The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
City Council members grilled school officials Tuesday on the use of pepper spray against students and the failure of 10 of the division's 45 schools to win full accreditation.
"We shouldn't be trailing that far behind," Vice Mayor Anthony Burfoot said of the accreditation results, which rank Norfolk among the worst-performing school systems in the state.
Councilman Paul Riddick questioned school security officers' use of pepper spray to control students. Guards at two middle schools used the weapon in the past week.
"The Lord only gives you one set of eyes," said Riddick, who raised the possibility that the city or division could be held liable for injuries.
The division is the only local school system that arms security guards with the spray.
"We only use it... where a child is going to hurt themselves or somebody around them," Associate Superintendent for Administration Michael Spencer said.
The division's accreditation results were pulled down partly by a new state requirement that on-time graduation and dropout rates be considered along with Standards of Learning testing. Four of five city high schools missed full accreditation.
Superintendent Richard Bentley
said the state's new accountability standards on graduation and dropouts - and the division's own desire to educate children - meant that the school system actually did not have the option of just writing off disinterested students.
But council members, including Burfoot and Theresa Whibley, said the division should already have been doing more to improve graduations numbers and cut dropouts.
"What do you think went wrong? What's not working?" Whibley asked.
Bentley, who was hired last year, said that in the past, administrators did not take a unified, cohesive approach to solving the problems.
Additionally, $50 million in school budget cuts over the past two years have hurt the division, School Board Chairman Kirk Houston said. "We had to cut 500 positions," he said, citing state reductions in school aid.
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417 steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
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What is the answer?
So is the answer to just make everything permissable, and remove all authority and the enforcing of authority from the school system? Pepper spray is designed to be non-lethal THAT DOES NOT IN ANY WAY MEAN IT WON'T HURT YOU! Quite the contrary, if it wasnt' very painful and uncomfortable then what good would it be? Same with bean-bag guns and tazers- they work becauset they inflict pain. The students need to learn very quickly that the real world does not exist to coddle to their every feeling and whim and when you mock authority the result is pain. Without non-lethal means the police will just have to go back to bullets.
Headline is misleading
I think the headline "Norfolk council: Schools need to rethink pepper spray" was a poor choice by the Virginian-Pilot - very misleading. As someone who was at the joint meeting, I can tell you that it was really only one council member who made a big deal about the pepper spray. City Council did not vote on this and did not tell them to rethink it. In fact, only a few council members even spoke about it. The discussion was more about getting the facts straight.
The media, including TV, has taken this too far. Slow news day. Do you remember when bus accidents were all over the news? How many bus accidents have been reported by the media this year? Did bus accidents just stop happening?
Teachers Before Administrators
Here is the rest of my comment.
Spencer is going to Ghent now, where he is more comfortable! Bentley says, have to cut IT, security, teachers, 500 of them. How many administrators were cut? Granby High scores going down, who is the principal? Tommy wants to know how many Math teachers we are down, how many administrators are we down?
pepper spray
Has the Norfolk Councel lost their minds even considering banning the use of p/s. Please tell me what security personel are supposed to do with out of control thugs throwing chairs assaulting people and alike. Once again Paul Riddick shoots off his big mouth about something in which he knows nothing about for purposes of inflaming the public. Pepper spray does not blind people, at least not permanately. It is nothing but areosol, ole capsecum pepper which does not permanatley blind people. I can hear it now; security: son don't throw that chair, ok maybe just one more! do you feel better now little johnny, ohhhhh you poor baby, want to punch out a teacher's lights, would that make you feel better!! That is the mind set of freeking libs.
Keep your mouth shut
After reading this article then read Kerry Dougherty's Opinion. Everyone is quick to blame....For the parents of these kids and others who disrupt the school system; look in the mirror and tell yourself that your own kids will be a burden on society like you yourself are. City council members need to stand up for the education system, back up your teachers and employees, give them the benefit of the doubt first. This council is worse then the disrupting kids, keep your mouth shut, investigate, and then praise your employees for protecting and teaching the other school kids.
The court jester.
Wasn't Associate Superintendent for Administration Michael Spencer in the running for a job elsewhere?
Hopefully, he'll get the job.
He's one of the main players in the top "administration."
He was supposed to be a bridge from the previous superintendent (Jone) to Bentley.
Get your facts straight...
Get your facts before you judge someone you know absolutely nothing about. I have had the pleasure of working with Mr. Spencer from time to time for many years. I can tell you he is honest, fair, investigates, and always hears all sides before he makes a decision/recommendation. You can't blame him for all NPS's problems or for whether someone else at NPS listens to his advice or not. So before you trash someone's reputation you should get to know them and learn for yourself rather than making assumptions. Everyone knows what assumptions make you look like... Consider yourself noticed as one of those.
Administrators Before Teachers
“Capturing Kids Hearts”, a joke? Teachers capture a child’s heart the first day of school by asking “what neighborhood are you from?” the child says the Parks, the teacher’s response is, “Oh, you will be gone by semester.”Tommy insinuates that “those urban kids” can’t learn, do they have a chance.The kid that threw the chair is a thug, he was really aiming for that teacher in elementary school. “Sense of Belonging?” Bentley get real. NPS will be the same as long as the interests of the paychecks of principals/asst principals/other administrators are put ahead of teachers and students. Before Tuesday, Spencer was the spokesperson for the schools, even after Bentley came to the City. Schools went down under his rule. That
Got a chip on your shoulder? Don't judge everyone...
Just because you've obviously had a bad experience does not make ALL principals/asst principals/other administrators bad. In any workplace there are good, & sometimes not so good employees. School systems are no different. Budget cuts mean no pay increases for everyone. If anything NPS, & most districts, try to give teachers a raise first. They're on the front lines, work extremely hard to educate our kids, sometimes deal with a lot, & definitely don't get paid enough. I've worked with some very dedicated teachers, principals, etc. over the years at NPS. They take a very personal interest in a students success. I've also encountered a few that weren't quite as good. But that's also true in other school districts I've had kids enrolled.
"those urban kids" can learn
nohaters100 - when did I say that urban kids can't learn? I did not see that in the article and I did not make those comments last night. You obviously do not know the work I have done with our urban kids.