S.H.A.P.P.E.

Senior High Alliance of Parents Principals and Educators

Cardozo Senior High School
December 7, 2010 Meeting Notes

Representatives from: Roosevelt, School Without Walls, Wilson, Georgetown University,

Metro Teen Aids, Cardozo, Step Up DC, DC Language Access Coalition, Youth Services
Center and DC Parent Information Resource Center

In the last two weeks two students, Prince Okorie who attended Roosevelt and Ebony
Franklin who attended Cardozo were killed. This meeting focuses on what we might
learn and how we can respond constructively and compassionately. These notes reflect
our discussion at this meeting. SHAPPE will seek to solicit feedback from those not
present so that we have an even fuller picture.

Prince Okorie was residing in a shelter after having been detained at YSC. The
circumstances of his death have highlighted some of the issues involved in the transition
between the Department of Youth Rehabilitation and the DCPS high schools. We also
discussed conditions in the high schools that contribute to the alienation of many of our
young people and how these might be addressed.

1 -Transition Between and Within DCPS and DYRS

Process:
When a young person is picked up for a transgression, they are taken to the Youth
Services Center on Mount Olivet Road prior to any adjudication. The school at the
Youth Services Center is a DCPS high school and a SHAPPE member. Students stay for
an average of 25 days. From YSC the judge could recommend a shelter house based on
their case. The go to group homes or New Beginnings if they are to be committed to
DYRS. If they are in the group homes or shelters they go to the neighborhood high
school for that area, at New Beginnings they attend the Maya Angelou Academy
(different from the Maya Angelou Charter School) If they are under 18 and being
charged as an adult they go the DCPS School for Incarcerated Youth at the DC Jail. The
Courts make the decision. There are 78 students at YSA this year, last year there were
150.

It is not clear what the process is for receiving the funding to be a shelter or a group home
or what is required in terms of parenting responsibilities. Teachers reported difficulty in
communicating with the personnel at many of the homes and shelters. There is currently
no notification of when a student will be assigned to a school and no notification when
they are withdrawn.

At the Youth Services Center they are reaching out to the families of these young people
with a weekly open house where they can visit their child and also meet with some of the
school personnel including the principal.

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At the Youth Services Center students are placed in classes based on their risk factors
rather than their grade level. They are placed in small classes where a youth development
resource officer is present (formerly called correctional officer). For those students at
particular risk of suicide there is something called green line, which is a more intense
watch. Contact is made with the student’s school and an effort made to continue that
work. Read 180 is used to allow students to proceed from where they are with reading;
they have a full staff in the required high school courses including PE and a full gym. It
is a highly structured environment. One third of the students have the right to special
education services. When students are sent from YSC with a class ratio as low as 1 to 10
for teachers and constant supervision back to the high schools, there is a radical
difference and no transitional support bridge.

When a student is to be placed in a shelter or group home they are often returned to their
own neighborhood. The school has a thick folder of newspaper clippings cataloguing
the deaths of many who were returned to the neighborhoods where the initial altercation
took place. They are going to conduct a data analysis to better inform the practice of how
these students are placed. Families used to send their children out of their home area
both to ensure their safety and to keep them from the temptations that led to their
incarceration. While this may still be happening for some students, for many it is not.
DC is a small town and there may be no safe place in the vicinity.

Recommendations
 Parole Officers assigned to high schools: We formerly had parole officers
assigned to the high schools. They would be on site at least one day a week so that
students would not have to leave school to report. They were also able to check in
with teachers and have more of a sense of how the student was doing, what they
might be concerned about etc. At Cardozo this person was part of the community,
there was no stigma in speaking with him because he engaged with many
students. This should be the model. The job definition is close to a social worker.
 Transition Counselors assigned to the high schools: There are transition
counselors at YSC and New Beginnings but not in the high schools. A fairly
high number of the students who are in the Dept. of Youth Rehabilitation Services
are eligible for special education services; while there is some counseling for
these students it is inadequate.
 Discussion among high schools about best placement: There was a time when
the placement of these students was done in consultation with the neighborhood
high school principals. They knew both the programs available at the various
high schools and the possible conflicts that might occur. They also made an effort
to place these students in the best setting and to distribute them evenly among the
schools. Principals knew their communities, while the provision existed to have
principals on ona one year contract and exit after one year, it was not used to the
extent it currently is.
 Review of Group Home and Shelter model
 Review of Group Home and Shelter funding and agreements
o Staff should be skilled beyond a mere custodial service, students should be
cared for.

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 o Group homes and shelters should be required to provide school supplies,
uniforms etc.
o Communication with the family and the school should be required

2 - Issues for the DCPS High Schools

How do we handle the red flags of poor attendance and inappropriate
behavior?
Suspension is not the answer, while it is important to protect the learning environment for
the majority of students, overall there is no learning or reflection going on during in-
house or out of school suspension. Schools with in-house suspension have found the
personnel and space to have the students remain in the school building but it is largely
custodial; schools without the personnel or space have an increase in students walking the
halls and hiding in stairwells.

Suspension is not possible at the schools for adjudicated youth. This means they have had
to work out ways to help the student resolve an incident right there. Success has often
involved procedures that include stepping away to allow time to calm down and reflect
and then a process of talking about what happened to foster better understanding on the
part of both the students and adults involved.

We have not adequately engaged the students in understanding the reasons for tardiness,
absence and misbehavior. Those that have engaged these young people report an absence
of an adult presence in many of the students’ lives which results in their failure to think
through, plan and feel responsibility for themselves and their education. They also
report a high degree of alienation and anger along with bewilderment. There was
additional speculation that for high school students reading at a very low level and feeling
far from adulthood, part of them may be afraid to graduate regardless of their
chronological age.

Those present reported a high degree of anger and alienation among many students in the
comprehensive high schools. The punitive response of the schools has made this worse.
In the focus on accountability the pressure on teachers and local leaders to perform well
on IMPACT and to show progress on the tests has created an unnecessary tension
between the academic and social needs of our students. While corrections were
necessary and an increased focus on the classroom important, we are currently missing
the necessary balance.

Recommendations:
 The Director of the Family and Community Resource Center at Roosevelt has
partnered with the school in a program to talk with a group of students detained at
the In house suspension room. After only a few sessions both adults and students
report learning and reflecting on what might work better individually and in terms
of school policy. We recommend that this practice be shared and if possible
expanded.
 At Wilson there are two monitors who are behavior specialists assigned to the
school from the Office of Youth Engagement. Our assumption is that this is a

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 pilot program. Their presence has made a difference in the schools’ ability to
respond positively at the first sign of trouble for a young person. This is different
from crisis intervention. We recommend that this resource be made available to
other schools.
 Current personnel on site and additional personnel at some sites should be trained
in intervention strategies both behavior intervention and crisis intervention in the
10 comprehensive, CHEC and 7 alternative schools (CHOICE, Luke Moore,
STAY programs, Metropolitan, School for Incarcerated Youth.
 Therapeutic Crisis Intervention: TCI was piloted at a number of sites, the results
should be shared and a decision made as to whether to continue and expand the
program.
 Mediation and Peer Mediation programs were previously available at all sites
with the Peaceable Schools Grant. Some type of mediation should be available at
every site.
 Budget priorities should be re-examined and interface with District agencies on
services to support student needs enabling them to be ready to learn should be
expanded.

School Safety
While students are relatively safe inside most of the high schools, the sense of being safe
in a more inclusive sense than physical safety does not yet exist. They are not part of the
conversation on most campuses of how to define and then ensure safety. The entrance to
school can take as long as 20 minutes going through the metal detector and being
searched. For a number of students this is experienced as an indignity and sets the tone
for the day. If they arrive too late to get through the line to get in on time for class they
are often sent to a tardy hall. Parents reported using recycled bottles to send in water or
juice with lunches and having the guards confiscate any un-sealed bottles.

Students see other students being arrested. They see the K-9 unit coming through but are
then given no explanation of what if anything happened. The enforcement of different
regulations is uneven between schools and between different groups of students within
schools. Even though students may know something about pending or planned violence,
will they share with an authority, particularly with the risk of retribution?

We are not creating a community in these schools where people feel connected and have
a sense of a shared desire to create a culture that supports everyone. There is not really a
sense of the consent and participation of the governed – the students and to some extent
the staff. When safety concerns emerge the emphasis has been on increasing the police
and security guard presence, not on greater engagement of those attending and working at
the school so as to understand the underlying problems and find ways to address them.
The police and security guards are not responsible for safety – they are there to support a
culture of safety. In order for our students and the staff to be safe, everyone has to assume
responsibility, think of prevention strategies and ways to improve the climate. When this
is not happening, we end up with a prison like atmosphere in the school house.

Recommendations

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  Safety Security Committee: while these are required on paper, they are not
currently functional at many sites. Students should be part of this committee and
the input of all students sought.
 Nurture an atmosphere where students take responsibility for school safety. This
should also be a shared responsibility with all staff and the community.
 Peer Education Programs could be built into the school structure
 Community Policing - how can we help students feel safer on the way home? Has
the expansion of the School Resource Officer program inside of the schools meant
that in fact we have a weaker connection with the neighborhood? Are the SRO’s
connected enough to the neighborhood, is their territory and job description broad
enough?
 School Resource Officers and security guards can be helpful or can be harmful for
students. We need to have them involved in conversations with students about
safety and security. The ACLU program Increase the Peace will pair SRO’s with
a teacher for 3 classes from the Street Law curriculum.
 Evaluation and perhaps expansion of the program at Roosevelt where funding for
security guards was traded for funding for a Saturday school.
 Entrance to the school should be welcoming. Solicit ideas and make facilities
changes to make the initial contact with school in the morning more welcoming
and pleasant. Roosevelt is exploring opening its front door instead of having
students walk through the alley and parking lot, past a dumpster and into the back.
 Research alternatives, plan and then pilot removal of the metal detector at one
school as a start.
 Evaluate and Re-examine the decision to put all school security under the
Metropolitan Police Department. Questions like the possibility of assigning fewer
MPD personnel in the schools and more of a presence in the neighborhoods
should be looked at. What have we learned since the change from DCPS to MPD
control?
 The basic foundation of a safe environment is strong relationships. The school
plan should have ways to support the importance of relationships between young
people and adults in every school.

Grief – Our Response to Tragedy

How can our students process the repeated exposure to the death of their peers? How can
we retain our sense of the extraordinary horror of the death of a young person in the face
of it becoming an everyday experience for the students and staff at the high schools?

How do our schools acknowledge the student victims of violence? There does not seem
to be a basic protocol. In the absence of a protocol, at some schools and for some students
there is the presence of grief counselors, a planned memorial service and the permission
to allow classes and students to address their feelings at school. At others there is
absolutely no mention that someone has died. One SHAPPE member noted that this must
make all the students feel afraid that they too are invisible and that their death would not
be noticed. At a minimum this should never be permitted, a moment of silence and an
opportunity for those close to the student who has died to come together is required.

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We have learned to send in extra people when there is a death, but there really should be
access to adults for students to talk to on a regular basis at school. This is something
difficult to legislate but is the sign of a good leader. It is achieved when people feel
respected. The climate of the school is open and one where students and adults can voice
concerns and have people to talk to and share the challenges as well as what works.

The grief does not go away after the funeral or memorial. A mother reported her
daughter opening up her textbook to see it had belonged to the friend who had died over
that summer. There are daily reminders for all of us of the loss. These can be painful or
they can be comforting. Wilson had a wall that was simple but with a mural
memorialized those that had died with a star. While many of those killed are from the
high schools, middle and elementary age students feel the pain as well. They are often
the younger siblings of the deceased or of their friends.

For students and parents with limited English; these times are especially difficult. In the
stress of the moment, translation and attention to their needs is often overlooked.

We have not found effective ways to bring families and caregivers into these
conversations.

Recommendations
 Create a protocol that at a minimum requires a moment of silence and an
opportunity for those close to the student who has died to come together
whenever any member of a community dies.
 The DCPS system should have a way to acknowledge when a young person
from one of our school’s dies that is respectful of the family’s privacy.
 In addition to having additional grief counselors each school should have one
or more people on staff that see this as a special skill and can be available on
short notice. They could also work with the principal to assess needs when a
crisis does come up, and suggest avenues for additional help.
 Pay attention to the ways we ignore the pain of our students and provide
permission for them to tell us about it; even if it is as simple as exchanging a
text book.

3 - Importance of Collaboration and Barriers to Achieving It

This discussion was not all inclusive of all the entities we might collaborate with as high
schools For example it did not address charter schools or additional city agencies like the
Department of Recreation. We did try to get at some of the foundation needed to support
collaboration.

The high turnover among both school leaders and teachers has meant that we no longer
have the grease of long relationships. Groups like the Senior High Principal cabinet no
longer appear functional. We have noticed this at the SHAPPE meetings, while people
trust that the notes or public reporting will not be personal, they do not trust their own
peers. Collaboration will flourish in an atmosphere where people feel some freedom to

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talk. This can be remedied by a different tone from the top. Groups like SHAPPE have
become the home of our history and places for collaboration that can be embraced.

Collaboration mechanisms exist in policy but not in practice. There was great care taken
in the transfer of school security to the Metropolitan Police Department to ensure that the
principal remained in charge of the school, however there is significant confusion at some
sites as to exactly how this works. While the security guards report to MPD and MPD
reports to the Chief of Police and then the Mayor, the security team at each school should
be a collaborative one with the school leadership team.

Collaboration is successful when supported by strong research and evaluation. There are
a number of programs that have been piloted by DCPS like the exchange of school
security personnel funding for program funding. There are other programs that have not
been piloted and many wish they had been like IMPACT.

The current measures of performance and accountability do not strongly support

collaboration. The high stakes nature has led at some sites to what one participant
described as a toxic environment. The Local School Plan is focused on raising the DC
CAS scores and the graduation rate. While it may be an unintended consequence of
IMPACT it has led to a more narrow and individual conversation about education at
many sites.

Recommendations:
 Review evaluations to include rewarding participation and strengthening of
groups like the LSAT and Safety Committee as well as other efforts that bring
parents, staff and community together to own the problems and the solutions.
 Expand the definition of success from the sole focus on the teacher, DC CAS and
graduation rate to include the presence of structures that support students and
families, participation in co-curricular activities as well as other measures.
 Support models that bring the community together, community schools; pilot at
Cardozo and Roosevelt of Family Community Resource Centers.
 Staff the schools to support a structure that allows Community Based
Organizations to become more part of the fabric of the schools. They often have
resources to help. Some of this has been achieved at some sites with the after
school coordinator but it is not there yet at all sites. This should also provide
ways for the students and school to be a contributing member of their community
through things like shared space and community service projects.
 Look at the recommendations in the first section that support greater collaboration
with the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
 Ballou has a plan that collaborates with community partners and feeder schools
and seeks far greater support for their students; can it and should it be replicated?

In closing it is clear that we need a larger definition of our mission – one that
encompasses a comprehensive definition of the purpose of education. New research (Ed
week: Dec. 3, 2010: Gates Study Offers Teacher-Effectiveness Clues By Stephen

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Sawchuk ) makes clear that even student academic achievement as measured in
standardized tests does not come about from focusing on the test or discrete skills that are
likely to appear on the test. Students do well when they are engaged in their education
and find meaning in the broad content that schooling provides. So the need to improve
academic achievement requires that we take into account the whole student, extra-
curricular activities, relationships, and the lasting impact of what happens in class and the
connections that can be made between their classes and life in their community This is
beyond what value added assessments and classroom observations measure,. Only a
larger definition of the purpose of education will be meaningful to our students and have
any hope of keeping our city’s young people safe.

The meeting ended with the commitment to bring together these ideas and then to
prioritize them. From these notes and further outreach we will figure out short and long
term plans.

The next SHAPPE Meeting will be on January 25th.