A sixth-grade Jordan Middle School student has been suspended for brandishing a pocket knife at a parent during an after-school basketball game.
The incident follows an escalation in the number of fights and other violent acts at the north Palo Alto middle school since the beginning of January.
"We have been having more fights than usual," said Principal Bob Alvares. "We used to have one a month. It's gotten to be almost once a week."
Most of the fights have involved students who have come to the school from off campus. In some cases, fights have been arranged at other sites, such as Mitchell Park.
Two weeks ago, a sixth-grade boy was bouncing a basketball on the sidelines during a school basketball game. When the ball rolled onto the court, a parent grabbed it and would not return it to the youth. Upset, the boy allegedly brandished a knife at the parent, Alvares said.
Last week, three district administrators conducted an expulsion hearing to determine whether the boy should be expelled from the district, which means he would not be allowed to attend school in the district for the rest of the school year, or longer.
Associate Superintendent Barbara Liddell, who sat in on the hearing but is not on the hearing panel, said new legislation requires expulsion in the case of firearms possession on a school campus, but it does not apply to other weapons such as knives.
The school board was expected to consider the expulsion committee's recommendation this week. The recommendations are not public until the board acts on them. The student will remain suspended until the board takes action.
The rash of fights combined with the knife incident prompted Alvares to write a two-page letter to parents outlining the incidents, encouraging them to discuss them with their children, and explaining actions the school and the district were taking to eliminate campus violence.
"The kids were pretty complacent," Alvares said. In his letter, he wrote that "many students knew about these fights, but not one of them did anything to prevent (them) from occurring. In fact, there is an attitude that seems to prevail among some students which encourages these acts of violence. Students have even told me they feel they have to fight to prove how tough they are."
The school has stiffened the penalty to a minimum of three days' suspension for any student involved in fighting at school. Any student involved in an aggressive attack on another student will be suspended for a minimum of five days. Police are frequently called for more serious cases, and were called on several recent occasions. Most of the perpetrators have been arrested, including the sixth-grader who brandished the knife, Alvares said. A student found with a weapon on campus can be expelled, according to the state education code.
With the arrests and the more strict punishment, there has been a decrease in fighting.
"Just punishing is not always the answer," Alvares said. "We've asked parents to discuss with their kids violence as a way of solving problems."
Students who have been trained in conflict management will be encouraged to intervene, and the rest of the student body will soon receive class instruction on conflict resolution.
Alvares stressed the importance of parents' communicating with their children.
"Please take some time with your students to discuss how to handle conflicts without fighting," Alvares wrote. "Encourage them also to help us prevent violence by letting us know if there are problems developing."
"The parent community has supported our position tremendously," he said.
Jordan PTA President Cathy Kroymann said parents are concerned but still consider Jordan a safe campus.
As a parent, she said, it is sometimes difficult, with the bombardment of violence on television and in movies, to impress upon children and teens the seriousness of the problem.
"I've talked with my own son about it. It took a while for him to see my point of view," she said, since he sees so much violence in the media, as well as video games. "It's a wake-up call to parents to start talking to their kids. (The violence) is senseless, and the kids can so easily stop it."
--Elizabeth Darling
Back up to the Table of Contents Page