Dealing With School Violence

The article about a new report that charges Los Angeles Unified School District officials with failing to stem campus violence “because school officials put the welfare of violent students ahead of the safety of law-abiding students and teachers” was an irrepressibly satisfying bit of reading for me. I am an LAUSD teacher. I have had to experience the validity of these findings for the last few years. My hope is that with continued public exposure of flawed LAUSD policies our schools might improve.

But my advice is: Don’t hold your breath. In a monster bureaucracy such as LAUSD there is no one who accepts responsibility for failure. I can see the army of administrative bureaucrats now, feverishly passing the buck and pointing the finger of blame, as usual, in my direction.

DAN HENNESSY

Los Angeles