Students hitting teachers. A gang brawl over the color of a middle schooler?s shoes. Teachers, parents and students worried about the violence on Baltimore?s streets increasingly spilling over into city schools.
“Unfortunately, I?m not surprised that it?s still happening,” said Julia Gumminger, who quit teaching art at Waverly Elementary/Middle School last year after students pushed her against a wall ? twice.
After a two-day suspension, the offender was back in her class, a pattern for violent students, teachers say.
“I still think these problems will continue until a discipline system is enacted and followed,” Gumminger said.
She could relate to the plight of another art teacher, Jolita Berry, who was beaten Friday by a student in her classroom at Reginald F. Lewis High School after she told the student to sit down. Another student used a camera phone to record the attack, and the video surfaced on MySpace.com and showed classmates cheering on the attacker.
“Too many times, this has happened at this school and other schools, and nothing?s been done,” Berry told WBAL TV, which first reported her story.
Berry said she informed her principal of the attack, only to be told she had provoked the attack because she told a student she would defend herself.
Marietta English, Baltimore Teachers Union president, called city classrooms “an unsafe, hostile work environment.”
“I have said it all along that something needed to be done about the number of assaults on teachers and students. I?ve said it over and over again.”
The teacher assault and Tuesday?s gang-related brawl outside a middle school sparked outrage among teachers, who said their principals and system administrators need to do more to quell the violence.
City schools chief Andres Alonso has begun to overhaul the schools to allow principals more control over which programs they budget, largely to improve the safety of students and teachers, said Michael Sarbanes, a school spokesman.
Schools have expelled 112 students for assaulting staff this school year, compared with 98 last year.
A gang-related brawl broke out in the yard of West Baltimore Middle School on Tuesday when at least 10 students asked two fellow eighth-graders whether they were “banging,” inquiring whether they were part of the Bloods gang because one sported a red swoosh in his black Nike sneakers.
Three students were charged as juveniles with aggravated assault after stomping and beating the victims with lacrosse sticks, school police said.
Gangs are recruiting younger members from middle and elementary schools, said Sgt. Andrew Eways, who targets gangs for the Maryland State Police.
Alonso said he isn?t surprised.
“We know it?s happening,” he said. “It?s a huge challenge for our schools. We need to work with the community to ensure the safety of students.”
More than 50 gangs with about 500 members exist in city high schools and an additional 500 gang members are in middle and elementary schools, city statistics show.
Angered by the most recent outbreak of student-on-student violence, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon called on parents Wednesday to take a more active role in their children?s lives.
“If parents have to sit in the classroom with them, then so be it ? they have to be held accountable,” she said.
Dixon said she was concerned about a pattern of violence disrupting learning in a school system beset by low graduation rates and lagging test scores.
“I think the school system needs to invest more money in safety,” she said. “Children need and want a safe environment to learn. Safety has tobe a priority.”
“I think we should have more security up here,” eighth-grader Malika Simpson, 13, said while walking home from West Baltimore Middle School.
Stephen Janis and Arianne Starnes contributed to this article.
