Keeping our Schools Safe

The Gazette editorialists get something really, really right...

The Gazette
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

This week, the teachers at Louis-Joseph-Papineau school in the north end of Montreal took the extraordinary step of walking out of their classrooms to gather in the school gymnasium - and refusing to leave until the school administration promised to take measures to keep them safe.

The direct cause of the teachers' action was a bloody fight between students on Oct. 19. Three students in a "welcome class" stabbed another student in the ribs, after first turning closed-circuit cameras so the attack could not be filmed.

The teachers accused the school administration of downplaying the incident, of calling the stab wounds scratches and of refusing to call emergency services at 911. The teachers also complained that young people who are not enrolled in the school wander its halls, making trouble.

Unless the teachers' complaints are completely groundless, which no one has suggested, then the administration is derelict in its duty not just to them, but to the 1,200 students who attend the school, one of the poorest in the city.

Poverty, to take that point first, is no excuse for a poorly run institution. Students from impoverished neighbourhoods need a calm, structured, safe environment in which to learn every bit as much as students from wealthier backgrounds. It is the job of the school administration and teaching staff to provide that environment.

The teachers called for security guards to be posted in the school. This might be advisable in the short term, to settle things down and to rid the school of youths who are not enrolled and have no business in the building. But in the longer term, other means need to be considered.

Prime among them is scaling down the number of students. A school with 1,200 students is too large. A 2002 study by researchers with the economics department at Carleton University found school violence rises rapidly with school size (measured by enrolment) and goes up "almost exponentially for seriously violent crimes."

Thirty-eight per cent of schools with an enrolment of less than 300 students reported at least one serious violent incident to police. Among schools with enrolments of 1,000 or more students, 89 per cent reported at least one violent incident.

The researchers also examined the difference between the public and private systems. Private schools are much smaller, but in a significant finding, private-school students experience the same level of fear of being attacked on the way to and from school as those attending public schools. But public-school students were far more afraid of being attacked in school.

It makes sense that youngsters cannot attach to a vast, soulless institution. It's time to rethink size. Piling everyone into a huge school to save money might be costing us more than we ever imagined.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005