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RandySF

(57,661 posts)
Thu Aug 16, 2012, 10:35 PM Aug 2012

Boy’s ejection from SF school illustrates struggles in violence prevention

An 11-year-old boy in San Francisco made headlines early last year when a shooting near his Western Addition home left a random bullet lodged permanently in his abdomen. Nerve damage, a ruptured bladder and chronic pain kept him out of school for more than four months.

For a brief moment after the shooting, the boy, who was 9 at the time, became the city’s latest example of how violence touches vulnerable young people. The fifth-grader spoke out against gun violence on local television and the steps of City Hall. He returned to Bessie Carmichael Elementary School last fall.

Then in February, the boy turned from the victim to the accused.

School administrators kicked him out of Bessie Carmichael for allegedly shooting another student in the face with a BB gun. He denied having a BB gun and shooting his classmate but admitted to carrying a plastic pellet gun in his backpack. The victim in the case was hit in the upper right cheek but was not seriously injured.

Although the facts are in dispute, the boy’s situation illustrates the San Francisco Unified School District’s haphazard struggle to fulfill complex health and safety mandates: Prevent violence, nurture victims and deal with inner-city trauma when it spills into the classroom.

While the district is responsible for keeping children safe, it’s also required to address the needs of students who exhibit risky or even violent behaviors. In the case of the boy at Bessie Carmichael, it failed to do both, records and interviews show.



http://www.baycitizen.org/education/story/boys-ejection-sf-school-illustrates/

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Boy’s ejection from SF school illustrates struggles in violence prevention (Original Post) RandySF Aug 2012 OP
School can't do it all. They can't, they can't, they can't. NYC_SKP Aug 2012 #1
The principal did the right thing by not letting him back. RandySF Aug 2012 #2
Not only can't they, they shouldn't. Igel Aug 2012 #3
 

NYC_SKP

(68,644 posts)
1. School can't do it all. They can't, they can't, they can't.
Thu Aug 16, 2012, 10:41 PM
Aug 2012

This is a sad sad thing to have happened to any child, to any family, to any community.

I feel sad for all involved.

RandySF

(57,661 posts)
2. The principal did the right thing by not letting him back.
Thu Aug 16, 2012, 10:43 PM
Aug 2012

Last edited Fri Aug 17, 2012, 12:54 AM - Edit history (1)

The kid admitted to bringing the gun. Period. The disciplinary board failed by not expelling him.

Igel

(35,197 posts)
3. Not only can't they, they shouldn't.
Sun Aug 19, 2012, 03:28 PM
Aug 2012

Parents have had a hard time fitting in nutrition, hygiene, life-skills and character in 16 or 17 years, 16-hours a day, 365 days a year.

At some point the school has to determine that nutrition, hygiene, content education, life-skills education and character education can't all be fit into 185 7-hour days in 12 or 13 years.

Making the school's job more complicated is that the kids have learned and are presumably reinforced for their violent behavior, whether at home or from peers. There are really good rewards for abandoning it. But the kids don't accept that there are rewards or that its worth waiting for the rewards.

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