From the Desk of the Superintendent
Superintendent J. Brian Sarvis, Ed.D.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Message from the Superintendent
We are deeply troubled by yesterday’s gang fight and stabbing. Nothing is more important than the safety of our students; we are saddened by the senseless death of a student in this community. It does not matter whether the students involved were in our district schools or in a county education program. These are all children in our community and their welfare is all of our responsibility. We are also concerned about the tranquility of our city and, whether gang violence occurs on State Street or in any other location, it has been increasingly prevalent over the past three years.
As the lead educational agency in this city we deal with gangs on a regular basis. We have been working with the police department, with county education programs, and with parents to combat gang activity. In fact the police department has been staging a series of community forums on preventing gang violence. Our K-12 curriculum includes on-going character education and anti-bullying instruction and monitoring.
No gang activities, gang colors, or gang signs are tolerated on our school campuses. We have gang members in close proximity on every school campus everyday. And we have 140 staff members on each high school campus who monitor and control behavior like this every day – administrators, campus security supervisors, police and sheriff department resource officers, teachers, counselors and Youth Service Specialists. While incidents are few on school campuses, they are increasingly common in the community.
Following yesterday’s tragedy, our schools assessed their campus security needs and increased them as necessary. School personnel have increased their level of vigilance. Counseling support has been made available to students, as needed.
We met within an hour of yesterday’s tragedy; I met with junior high and high school principals. Immediate security was the first order of business. Next on the list was a re-evaluation of our early release policies.
We need to remember that every day our schools release students within a 25-30 minutes of each other. The opportunity for this kind of negative behavior occurs on a daily basis during the 180-day school year, weekends, holidays, and summer vacation. The safety of our students and our community is our number one concern. We will evaluate and change any policies that are not aligned with that priority.
We will also continue to meet with the community in a series of community meetings focused on preventing gang activities. We are deeply concerned about the ruinous effect of this kind of behavior on the lives of our adolescents and young adults and the destructive consequences to our community. We will continue to work closely with the police department, the county education office, our instructional and support staff, and the families of this community to change the blind mentality of gang thinking and its devastating effect on youth.
We are particularly troubled by how young some of the participants were. Sadly, even elementary-age children in some of our neighborhoods see and hear the language of the gangs. It is their reality. We continue to encourage parents to talk to their children. We ask parents to know where their children are and who their friends are. We are your partners in education and your children’s lives. Please contact your child’s school, or the district office, for any support your family may need.