Disciplinary crackdown calms Norfolk's Maury High School

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