City Police to Increase Presence in Schools With Issues of Violence
Posted on: Friday, 3 February 2006, 09:00 CST
By Peter Simon
Buffalo police officers will assume a greater presence in and around the city's public schools in an effort to stem persistent student violence, school and city officials announced Tuesday.
"What we're experiencing in some of our school buildings is the outgrowth of incidents happening in neighborhoods," Mayor Byron W. Brown said at a City Hall news conference. "We want to send a very clear message that violence in and around our school buildings will not be tolerated."
The police presence will concentrate largely on Lafayette, Grover Cleveland, Riverside and Burgard High Schools, where much of the violence has occurred.
Asked whether greater police presence in school buildings constitutes a "sad day," Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams said police are routinely assigned to school buildings in some states, and that such practices are growing.
"It's not a sad day," Williams said. "This is America. This is all part of how we have to live now."
Earlier Tuesday, Williams and police officials were attending a meeting at Grover Cleveland to discuss community violence when a fight broke out between two girls. Police broke it up, and no arrests were made, said Heather Groll, school system spokeswoman.
At the news conference hours later, Brown, Williams and interim Police Commissioner Joseph Strano outlined these measures:
* All five police districts will assign officers to patrol around targeted schools at the beginning and end of the school day.
* The Police Department's nine-member Flex Squad, which responds to trouble spots, will focus on city schools.
* Williams will seek $500,000 to restore the Attendance Intervention Model, or "AIM Team." Before it was disbanded a few years ago, four police officers and four school workers identified and worked with youngsters who were truant from school.
* A police liaison will be assigned to work with regularly with school officials.
While police will enter city schools when officers and school principals feel that is appropriate, Williams and Brown said their purpose will be to build relationships with students.
"We're not looking for the officers to come in and do discipline and run the schools," Williams said. "I'm not looking for a police officer to take the place of us."
Williams said he will ask the School Board next Wednesday to raise the enrollment limit at the Opportunity Center to 320 from 100 students. Disruptive students would stay there until at least the end of the school year and would be offered a full range of academic courses and assistance with their social and emotional needs.
e-mail: psimon@buffnews.com
Source: Buffalo News
Related Articles
- Columbus City Public School System Makes Big Gains in Student Achievement
- Former Utah Transit Authority General Counsel Kathryn H. S. Pett Joins Ballard Spahr's Salt Lake City Office
- DIMG: Sheriff Lee Baca and Chief of Police William Barton Appreciates and Thanks Ramy El-Batrawi for His Support and Efforts on Behalf of the Initiative to Pass the 'Public Safety and Homeland Security Sales Tax Initiative,' Better Known As 'Measure A'
- Tibbetts Understands Cut in School Resource Officers
- Daley Hails $1 Billion for Schools: City to Fund $600 Million of Ambitious Building Program
- Title Company Moves Northwest City Office
- Making Phonics Phun *** Program Helps School Teach Reading Skills to Young Students
- City Exchanges Land for Four New Schools: The City Council Unanimously Approved Plans to Swap Land With Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Order to Build Two New High Schools and Two New K-8 Centers
- Windsor, Vt., School Resource Officer Hiring Process Still Underway
- Different Schools of Thought; Shared Buildings Sometimes Make for Peculiar Pairings
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds