Safe schools: Boston outlines new school safety measures

As the first anniversary of the Columbine tragedy last April 20 approaches, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston School Committee member Robert P. Gittens and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant outlined new school safety measures being implemented in Boston to help maintain safety in the city's schools and to provide supports for at-risk students.

City officials were joined by local law enforcement and juvenile justice officials at the Boston Middle School Academy, a new alternative middle school for "chronically disruptive" students, where they highlighted multiple new initiatives, including:

• this new alternative middle school for "chronically disruptive" students

  The Boston Middle School Academy serves 50 students in grades 6-8 who repeatedly violated the Boston Pubic Schools' Code of Discipline while at traditional Boston middle schools. The school is modeled after Boston's Community Academy, which opened in 1994 as the first alternative high school in the state to offer services for expelled students.

  The middle school offers a standards-based academic program, small-group instruction (student-to-teacher ration of 15:1), intensive counseling and family outreach. Every Boston middle school is allotted a certain number of seats based on its enrollment size. A work group determines exit criteria for individual students. Students may transition to traditional Boston middle or high schools. The Academy began receiving students last November.

• a new school transfer policy for students with disciplinary histories

  In June, 1999, the Boston School Committee adopted a new student disciplinary transfer policy that ended the practice of transferring chronically disruptive students from one traditional school to another. The new policy requires that a student receiving a so-called "disciplinary transfer" from a traditional Boston school be transferred to an alternative program.

• a new high school for overage students

  In July, 1999, the Boston School Committee approved a policy making 19 years old the maximum age at which a student may still enroll in a traditional Boston public high school. In September, the Boston Adult Technical Academy for overage students (i.e., 20 years or older) opened at the Madison Park complex in Roxbury.

  This year, the school serves approximately 70 students and has a capacity for 125. Students attend mid-afternoon and evening classes (2:30-8:30 p.m.) designed for adult learners. Graduates will receive a BPS diploma. Due to a one-year grandfather clause for already enrolled overage BPS students, Academy students this year are largely newcomers to the country. Next fall, no student over 19 will be enrolled in a traditional Boston high school.

• a joint Probation/DYS/BPS transition program for court-involved youth

  The Angel Street Transition Program in Dorchester is an off-site alternative program for high school students who have been incarcerated for an extended length of time and are preparing to return to Boston high school. The program ends the practice of directly returning to a traditional high school students coming out of Department of Youth Services (DYS) lock-up. The program provides DYS-committed youth with supports and assessment before their enrollment at a Boston high school.

• Students enrolled in the program, which opened early last spring, are assigned individual case workers and receive counseling, anger management training, drug/alcohol testing and family outreach. A student's stay may last from one to several months, as determined by his/her case worker and receiving school.
  
  
• a joint Community Corrections/DYS/BPS program for youth on probation and at-risk of incarceration

  The Juvenile Resource Center in the McCormack Building at Post Office Square serves 20-25 middle school students (grades 6-8) who have violated their probation, have been expelled, or have repeatedly violated the Boston Public Schools' Code of Discipline. Within the standards-based academic program, students undergo drug/alcohol screening, intensive counseling, anger management training and receive family outreach. The program, which currently serves 15 students, began serving middle school students in December, 1999.

• crisis training by emergency and security experts for every school administrator

  This year, every principal and headmaster of Boston's 130 public schools received crisis response training from emergency personnel to try to anticipate step-by-step needs and possible responses in the event of a school crisis.

• school emergency response plans in every police district for every school

  Every Boston Police Department district has developed school emergency response plans for every school in every district, with complete school contact information, floor plans, security measures, etc.