Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Nancy Huang, 10, (center) reads from her conflict-manager worksheet to help solve a mock dispute between two students in Mary Tembrock's fifth-grade class at Foothill School.
Hysteria High
Amid an atmosphere of fear, schools try to keep the lid on campus violence
By Sandy Sims
Photographs by Kathy De La Torre
Los Gatos High School students recently showed up in the school's administration offices with rumors that someone was going to either place a bomb or shoot a gun in the auditorium during a planned spirit rally. Los Gatos police tracked the source of the rumors to an innocent conversation between classmates, who were theorizing about what could possibly happen at the rally. Part of the conversation was overheard by another classmate, who informed school administrators.
By the next morning, however, rumors were rampant. "One mother even called and demanded we close down the school," Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Chief Larry Todd says.
Unable to quell the rumors, administrators and students decided to call off the rally.
"Some students thought calling off the rally was stupid, and some thought it was good," Kristina Roskos, a senior at LGHS, says.
Stupid or not, when it comes to protective measures, school administrators walk a difficult line today between what might happen--the aftereffect of highly publicized shootings at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., and Santana High in Santee--and what will likely happen--nothing.
"School shootings were not even in the consciousness of students 33 years ago when I started teaching," says LGHS Principal Trudy McCulloch.
Ironically, the problem at Los Gatos High School might be related to an attempt by the school to prepare for violence on campus. "I think the intruder drill we had the week before had something to do with what happened with the spirit rally," McCulloch says.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Officer Michelle Stanfill walks a beat at Los Gatos High School. At first, students were wary that a police officer was on campus full time, but now students regularly greet and talk with her.
The school held an intruder drill after discussing with the police the need for school staff to practice what they would do in an emergency, McCulloch says. According to the California Education Code, all California schools are required to have a plan for such an emergency. "We also wanted to find out where potential problem areas were in the school," McCulloch says.
During the drill, McCulloch gave the agreed-upon signal that something was wrong, and the school reacted. Shades were drawn and doors locked. The drill lasted only four minutes, but McCulloch thinks it may have had something to do with the heightened reaction to rumors the following week.
"We don't want to be held hostage by these kind of rumors," says Gayle Shank, a physical education teacher at LGHS. "And we don't want to put our heads in the sand." Shank expresses the dilemma schools struggle with today.
"Schools are safer than ever," says Chief Todd, who adds that in the last five or six years there's been a drastic overall drop in the U.S. crime rate and that everyone is safer. "The images we are seeing on TV," Todd says, "are creating the perception that the world is not safe."
"We don't even have fist fights anymore." Kevin Skelly, principal at Saratoga High School, says. He recalls that fighting was a regular event when he was growing up.
And, not too long ago, weapons on campus were handled somewhat casually.
Cynthia Ranii, superintendent of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, recalls some years ago when she was taking over as principal of a school. The outgoing principal told her to be sure and look in the bottom right drawer of her new desk. Ranii opened the drawer and found knives, brass knuckles, marijuana pipes, roach clips and firecrackers. In those days, Ranii says, the principal of a school would tell a student with a weapon, " 'Give me that. You can't have that,' and drop it in the box."
Zero-tolerance laws, passed by the legislature in 1983, have changed that relaxed tone dramatically.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Officer Michelle Stanfill pauses to say hello to students during break. Stanfill has been the full-time resource officer at Los Gatos High for the last few weeks.
If a student is caught with a weapon today or even a potential weapon, such as a screwdriver, the police are called in and the student is cited. The police will actually measure and photograph a knife. The size of the knife and the circumstances under which it was found can lead to the student being expelled from school. In 1999, a LGHS freshman brought a gun to school, and though the police determined he meant no harm to anyone, the boy was expelled.
Weapons on campus are rare, but what schools can concentrate on is an age-old nemesis of tranquillity on campus: bullying.
A study by the U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center found that more than two-thirds of school shooters had felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured, by others. The report says a number of shooters had experienced long-standing, severe bullying.
"I don't think bullying has increased," McCulloch says. "It's about the same, but the ramifications have become so serious."
Not very long ago, teasing and taunting were treated casually in schools, but the zero-tolerance laws have grown even stronger over the years.
Saratoga High School Assistant Principal Karen Hyde says that 20 years ago, if a student complained about being called names, the administrator said, "just ignore it.
"They used to call it bullying," Hyde says. "Now they call it harassment, and it's illegal." She says, "Deans probably used to beat the kids for bullying; now we suspend them."
"If we see someone taunting," Hyde says, "we tell them 'Next time if I hear this from a reliable source, and the victim validates it, you will be suspended.' This is serious," Hyde says, "because the colleges won't take these kids. And college is very important to them." The California Education Code actually says harassment is grounds for expulsion.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Lauren Manley, 16, raises her hand during a discussion in the State Requirements class taught by Gayle Shank at Los Gatos High School. The class, required for all sophomores, covers topics including racism and tolerance.
After July 1, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District will report incidents of students harassing students to the state for statistical purposes. It's never been a statistical category before.
Schools are engaging students in the task of combating bullying.
Years ago, everyone frowned on a student who told on another classmate. Those students were called snitches and rats. Today, schools encourage students to tell administrators when they are picked on.
Recently, someone wrote the word "gay" on the wall of a teacher's classroom at Saratoga High School. Gail Wasserman, assistant principal at the school, says that after that incident, school administrators went two at a time to classes to talk to the students about tolerance. "We actually begged them to let us know if they ever saw anything 'not right,' " Wasserman says, "We assure students their names will not be revealed."
"Students are telling these days," Wasserman says. "Sometimes students are so mad," she says, "that they tell us, 'I don't care. I want them to know I told you.' "
But student's don't always tell.
"Kids harass each other when the administrators are not around," says a LGHS student who prefers to remain anonymous. "We just deal with it and go on. Most of us accept bullying and teasing as a way of life," the student says. "When I was teased, my friends told me to forget it. I've gotten stronger, and now I don't worry about what other people think of me.
"Homosexuality is a big issue," says the student. "There are a lot of people against it." The student says LGHS had a day of silence for homosexuals who have died, and some of the people who participated were harassed. Someone drew a lewd picture of a person bending over, the student says. "I know someone who's proud to be homophobic," the student says.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Students at Foothill School in Saratoga, who are having a dispute can sign up for conflict resolution help in Mary Tembrock's fifth-grade class.
"High schools kids are mad, sad, glad, moody one day and benevolent the next," Don Hand, LGHS vice principal, says. "And they don't even know why."
Hyde says, "Adolescence is a difficult time, and kids deal with it with a caste system."
Whitney Walker, a sophomore at LGHS, agrees. She says kids divide up into social teams and protect each other "You feel more secure with friends, Whitney says. "With no friends you feel very insecure."
Recently, Hand dealt with a confrontation between the so-called social teams. There was some yelling between a group of sophomore boys and a group of freshman girls. The argument included racial slurs. Eventually, the fracas escalated into a food fight. Hand says he talked to all the students.
"I approach students by asking them to look at what's on their side of the street," Hand says. "It's easy to keep looking at what the other guy did."
Hand says he's found, in some cases, there were old resentments, old prejudices. He eventually called in the parents, whom he says were very cooperative. "I try to get the kids to make amends for their part of the problem," Hand says. "Everything seems quiet now," he says. What happens, he says, is things escalate. One student gets hurt and wants to hurt back. And it grows from there.
"I'm not so worried about students being bullied," says LGHS teacher Gayle Shank. "The real problem is the student who is left out." Shank has just completed a 1 1/2 week segment on surviving high school in her State Requirements class. "We looked at issues pertinent to this school," Shank says, "things like homophobia, cliques, harassment and isolation." Students took an honest look at what it's like to feel isolated and how they contributed to harassment.
"It doesn't take much to hurt people," Whitney says. "Just laughing along with the crowd is hurtful."
Schools are spending hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to teach students to respect themselves and others. Los Gatos and Saratoga High schools have both sent large groups of students to Camp Anytown, a national program that specifically works on tolerance and understanding between racial and ethnic groups.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Sophomore students at Los Gatos High School discuss their thoughts and beliefs about gays, lesbians and homophobia in their State Requirements class. Left to right are Garnet Jorgensen, 15, Nassim Mohammad, 15, Scott Davis, 16, Danielle McFall, 16, and Claudia Palafox, 16.
Los Gatos High has instituted Link Crew, a program that trains juniors and seniors to help incoming freshman adjust to high school. Both LGHS and SHS send frequent requests to staff, asking if any student seems to be having trouble. Schools bring in speakers on the subjects of respect and tolerance. McCulloch says the school is always looking for ways to help students find a niche in school.
Most schools have conflict-mediation programs.
At Foothill School in Saratoga, fifth-grade teacher Mary Tembrock, who has a master's degree in counseling from San Jose State, trains student mediators in an eight-step conflict-resolution program. Any student in school who has a conflict can sign up for help. If a particular student's name keeps showing up, either as the accuser or the accused, it serves as a red flag. Teachers take a deeper look at what's going on with the student. "We don't have a bullying problem here," Tembrock says.
Paul Alioto, principal at Fisher School in Los Gatos, is working on a peer-mediation program. Argonaut School in Saratoga has a conflict-resolution program, and it has recently hosted a parent-training workshop in communication.
In the wake of recent school shootings, bullying is also getting a lot of attention off campus. An Internet search on the topic brings up a number of websites meant to help students deal with bullying. Some are adult sponsored, such as www.bullying.org, organized by a teacher after a student shooting in Alberta, Canada, in 1999. The Journal of the American Medical Association jumped into the fray recently. It recently published a survey on the prevalence of bullying in schools.
Gov. Gray Davis, in a meeting with PTA members in March, asked school districts to spend their new grant money on safety. In his speech, Davis said, "We clearly have to listen to the alienated and lonely people out there crying out for help."
While anxiety swirls through the press about that "needle-in-a-haystack" student shooter, who, in all probability, will never show up, school administrators, teachers and students must get on with the day-to-day task of education. They must also keep an ear cocked for potential problems and, even more importantly, they have the difficult job of evaluating what's real and what's rumor.
On April 27, Los Gatos High finally held the spirit rally and all went well.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
