Students, Parents Examine Ideas for a Safer School

Eighth-grader Jeremy Worden, the victim of a brutal schoolyard hazing in October, talked about ways to stop racism on campus and to encourage kids to excel in their schoolwork.

Classmate Brian Williams hoped to put an end to bullying.

Monica Perez, a seventh-grader, wanted to help students work through conflicts so they can focus on learning.

The three joined about 50 other students and parents Saturday at Portola Middle School in Orange to discuss with teachers and the principal ways to make the school a better and safer place.

The four-hour workshop came two months after the schoolyard hazing that landed Jeremy in the hospital with internal injuries. It was a tradition among some students at Portola to throw a few punches at a schoolmate on his birthday. However, Jeremy was severely beaten and suffered a bruised spleen.

The incident led to a crackdown on school violence, and to severe punishment for those who took part in the attack. Two of the students have been expelled, a third is awaiting an expulsion hearing and criminal charges are pending, authorities said.

The incident has left an emotional scar on some students, who say they feel scared and distracted from learning when they witness playground brawling. Those concerns led to Saturday’s forum.

While Jeremy is recovering and hasn’t yet returned to his classes, he thought Saturday’s workshop was too important to miss.

“I think it’s very productive,” he said. “A lot of good came out of it. Now we need to expand what we came up with here and take it into the classroom.”

Sixth-grader Bernice Espinoza felt good about the session too. “I think the school is going to be different after this,” she said.

Students and parents spent the first half of the workshop identifying issues that needed to be addressed: providing security at bus stops, improving communication among teachers, students and parents, creating more campus activities and getting kids to value learning.

“If you’re an A student, people look down on you because you’re smart,” said Jeremy, an A student himself. “It’s like if you get Fs, you’re cool. . . . How do you make learning more fun so that people want to get A’s and respect the kids who excel in school?”

The remainder of the workshop focused on solutions.

Some parents suggested forming a security patrol of fathers who would take turns supervising school bus stops. They also supported sending bulletins home to let families know about school issues and programs.

To improve campus security, some kids suggested forming a student monitor program.

“We have a security guard already, but he can’t be everywhere,” said Brian. “He might be at one end of the campus, and if there’s a fight going on at the other end, he’s not going to see it. But if we had student monitors, they can report the fight to the security guard or a teacher.”

Although the bulk of the morning forum focused on serious issues, improving the campus social scene was also discussed--from holding a middle-school prom, to having Junior Olympics competitions during the lunch hour.

The suggestions will be refined over the next month and then presented to the Board of Education, said Principal Carolyn Reichert. She said she hopes to implement some of the programs in the spring. “I thought [the suggestions] were very powerful,” Reichert said.

Jeremy’s mother, Robyn Worden, said the workshop was “a good start,” but it’s going to take more than one session to help keep students safe.

“I think a lot of parents in the community don’t realize what’s going on in the schools,” she said. “I don’t even think the teachers are aware of the level of violence. But it takes a community to make things work--parents, teachers, school board members.”