Part I: Does CT have safe schools? No!

Part One: The Safe School “Conundrum” (a difficult and confusing problem)

By Dr. Armand A. Fusco

The public school your child attends is not a safe school—a dangerous accusation; actually, it relates to suburban and not city schools, because no mass school shootings have occurred in the Hood (the city). In other words, suburban moms and kids need to be especially concerned. It’s not what any parent wants to hear, and certainly no school wants to have such an identity. But facts are facts.

The question that needs a definitive answer is, what is considered a safe school?

The problem is that there is no agreement on a safe school definition or model; therefore, my definition is my opinion only and you can decide if it makes sense. I have been studying this issue for the past 20 months to write a book about it entitled, Does You Child Attend a Safe School? No! (availability will be early in 2023).

An ultimately safe school should be one that has an effective safe school climate plan developed by all stakeholders that concentrates on dealing with a shooter on-site and features a non-lethal, self-defense strategy that makes it a shooters worst nightmare—none do! Not one plan does that—not a single one has surfaced with these features.

Thus far only 43 states require districts to develop a safe school climate plan (although it is reported that 93% of districts have such plans whether the state required them or not), and there are 14,000 districts.

Since there is no model to follow, in reality, it means that there are thousands of plans, all different to solve the same problem—to prevent school shootings. However, there are those who do not believe that the safe school mission should only emphasize the prevention of school shootings (and they are right). But, it’s the school shootings that have occurred over the past twenty years amounting to 365 mass shootings in which there were over 500 student and staff victims that instigated the safe school agenda. In fact, there have been over 2,000 shootings, but most have not resulted in casualties.

What needs to be developed is one master plan that districts can adopt permitting them to alter plans to meet district needs;

instead, a tsunami of plans exist — and not one has been known to stop a shooter. In fact, no school has even been built or remodeled to stop a school shooter on site.

In CT, the safe school process began in 2012 with legislation to require districts to develop safe school climate plans (PA 10-222d). The “conundrum” begins to unravel because (a) no one was trained to develop such a plan (b) there is no agreements on a safe school model and (c) there is no extensive training for staff, students and even parents. However, state training will be provided IF funds are available.

A critical component of safe schools plan is found in the title itself, Safe School Climate Plan. So what is school climate?

“School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of students’, parents’ and school personnel’s experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures…that includes physical, social and academic dimensions.”

That is an academic definition that is as clear as mud. In plain English, school climate refers to how safe and secure students and staff feel in the building in which they attend. Is it a warm and inviting school for all students? There’s one big problem: no school is or can be “warm and inviting” for all students. That is mission impossible.

No school, in spite of what they say about meeting the needs of all students, can achieve mission impossible. There is one simple fact to consider: no school has the resources to determine the individual needs of every student, and then provide the resources to meet all the needs that make it difficult for every student to learn according to their ability, interest, and motivation.

Knowing that students’ perceptions of school climate are related to their behavioral and emotional problems is important; but understanding the processes or mechanisms that underlie this relationship is critical to developing effective interventions. One of the mechanisms that may explain how school climate affects individual outcomes is school connectedness.

“School Connectedness” is defined as student perceptions of belonging and closeness with others at the school. Some researchers consider school connectedness a component of school climate, but others suggest that it is a factor that intervenes between school climate and student outcomes to explain their relationship.”

How can school staff increase students’ sense of belonging?Various ideas have been proposed including:

• Increasing school safety and improving interpersonal relationships by adopting violence prevention and conflict-resolution programs.
• Treating students with care, fairness, and consistency.
• Promoting student decision-making skills, individual and civic responsibility, and commitment to the larger school community.
• Decreasing the emphasis on student competition.

Reporting what the literature is saying does not mean I agree with the ideas just mentioned. For example, schools are supposed to prepare students for life beyond graduation—the real world. That world is full of competitiveness: college selections, getting jobs, promotions, marriage partner prospects, etc.

Can climate be measured? Absolutely, there are climate surveys that can be taken by students to determine how they feel about the school environment. In fact, it is a requirement of safe school plans.

But negative data and information is Verboten (not to be discussed) because it tarnishes the image of the school. As a result, administrators underreport (lie) about real data and information to keep an image of “all is well.”

For example, what one district does in CT is to report the survey data, not by school as required, but by grade levels like 1-4 and 5-12 so that no individual schools can be identified as having climate problem issues. Obviously, the district is trying to hide the actual building results. Or to say it another way, “all is not well,” —but the administration does not want that information revealed.

If a problem is not identified, it cannot be fixed; hiding the results, hides the problem(s) that then continues on to fester more serious climate issues. The “conundrum” now starts to surface, and will be described more intensely in Part Two that will list 53 reasons why schools are not safe, but this part will set the backdrop.

Another piece of the “conundrum” is what I call the racial agenda that is very much related to safe schools because it becomes the first and only priority of the district. First, it is a choice agenda not required by any law; yet, it is replacing safe schools in terms of priority that’s required by law. Second, it is a divisive agenda causing hate and anger that makes schools more unsafe. Third, it is being adopted more and more by schools in CT and nationally under the umbrella of Critical Race Theory. This includes CRT clones like DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness), Equity and Social Justice Agenda and over 100 terms and phrases that involve racism and discrimination.

One common word is, “Woke”. It’s really amazing how fast it all started (just like COVID), and how common the language is that’s being adopted by more and more schools (even corporate board rooms and Disney). The fact that it’s related to Marxism does not seem to matter, but it certainly mattered to the millions who died because of it.

No one can deny that this introduction of a theory (that is what it is), is dividing not just communities and parents, but also staff and students (most of it is hidden information). It’s divisive because it claims that ALL whites are racist and that their white privileges have oppressed blacks from achieving their opportunities because of past slavery issues. This means that this effort is not for all minorities, but only blacks — since the others have no similar slave history.

This certainly creates school climate problems: it breeds hate and anger when blame is heaped indiscriminately on those who had nothing to do with slavery. In fact, thousands of whites in the Civil War gave their young lives to end slavery and thousand more died in the Korean and Vietnam wars to stem the tide of Marxist communism. Worse, white slavery is Verboten even to mention. In essence, white slavery started sooner, lasted longer, and was more harsh because “it was cheaper to buy a white slave than a black slave.” Even black men and women became slaveowners ,and that too is Verboten.

What is also part of the conundrum is parent rights, which are being eroded carte blanche since their children have no right to opt out of the indoctrination, according to a US Supreme Court decision in 1968 (Epperson vs Alabama) which prohibited schools from offering only one dogma (concept, theory, etc.).

Further causing divisiveness is found in a new Education Next survey that shows one third of those surveyed support SEL in preference to the academic mission of schools. It will be interesting to see how a bridge is built with social emotional skills rather than math, but then math itself is racist and must be discounted along with soap dispensers and apple pie (I am not kidding).

Furthermore, there is another very critical unmentioned issue involved with safe schools: unsafe schools are primarily a boy problem, and more specifically an inner city boy problem. They are the ones at academic risk since they are forced to attend failing schools; that is slavery at work by any definition or standard.

There is a consequence to this called the School to Prison Pipeline. If by grade three, a student is not up to grade level reading, he is a prime candidate for the pipeline. Simply stated – can’t read, can’t learn, then they drop out.

The consequences are felt by everyone. A survey of prison inmates reveals that up to 80% are school dropouts with reading deficits (it ranges from two-thirds to 78% nationwide, and CT is at the high side). Or to say it another way, up to 80% of crimes are committed by dropouts.

Were any of these dropouts responsible for school shootings? No one knows because no one has looked at this issue and it does not even appear on law enforcement radar. Who commits the crimes? School dropouts! Solve that very solvable problem, with little effort required, and it solves a host of safe school problems such as discipline.

Those who are not learning misbehave to get out of the classroom and eventually the school; incidentally, for all practical purposes they are boys and too many are minorities. Nothing makes a school more unsafe than chaotic discipline—making it difficult for teachers to teach and most students to learn as they should.

What must be added to the safe school issue is that there must be full transparency and truthfulness by administrators and BOE’s, no matter how difficult it may be to admit that all is not well. This is demonstrated in the fact that no district surveys are done of staff to determine their concerns about the problem of safe schools and race. One study by EdWeek asked teachers if they felt that CRT belonged in schools, and the vote was 55% against, and 45% for, indicating almost an even split. Having split faculties does not bode well for school climate.

If there is any doubt that “all is not well,” it was hinted at without explanation that has to be inferred, and it was just done ( November 2022) by the Connecticut Education Association (representing teachers). Three issues were extremely interesting.

• Six in ten educators say public schools are headed in the wrong direction.
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) are dissatisfied with their working conditions.
• Seven in ten are experiencing high levels of frustration and burnout.

They are all related and it should not come as any surprise. To say that teachers have been and are being abused is a gross understatement; a more apt term is “brutalized.” If any administrator or BOE with a sliver of a working brain had bothered to look at what teachers have endured with reform changes of one type or another just in CT since 2012 could see that they have been put on an “overload mode” and then it was topped off with COVID. At almost the same time, a new intrusion appeared, Critical Race Theory (with its many clones) pitting parents against parents, never before experienced in the annals of education.

Most teachers cannot be blamed, (some could be), but the literature is certainly suggesting that they are becoming a scapegoat of sorts because they must do what they are told to do or else. As a result the support for education and educators is on the decline indicated by a number of surveys.

This all contributes to making schools very unsafe for students, and teaching staff, but none of this has been factored into safe school plans. It should be because teachers feeling as they apparently do does not bode well for making school safe.

Yet, this dark side of education really had a bright spot that no one has really noticed because our mainstream media is asleep at the wheel. The problem of race did not go unnoticed by our legislators who required the State Department of Education to address it with specific directions. To respond to the legislative requirements, the DOE (not the legislation) organized nine committees involving over 200 participants to discuss and debate the issue of race to see what the districts should do. After many months, they decided what they felt needed to be done.

Keep in mind that CT is a hard blue state and could have come up with the most ridiculous legislation because they have the votes to do so. Instead, those involved recommended what was needed and it was supported by the legislators.

The solution? In September 2023, all high schools must offer a course in Black and Latino studies (districts could decide to start the course in 2022). BUT, and it is a huge BUT, although it was required to be offered, it was not required to be taken by students providing “choice” instead of “indoctrination” since it is an elective. I rather doubt most people understand the “BUT.” When the advocates realize it, they will demand that their local BOE’s make it a graduation requirement.

Can any district promoting the racial agenda take the risk that many students may not elect to take the course? Especially since it has already happened. Several districts opted to start the course in 2022, but in some districts, the course could not be offered because enough students did not elect it.

If that should happen for September 2023 (students will make elections in the Spring of 2023), it will be a black eye for districts that have opted to make the racial agenda their be-all end-all mission. If those districts then decide to make Black and Latino Studies a graduation requirement — to by-pass student choice — it will create even more divisiveness, making schools more unsafe. School climate will deteriorate.

You can now see why “conundrum” was selected as part of the title because safe schools are a difficult and confusing issue, and this part one is only the tip of the iceberg. The full tip will be discussed in a forthcoming book in early 2023, How to Combat the Radicalization of Education.

Fortunately, the Continental Tribune is not asleep at the wheel, and will keep its readers informed.