Life or Death

I remember working at a college in the Midwest, and my supervisor and I were having an argument on decision making. Most importantly, we were really going at it about whether our decisions have lasting impacts on students. He uttered these words that still piss me off today:

In the course of our work, we rarely make life or death decisions for our students. 


I disagreed (and told him in such an unprofessional way), and said that for many of our students, the decision we make might be the one to help them see themselves in a positive light or put a bottle of pills and a 12 pack of beer in their hands and decide to end it all. We must never underestimate the impact our decisions and our work have on students.


I am often reminded of this every day working in East Oakland. For you see, my school is in what some people would call a "dangerous neighborhood". Just last week, there was a running gun battle right outside our school. We had a street brawl two weeks ago between family members that grew into a 30 person battle royale, and earlier that week someone got shot down the street from the school. Funny thing is, I found out about the shooting from a kid who stands on the corner. I thought he was lying, until the cops show up looking for shell casings and witnesses (of course, they found neither). The cops didn't even bother to tell us someone got shot.

Our school can't afford a security officer, the security cameras are inoperative, our gates are left unlocked, and the street is full of folks that have nothing better to do. If someone is getting shot at, our front door is wide open for them to come in and find sanctuary. Never mind that there are 160 kids in the school, all in grave danger if the assailant decides to stroll in or the dude getting shot at tries to hide in a classroom. All are viable situations the principal and I have gone through, and it scares the shit out of us.

So, we have a meeting with a City Council member next week to beg for money to improve security. It's an incredibly stupid situation: we have viable security needs that need to be met to ensure student safety, and we have to schedule a meeting with a Council member to sell her to give us money. We have to give a presentation  on our security issues and why we need money for security upgrades. I'll be there asking for a competent security officer and if we could get a beat cop to sit outside the school during dismissal. I don't think I'm asking for much; I just want my kids to be safe while they're learning.

If this Council member decides to sit on her hands and not provide these vital resources, or "wait and study the issue", then she'll have to live the impacts it will have on our students. All I know is this...I don't have a badge, gun, or Kevlar. Until I get those, I can only do so much to keep these kids safe.

Priorities

Here is an actual conversation I had with my principal:

Me: Hey...did anybody from the police call you about a shooting?
Principal: No, why? There was one?
Me: Yep...down the street. Plenty of OHA cops across the street.
Principal: Nope, didn't hear anything.
Me: Meh...(checks Blackberry)...did you hear Steve Jobs died?
Principal: NO! Lemme check my iPhone.

There are several things wrong with this conversation that took place today.

First, if there is a shooting nearby a school, common logic would tell you to NOTIFY THE FUCKING SCHOOL! Heaven help us all if a kid gets hit by a random stray bullet. (By the way...it took the police about an hour and a half to respond to the shooting.)

Second, we were pretty casual about the situation. If this were the suburbs, we would have locked down the campus, notified parents via text, e-mail, phone blast, and calls to the local news stations. This being Oakland, we found out about the shooting from the corner boy who is cool with a parent of a 1st grader.

Finally, we were more consumed with the passing of Steve Jobs than the shootout across the street. I guess it's indicative of where we work and what we have to put up with. It's truly sad that the actual death of one guy (I'm sorry, a "visionary") many miles away can triumph over the potential deaths of many stones throw away from where we are standing.

Today's situation put things in perspective. As much as I enjoy the things that Steve and his crew at Apple created, none of that truly mattered to me. In fact, I'm already tired of the tributes and flowers left at stores and the inevitable comparisons to MLK or Mother Teresa. A couple of dudes across the street probably got arguing, one pulled a gun, fired off a few rounds near a school, and probably ran away like a punk. There might be a retaliatory shooting tomorrow, so I'll be concerned about that.

While the rest of the world sheds tears for Steve Jobs, I'll be hoping and praying that a stray bullet doesn't find its way towards my school and my students.