative measures increase safety, detection and surveillance do not. On the contrary, there is evidence that policing, detection and surveillance cause harm, especially to already marginalized students,” Miles said.
Cotto says he encourages critical questions and thoughtful conversation on student safety and all issues impacting the district.
"I will have meetings take place throughout the course of the year, just to welcome members of our community to engage in conversation and continue to process this being one of our priorities, but many other things that you may want to share with me, as far as what your experiences have been, as a parent or even as a student. So just wanting to let the community know that I will be creating that space in order to continue to engage in this meaningful conversation," said Cotto.
Russo's safety proposal remains up for debate. The board is expected to continue discussion when it meets again on Monday.
