By Dalia Diaz
Lately, there has been a series of incidents in Lawrence Public Schools and unless parents of the affected child is contacted in the emergency, no other school parents would know of the dangers and perils that are occurring in the schools.
The latest incidents are of a nationwide TikTok depicting video in what appears to be two people jumping to trip another person, who comes crashing to the ground. This is a dangerous bullying tactic that is seeing substantial head injuries across the nation’s school.
The latest incident occurred in the Arlington School in Lawrence in which ambulances had to remove a student and take her to a Boston hospital with concussion and neck injury due to this exact copy cat danger. School department officials did not reach out to the parents for communication until 11 days later; after newspapers were informed of the incidents by non-public officials.
However, we have been getting unofficial accounts of the dangers and unreported incidents from inside the schools from LPS employees. They are hurting for safe working environments.
The amount of violence occurring in the Lawrence Public Schools is a direct issue associated with their policies, policies that were changed when the school committee was extracted from their powers. These policies were placed by a receiver, who supposedly is treated as a god across the commonwealth, but that really did not do anything special for Lawrence except place people in power whom the Massachusetts Political wanted in power and gave contracts to whom the political powers wanted them to be awarded. These current receiver policies allow gang members to continue coming into the sacred walls of LPS education institutions and are getting your children sicker (mentally) and hurting them (physically).
The amount of gang violence in the schools, the shootings, the physical altercations have been a danger to those students who only wish to gain a non-violent education and to each of the LPS staff who dedicate their time to ensuring that those who wish to study get the education they deserve. However, lately, that dedication is coming at the dangers to both students and staff losing their life or getting injured in the workplace.
Recently, I spoke to a long time teacher who got involved in an incident among students and ended up disabled for life. To make things worse for her, the City of Lawrence refused to pay for many of her treatments.
What is worst about this entire situation is that parents are being kept in the dark about matters of safety and health in the Lawrence Public Schools system. The silence is just another reason so that the LPS public relations are not affected by the negativity that it will bring, and unless the police department gets involved in a criminal investigation, the public does not know about the dangers.
Some of the police investigations are associated with school shootings, during athletics, events by these dangerous gangs, or shootings outside schools while students are eagerly trying to build their minds with educations – as was evident with the Lawrence/Methuen shooting that occurred a few months ago. But the incidents the public, and more importantly, the parents, do not know are both physically and psychologically affecting your children.
According to the CDC Division of Violence Prevention, deaths resulting from school violence are only part of the problem. Many young people experience nonfatal injuries. Some of these injuries are relatively minor and include cuts, bruises, and broken bones. Other injuries, like gunshot wounds and head trauma, are more serious and can lead to permanent disability. Not all injuries are visible. Exposure to youth violence and school violence can lead to a wide array of negative health behaviors and outcomes, including alcohol and drug use and suicide. Depression, anxiety, and many other psychological problems, including fear, can result from school violence.
The LPS should take a variety of measures to improve school safety. These include the use of metal detectors, the presence and increase security guards on campus, rules, and regulations regarding student conduct and dress, profiling of potentially violent students, anti-bullying instructional programs, and counseling and mediation. Rules and regulations that directly target violence are zero-tolerance policies in as much as a single violation should result in punishment, either suspension or expulsion.
We hear about the no-child-left- behind policies. We know that implementing harsh penalties to violations could result in many students dropping out. I know that the LPS were at those particular crossroads. But what is the alternative? Let the non-violent children become victims and have their psyche and anxiety levels rise because of this? I think LPS should reshape its policies and better protect our children and better protect our community.
Additionally, the Police Department should have no mercy on violence from minors. We can only look at the Mayor who hired a criminal to work in the city, (who was caught as a minor and jailed), to see that it took away a life of a non-violent man.
I have a message to the parents that believe that the LPS is responsible for raising their children: Get your stuff together. The city is not here to raise your child for you. That is your job. Your job to instill goods values into your children to be congruent with those values around your good neighbors. It’s not the LPS job to instill those values of good, it is yours. The only responsibility the LPS has is to educate and feed your child.
A final message to those parents that are doing their jobs as good parents: Ensure that your school system is catering to the values you want to see in the school system. This is your school system, not the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. You, without a power school committee, should demand from the LPS.
