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School's fear factor
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE and JON WILSON ST. PETERSBURG -- Some parents and teachers fear that Bay Point Middle School has too much violence and not enough discipline. They worry that little is being done. They tell stories of a student who was cut with a steak knife, a sixth-grader who won't use the boys' room anymore for fear of being set upon, the kids who were attacked bringing pizza back to their class. One mother pulled her children from the school. A couple of the teachers have quit. Principal Dennis J. Griffin said the school has tried hard to address the concerns. He points out that Bay Point received an A under the state's grading system last year, an indication that things can't be all that bad at the county's only math and science magnet middle school. The school's PTSA president, Barbara Shepard, along with Marsha and Jay Anderson, have spearheaded the group that is making the complaints. The group started meeting in November and has grown to about 30 people, she said. They were meeting Tuesday night to discuss issues at the school with parents of incoming sixth-graders. "In my circle of friends, one of them, their child was beaten up," Mrs. Shepard said. "And it seemed that every time I would talk to another parent, it would seem that they had a problem with Bay Point Middle. It seemed that there was no one to respond to these issues." The parents' concerns are not limited to what they see as escalating violence at the school. Their concerns include academics, school pride, leadership and what they view as a lack of up-to-date technology. Specifically, they say, some teachers are unqualified, office staff is unfriendly, school property unkempt, and there are numerous fights.
Bay Point Middle School, at 2151 62nd Ave. S, has 1,356 students. They come from the school's neighborhood, but also from all over Pinellas County to attend the math and science magnet program. There also are programs for gifted students such as MEGSSS and IMAST. The school has a record of success in areas besides the state grading program. Its students won a state Brain Bowl in math this year and had a statewide science fair second-place finisher. It honored 33 Doorways scholarship winners Monday, more than any other school. Mayor Rick Baker was there to preside over the awards. It has an online student literary magazine, unusual for a middle school. It has speech contest winners, an award-winning German Club and students who have won national writing awards for three straight years. "In general, you don't have that kind of success unless overall your program is pretty good," said 12-year principal Griffin, who has in his office a framed piece of needlepoint that states "Love Spoken Here" and a traffic-style sign forbidding racism. Seventy-eight percent of the students in its magnet program go on to high school magnet and do well, he said. "We've done a tremendous amount of good. I cannot tell you the positive feedback that comes from the high schools concerning our students. "We have a very eclectic group of students. We have students at the low end academically . . . all the way to some of the best and brightest in the district, and sometimes that is not always a compatible environment for some people. We have a real challenge trying to meet everybody's needs." One of the students receiving a Doorways scholarship this week was Glenda Ayala's daughter, Jennifer Hernandez Ayala, 12. Ms. Ayala praised the teachers at Bay Point Middle, but said she has concerns about the school, including rowdy lunch hours and the lack of soap in the bathrooms. Many parents say safety is among their most pressing concerns. Cindy Greer Clausen said she pulled her three children out of the school just before the holiday break. One of her sons had been beaten up. She said she believed the school had not been doing enough to protect the children. "I told (school officials), 'Unless you can provide a bodyguard for my children, they're not coming here anymore.' " After being denied a special attendance permit for another middle school, Clausen decided to homeschool her two eighth-grade sons and sixth-grade daughter for the rest of the school year. Lisa Williamson said her sixth-grade son was attacked by an eighth-grader who told the younger boy he would "come up behind . . . and bash your head in until you die."
Williamson said her son no longer uses the boys' room between classes for fear of being attacked. When he has to go, he asks permission to leave class, then tries to slip into the girls' room where he believes he is less likely to be ambushed. "I think this year we have had a few more fights," said Griffin, the principal. "I don't know about the numbers." Police records show 243 calls from Bay Point between Jan. 1, 2001, and last Friday. As a point of comparison, Riviera Middle School logged 171 calls for the same time period; Azalea Middle School had 43. Many reports from the schools are for minor offenses. At Bay Point, about 74 concerned fights. Police records show one fight report from Azalea, 47 from Riviera. Such statistics sometimes can be useful as a general yardstick. But police caution they may reflect incidents that took place at another location but were called in from the schools. Also, some reports might be unsubstantiated. A Jan. 3 incident at Bay Point involved an altercation with a knife. According to police reports, two students got into an argument that involved name-calling. During the fight, one of the students was cut on the face with a steak knife the other apparently had brought from home. Meanwhile, two former teachers describe their experience in strongly negative terms. Susan McDonald, who taught at Bay Point Middle for a few months, described safety as "a huge issue" at the school. "I had a student that masturbated in the corner and I asked to have him removed and they did not remove him, not at first," she said of the youth who had been repeatedly disruptive in her class. On one occasion she tried to reward her class with a pizza party, but the two students sent to collect the 10 pizzas from the office returned empty-handed. "The students were jumped, and all the pizzas I bought were stolen," said Mrs. McDonald, who taught seventh and eighth grade. Another teacher, Leaha Shaikh, wrote to Neighborhood Times to say she was "forced . . . to wage a daily battle." Mrs. Shaikh taught seventh-grade reading from Oct. 15, 2001, until April 4, when she abruptly quit. She said she received verbal abuse from students and that one threatened her physically. That student was suspended for three days, she said, and was returned to a classroom next door to hers. "I did not feel safe even then because my classroom had doors, but no locks. Therefore, in an emergency situation, I could not fully protect my students or myself," she said. In August, students will move into a new, modern building next door to its old campus. That should help alleviate safety concerns, Griffin said. "This is a difficult campus," to supervise, he said of the present property with its 14 buildings, open plan and numerous passages. Not all complaints involve student safety. Parents also have voiced concerns about curriculum and teacher qualifications. For example, a former science teacher in the gifted program had not been certified to teach in the program. That particular teacher was replaced, Griffin said. He said that over the years, teachers in the gifted programs have not started out as certified to teach that level, but soon won such credentials. Griffin said principals use a process to evaluate all teachers. "I don't have an option of hiring someone the (school district) doesn't approve. "There's not a big line of people waiting out there to teach, unfortunately. . . . I feel these teachers have done a good job and deserve better than some of the criticism that is being rendered. I think that for all of us, middle school is difficult and has a lot of challenges. A lot of us middle school leaders have the same issues that we struggle with." -- Times staff writer Donna Winchester contributed to this report.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
