Push to Educate Youthful Inmates Is Hard on Teachers

California’s prison system for juveniles is pushing academics as never before, enforcing rigorous course requirements such as algebra and geometry on adolescents who are probably the most difficult to educate.

But even as these efforts seem to be improving the lives of many California Youth Authority wards, they are creating conflicts that test the ideal that education should leave no child behind.

Chief among these are complaints from the agency’s teachers union that safety has been compromised in the scramble to ensure that all wards receive instruction at one of the CYA’s 11 high schools.

Union leaders--now locked in contract negotiations--say violence against teachers has increased at various CYA campuses. Dangerous wards allowed to go to class, they allege, are emboldened by the knowledge that officials must give them instruction no matter how they misbehave.

CYA officials deny that violence is up, although they admit they lack a consistent tracking system.

But they acknowledge that for one reason or another turnover at many CYA schools is high, and there is a serious teacher shortage. About 20% of the roughly 500 teaching positions are vacant, and filling them has been tough: Salaries are generally not competitive with those of public schools and the work is year-round.

“There is a lot of pressure on teachers to deal with violent wards, and wards who don’t want to learn,” said one instructor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “No one can deal with these kids.”

Another teacher who also spoke on condition of anonymity accused the CYA of treating education as a “magic potion” to turn around troubled young men. “The idea is that if you throw enough books at these guys, they will respond,” the teacher said. “But these are some of the most dangerous felons in the U.S. This is not Happy Valley High School.”

CYA Director Jerry Harper defends the increased educational efforts, which aides say have resulted in more wards completing high school. “We go in with the concept that every one of these kids can be rehabilitated,” Harper said.

The agency houses about 7,000 wards, whose average age is 19 and average reading level is below seventh grade. They include gang members, delinquents and murderers. Though some have made amazing turnarounds, Harper acknowledges that others are simply too tough to teach.

So where should society draw the line when it comes to juvenile offenders? At least for now, CYA schools chief Dorrine Davis said, “There is no giving up.”

Many teachers, especially those at schools with fewer high-security students, say they enjoy their work and appreciate the reform efforts.

Class-Action Suit Leads to Changes

Before the 1990s, CYA schooling was typically limited to remedial classes and vocational education--”wood shop and reading,” as one former ward recalled. At its worst, wards were kept in cells all day. If they got any education, it consisted of little more than work sheets shoved through a food slot.

Although some CYA schools had better reputations than others, advocacy groups were, by and large, aghast. “It was just ridiculous for [wards] to come out of Youth Authority with no educational skills,” said Carole Schauffer, director of the Youth Law Center.

In 1989, Youth Law Center brought a class-action suit and won a court order that overhauled the way the CYA dealt with students. The suit focused on how special education students were identified but ended up guaranteeing all wards a right to education in the least restrictive environment possible.

In 1997, the CYA established its own school district and ensured that classroom budgets would not be raided. It began a “no diploma, no parole” policy, sought accreditation for its schools, and has introduced rigorous academic standards mirroring those in public schools.

The curriculum is being standardized, special education has been revamped and controversial practices such as keeping students “locked down” in cells and out of class have been curtailed.

More fundamentally, there was a change in philosophy from the days when the CYA “thought that education was a privilege, not a right,” said Davis, the schools chief.

One change in particular indicates how determined the agency is to educate wards: A device consisting of a cage equipped with a desk and chair is being used to contain a small number of students considered too violent for regular classes.

As the changes have been phased in, the number of wards who get diplomas while in custody has risen, jumping nearly 20% in one year. More than 800 yearly, or about 19% of high school-eligible students, have been getting diplomas, and about 1,300 are taking college courses while in custody.

Jose Antonio Hernandez, 19, who was convicted of manslaughter and parole violations before he reached high school age, is a ward at a CYA facility in Whittier and a living example of the merits of emphasizing education.

When he entered the juvenile justice system, “I couldn’t read, I didn’t know how to spell the word ‘the.’ I didn’t even know how to spell my name,” Hernandez said.

Now he reads well and seems overjoyed and a little astonished by his own progress. “My mom is real happy,” he said. “She never thought I would get a diploma. Now I’m showing her I can do it.”

CYA officials say there is some evidence that wards move through school faster than adult students in public high school programs, perhaps owing to small class sizes and few distractions. Some wards have even asked to postpone their release dates so they can finish the credits they need to graduate. But as teachers and CYA officials struggle through a difficult round of contract talks, frictions have emerged.

The CYA teachers union, a unit of the California State Employees Assn., is battling over the administration’s insistence that teachers leave their classrooms for a portion of the day to deliver instruction to students who have been locked up for bad behavior.

Teachers Seek More Training, Protection

Union leaders say teachers have not been given adequate training or protection to teach in dormitories and have been attacked outside the controlled confines of a classroom. A court recently ruled in the teachers’ favor, saying administrators need to do more to ensure their safety. But exactly what remains unclear.

And at some institutions, teachers say that the reforms have led staffers to feel less safe and that students who most want to learn are distracted by a tense and menacing atmosphere.

“We have students who get into fights in the morning and they are immediately back in school the next period,” said Keith Wimer, a bargaining committee member.

Joe Maxwell, a teacher at a CYA facility in Paso Robles and a union shop steward, said the teachers’ influence has eroded as discipline has ebbed. “There used to be consequences for failing grades,” he said. “There are none right now.”

Administrators say discipline has not been watered down. They contend the complaints are concentrated at a few facilities.

Administrators also say they have created new requirements for documenting discipline and ensuring students have a right to appeal. Union leaders counter that the result has been to saddle the institutions with so much red tape that it has become difficult to enforce rules.

Sue Burrell, a staff attorney at the Youth Law Center and a key advocate for CYA wards, said she was unaware of many of the union’s concerns. Instead, advocates have been focused on pressuring the agency to give wards even more access to education, she said.

The balance between education and security may now warrant additional attention, Burrell said, adding: “It has never been our intention that security issues be ignored.”