NORFOLK
The boy burst out of Maury High School's discipline office, cursing loudly as he stormed into the hall.
A message instantly crackled across school administrators' walkie-talkies. Within minutes, two blue-shirted security officers escorted the youth back to the office.
Principal Andrea Tottossy, standing nearby with visitors, nodded in approval.
"He didn't even get in the stairwell," she said. "Right there. Bam."
Security is a top concern at Maury - especially this fall, after a spate of fights and injuries to staff members caught in the fray raised worries about possible gang activity. Last month, after parents and teachers voiced concerns, the division brought in additional employees, at a cost of $565 a day, to help with Maury's security and discipline.
The efforts, while temporary, are paying off.
There hasn't been a fight at Maury since Oct. 21.
"As a principal, you can feel when the building is not right. It has felt right for a good while," Tottossy said.
Yet, the new principal is still cautious.
"I don't take a single day for granted."
Maury, which was constructed in 1910, is the city's oldest public high school. It serves about 2,000 students from some of Norfolk's most affluent neighborhoods, such as Ghent and Larchmont, and employs about 225 staffers.
During September and October, the first two months of this school year, Maury administrators logged 35 instances of "gang activity," compared with 52 for the whole school division during the entire 2007-08 school year. The statistics are self-reported by schools. Maury's numbers represent students who have admitted to being involved with gangs and those who have been identified as participants by school resource officers, Tottossy said.
In September, fears of gang violence prompted administrators to move one of Maury's football games. Two other Norfolk games - including another involving Maury - also were rescheduled to the daytime because of security concerns involving students from other high schools.
Officials responded to worries at Maury by adding three security officers and an assistant principal, and the Norfolk Police Department temporarily assigned another resource officer. School leaders also are exploring ways to double the number of surveillance cameras and to fix the system that allows administrators to broadcast messages to students on classroom televisions.
The extra measures drew questions from some City Council members. Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot told school leaders that Maury shouldn't receive special treatment. They assured him that problems at other schools would be addressed as needed, he said.
Similar steps have been taken in the past at some of the city's other schools, including Granby High and the Madison alternative school, said Michael Spencer, the school division's chief operations officer. Officials plan to re-evaluate Maury's security in coming weeks, he said.
"You don't want to do it in a way where you're back where you started," he said.
Beyond the extra personnel, Tottossy has cracked down on tardies, doled out harsher punishments for repeat offenders and discussed acceptable behavior during 30-minute student assemblies. Police also have trained teachers on how to identify gang activity.
In October alone, Maury administrators issued out-of-school suspensions 189 times - the most by far of the city's five high schools that month.
Tottossy said the extra security has been invaluable because the school building's layout limits visibility and makes it more difficult to track students in stairwells.
Several factors contributed to Maury's discipline problems, according to teachers and administrators who work there.
At the beginning of the school year, students who were suspended at the end of the previous year returned to Maury, and the new class of ninth-graders from feeder schools Blair Middle and Lafayette-Winona Middle seemed more prone to trouble.
In addition, the August fatal shooting of 17-year-old student Eduardo Perez in Park Place made some students tense. Others may have chafed at the leadership of a new principal. Maury's previous principal, Michael J. Caprio, retired this spring after five years at the school.
"After a while, it was a normal thing, seeing people jump up and get in a fight," said a female freshman student. The Virginian-Pilot is withholding the names of students at the request of their parents because of fear of retribution.
In past years, students roamed the halls during class, and teachers were hesitant to discipline the teenagers because they were unsure whether they would receive support from administrators, said Sharon Cook, an English teacher.
"You feel no one is supporting you," Cook said, "so you just say, 'Forget it.' "
That has changed under the new principal, she said.
Tottossy has been an administrator about 10 of her 16 years as an educator, most recently as principal of Northside Middle School. She's dealt with gangs before, she said. Once at Northside, she and her staff broke up five simultaneous fights in an incident she suspected was gang-related.
She made changes at Maury based on her observations and conversations with students and parents, she said.
Students who arrive at school after 7:25 a.m. must sign in at "tardy tables" manned by staff members. During class, security officers and administrators stop students in the hallways and ask for their passes.
At the end of the day, students are dismissed by floor, and only eight of the school's 38 exits are used.
Plans are in the works for a mentoring program, an after-school homework club and conflict-mediation training, Tottossy said.
Parents said they're pleased with the extra measures.
"I feel better that they're listening and entertaining the questions," said Kim Miller, the mother of a freshman at Maury. "I won't feel better about it if they don't follow through."
Although her 11th-grade daughter has been stopped at the tardy table, Tracy Layden said she likes the concept: "It just ensures that the wrong people can't get in."
Students said some of the new rules are causing hassles. Standing in the tardy line makes them miss more class time, and it's hard to get to class because of the crowded hallways, they said.
Several students said they feel safer now, although they still worry about sending the wrong message to gang members at Maury.
"A lot of my friends and I worry about, 'Oh, have to make sure you don't wear that red shirt tomorrow,' " the freshman girl said.
Though stricter punishments make "the people who were fighting less motivated to fight" and keep gang activity out of the school, the gangs will continue on the street, a Maury junior said.
"I really don't think they're preventing it," he said. "They're just kind of delaying it."
Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com
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JUST KICK THEM OUT OF SCHOOL
Why are we even having this conversation!!! Kick the problems out of school and let the police handle them. Most of them are already in trouble with the law. How could any kid go to school and really learn with tugs patrolling the hallways? The Norfolk School district is proud of themselves because they cut down the fights/violence! GET RID OF THE CANCER ! Dummy!!!!
LOL! I just saw the School Security in the Pic!!!
is that what passes for security guards in NPS? When I went to Granby in the early 80's, our school guard was about the size and build of street fighter Kimbo Slice...this kid looks like a scared freshman hall monitor! No wonder we are having problems...
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
As much as might fantasize to the contrary, schools are a reflection of the world from which they draw students. All of the issues present in the community are present in the school. Beating kids into submission is no more effective in the school as it is in the home. Many parents expect schools to take over their parental roles. We can do our best in the schools, but the problems won't go away until they go away in the community.
Premature on the "Calming"
The good news: the article was published bringing attention to the problem of gang violence in our schools.
The bad news: this is a a pre-mature positive spin on Maury. Penny Warren, the woman pictured above in the article who works security at the front desk inside Maury High School, was assaulted yesterday, the same day the article was published, just outside of the lunchroom. She was hit in the face three times and had to be sent to the hospital. I heard it from friends who work and go to Maury. There were apparently more than a few witnesses.
Unfortunately, there were only 19 reported spaces open at Norfolk's "alternative" school, or administrators could get rid of all the violent students.
We have a long way to go before our kids are safe at our schools, but following through on rules already in place instead of cracking down is a start.
Given some of the adult comments
no wonder the children are no better...
What in the H@#
*laughing My Butt Off* Have any of you seen the security officer on the second picture? You've got to be kidding me. I am for extra security within the schools; however, lets have some type of standards to the officers. It looks like a 6 year old would ignore that officer in the hall way.
Underachieving is not something to be proud of.
First lets do away with the political correctness. Lets take that upper academic 25% and put then in one school. The second 25% in a second school.The next 40% in your average school,and that trouble making 10% in their own school,run by former USMC drill instructors. There would be at all times the opportunity to work yourself to the next level school for the following year. Contrary to the P.C.'s belief that we are all equal heres a news flash..WE ARE NOT when it comes to learning. Lets use the school system to truly challenge our students and I believe you need to be with people of equal and superior intelligence to truly be tested. You will never get any better playing ping pong if you constantly beat all your opponets. You will never get any faster running against people slower then you, and you will not get any smarter unless you are driven to out perform your peers. It's called competition for a reason. It's what this country was founded on even if our politicians don't seem to agree with me on that anymore. Lets face facts, the way it's being done lately is failing the younger generation.
Va Beach is no better
I knew it would only be a matter of time before the "Va Beach/Chesapeake Our schools are superior" bandwagoners posted comments! At least Norfolk choose to not bury thier heads in the resort beach sand when it came to gang violence and its influence in our school system. Teachers are NOT flocking to your school systems in droves from Norfolk because it is so horrendous in Norfolk most of them have moved to your areas and choose to teach close to thier homes rather than commute. Norfolk Schools pioneered the area with the IB program and in case you have forgotten the 2008 Teacher of the Year, Tommy Smigiel is a teacher in the NORFOLK School system. So get off of it Va Beach and Chesapeake schools have the SAME problems as Norfolk.
This type of behavior was non-existent or at best rare....
...until the Great Society programs of liberal Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson incentivized having children without marrying in order to get "free" income and subsidized housing. Throw on top of that the skyrocketing use of drugs that began in the late 60's and increased through the 70's and 80's and you have a recipe for disaster that must be addressed. Bill Cosby tried to but he's been shouted down. Too bad.
I hardly think. . .
Bringing back the "paddles" is going to solve anything. Being realistic, some of these students are mothers and fathers themselves. There needs to be more focus on the students emotionally than physically. I agree with a previous poster,have more teacher/counselors involved in the school systems.
smaller class sizes
snipped from below:
" graduation rates are highest where student-teacher ratios were lowest, with the gains particularly sharp for among minority students."
Absolutely understandable. Kids that crave attention [the good kind] and get it do better. Imagine how well they'd do overall if they got love and attention at home...
High School
It sounds like the "disciplinary crackdown" is the manner in which the school should be ordinarily administered. Whenever there is a "crackdown," it is an admission that administrators have not been doing their jobs. Let them get off of their backsides and into the hallways and classrooms on a regular, daily basis and you will see a positive improvement.
susiqfc stated...
"There are a bunch of angry kids out there and society needs to start realizing that most of these kids weren't born with this problem!"
That's a fact they're angry. I suspect they get it from home. If you're raised by an angry parent odds are you'll be angry too. I see angry people nearly every where I go. They don't bother to hide it and some probably use it as a form of intimidation.
Let's focus on saving the good students
Everyone is forgetting that these future young criminals and gansta's are interupting the 90% of the good students education. Way too much focus & attention is placed on appeasing these punks who appreciate the negative attention. In the end nothing is done. What we have is a sugar cookie way of dealing with the issue.
I want to see criminal charges be applied in each case and where applicable and I want a Virginia juvenile boot camp staffed by the toughest Marine corp instructors we have. Each delinquent will have to succesfully complete the program to graduate or each infraction committed will add jail time that will be served.
Let's worry about saving the 90% rather than the 10% who don't care.
the troublemakers
It is all good that Maury is having more security, etc. BUT what is being done for these troubled kids once they leave the school grounds? Haul their parents into school and the courts and hold them accountable for something! Make them go to classes with their children to make sure they start to behave! There are a bunch of angry kids out there and society needs to start realizing that most of these kids weren't born with this problem! I am also very concerned about the "proud" statistic from October that Maury reports, that there were "189 out of school suspensions!" Oh gee, now I really feel better knowing those children were not in school but most likely roaming the streets of Norfolk! Yes, Maury is doing something but is the school system just putting on a bandaid to a very serious problem?
Maury High
I hope those of you advocating a return to corporal punishment are joking. Smacking kids around is not the answer. I had my share by wacky nuns and it just increases low self-esteem. These kids are already in survival mode. Sure, they need some discipline and structure and hopefully the new principal can offer it. When I taught in Hawaii, at a very rough high school, there was a separate school within a school approach for the "fringe" students. Their classes were smaller, their teachers more like teacher/counselors and their classroom environment more relaxed and conducive to open discussion. It seemed to work better for them and also allowed the more academically focused students to be less distracted by the "acting out" crowd. The problems of these students are complex and answers don't come easy. Kudo's to all teachers and administrators!
Problem Recognized
Granby Class of 1985 here...We had disciplinary problems which increased over my 4 years at GHS. We went from 1 hall monitor to 4 security officers in that time frame. I remember metal detectors being waved as we entered the school. I live in VB now because I do not want my kids in NPS. Hats off to Totossy for doing right by her students and parents. Norfolk needs a collective effort to deal with this problem including some accountability from the parents. More quality recreational facilities like VB has would help as well.
Have we yet evolved to the
Have we yet evolved to the point where we are allowed to talk about the major racial aspects of gang related violence, or is this still a topic totally off-limits as determined by our liberal and politically correct media censors?
No Surprise
Ohhhh Norfolk Public Schools...This just reiterates why so many teachers leave the city of Norfolk and are trying to get into VA Beach or Chesapeake. It is time to change the Superintendent and all of his henchmen, including getting rid of those administrators who can't get a school accredited. VA Beach- 100% accreditation; Chesapeake- 100% accreditation. To sum it up, Norfolk Public Schools is a horrible school system to have children going to school.
Discipline
Sounds like the plan in place at Maury is a good one for all involved!I agree that uniforms would solve the clothing issue that often is associated with gangs. I disagree with "Patriot" about the single parents being part of the problem...it is the "absentee" parents that are the problem. The parents that are NOT laying down ground rules for thier children to follow, the parents that do not supervise thier own children or bother to teach them AT HOME how to act and behave as they should. It is NOT a teachers job to provide your children with home training and that is what these children causing trouble lack.