Students in the Akron Public School District in Ohio are set to return to classes on Jan. 6. But their holiday break could go into OT if the teachers decide to strike on January 9. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, negotiations between the teacher’s union and the district over new contracts began in March of last year before stalling out in May. At one point, the unresolved issues were sent to a fact-finder. In November, the teachers rejected the recommendations of the fact-finder, which means things had to go to a federal mediator.
There are multiple unresolved problems, but one of the biggest appears to be school safety. Local TV station Fox 8 reports that, in December, two students were found to be in possession of firearms. The month prior, there were two stabbings in district schools. Akron Education Association President Patricia Shipe said in a press release:
The Akron community’s outpouring of concerns regarding school safety and security are being ignored by Akron Public Schools. Weeks of unparalleled fighting are now daily occurrence within Akron school buildings, yet the superintendent and the board continue to want to water down the definition of assault and force students, teachers, parents and families to endure more violence, disorder and disruption to the education of the majority of Akron students.
According to the association, teachers are resigning at a record pace.
The Beacon Journal cited information from a school counselor that as of November, there had been 60 assaults against staff members for the year. The administration said that a quarter of those assaults were committed by kindergartners, and the teacher’s association says that according to its research, 18 of those cases involved kindergartners. The counselor said that just nine high school students committed assaults. By contrast, the association holds that children in grades 6-8 accounted for 27% of the incidents.
District officials said in December that they would spend $3.5 million to upgrade safety equipment, but the district did not take part in a grant program from the state that allocated $58 million for school safety. The association holds that grant money could have been used for the effort, and the $3.5 million could have gone to hiring new teachers. The association alleges that three-fifths of the teaching positions in the district are vacant or filled by unqualified people.
When I was a kid, I went to a city public middle school and a city high school. And yes, there was a violent element there. I got beat up and harassed, and to some degree, it was accepted. Not necessarily by the staff, but it was considered to be part and parcel of the student ecosystem. But in middle school, it was limited to your garden-variety schoolyard bullying.
The game got a little more real in high school, but no one ever attacked a teacher, and no one ever brought a gun to school. Well, maybe I should qualify that to say that no one ever got caught bringing a gun to school. Weed, yes. Guns, no. And the idea of criminal assault was unthinkable in middle school. Of course, that was decades ago. And you don’t need me to track the changes between the ’70s and ’80s and the 2020s for you. To a certain degree, we are getting the students we asked for or at least should have expected.
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