School safety agents want better gear, staffing
By Ellen Yan, New York Newsday
Upset about a recent spate of student violence, the front-line defenders of school safety say their effectiveness is being hurt by problems ranging from rapid turnover to lack of protective gear.
School security agents interviewed by Newsday say they have seen various managerial responses to violence over the years. Yet, they complain, student crime continues largely unabated, and they are permitted to employ only a single, dubious weapon to protect themselves and the schools - their voices.
“We don’t have night sticks, we don’t have Mace, we don’t have body armor,” said Felecia Cannon, who during 14 years on the force was thrown down steps, punched in the mouth and threatened with death; she is now a union representative for school safety agents. “Our mouth is the only thing we have to try to build a relationship with these kids to get them on the right road.”
Although Chancellor Joel Klein responded unequivocally to a flurry of widely publicized school violence this month - the first on his watch - school safety agents say they’re facing the same magnitude of inconsistencies and shortcomings that had plagued airport screening systems at least until the Sept. 11 attacks.
Citing relatively low pay (salaries start at $ 26,187 a year) and unrelieved student misconduct at many schools, the union says an average of 40 safety agents are quitting each month.
“It’s not like there’s a career path or anything, so as soon as they find another job, they’re gone,” said Moronke Oshin, a spokeswoman for the safety agents’ union.
In an unusual show of unity, the union’s leaders and several other school labor bosses last week demanded that Klein and his boss, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hold a safety summit before Halloween, when mischief often crests. The union also plans to track injuries and other problems observed by its members.
Twelve school security agents were hurt in a four-day string of armed assaults and gang brawls earlier this month. Three teachers were injured, one teacher was robbed and at least 25 students were arrested - all less than two weeks after police reported significant drops in high school crime.
The spurt of violence prompted Klein’s safety director, Ben Tucker, to detail a new round of efforts to improve school security. In past years, similar efforts have included the introduction of school metal detectors and a stringent disciplinary code.
More than 135 school agents who focused on truancy cases will now spend their mornings at the 66 schools that use metal detectors, said Tucker.
In addition, he said, agents will be pressed to make themselves visible with more patrols of their schools, and principals will also be expected to do the same - though the principals union filed a grievance Friday, insisting only school superintendents, and not Tucker, have direct authority over them.
There are 3,850 school safety agents. They carry no guns but have arrest power, and are trained and deployed by the police department.
Plans were already under way to beef up the numbers to 4,227, and Tucker hopes to accelerate hiring by finding more training space and even holding the 10-week course during the day.
But with 40 agents quitting monthly and about 150 new recruits every three months, Carl Haynes, president of Local 237 of the Teamsters, which represents the school safety agents, said the gain is only about 30 people at best.
Without a large infusion into the ranks, school safety agents contend, the latest security measures will have little effect. In schools with metal detectors, weapons still get through because there’s no one to watch every exit or keep students from opening doors for friends.
Also needed are surveillance cameras and puncture-resistant vests, says the agents’ union, which also wants the same precautions for after-school events to prevent guns, knives and box cutters from making their way into the schools.
Tucker said he is aware of such problems. “We’re on top of this - we recognize that the process doesn’t always work as smoothly as it could,” he said. He said felonies and misdemeanors have declined this year compared to last year, but even that claim is a matter of contention. Union officials say some serious incidents go underreported or even unrecorded.
Tucker disputes that: “The rule has been to report as much as you can.”
“We have to be careful here how we define crime,” the school safety director added. “If an agent gets pushed by a student or if another student gets pushed by a student, then that’s not going to be considered a felony or even a misdemeanor.”