FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Hank Sheinkopf 212-725-2378
November 4, 2015
Safety of students and the school safety agents who protect them at risk.
Bronx, NY- A video showing a brawl at a Bronx high school has recently surfaced on social media. According to the Bronx Lab School junior, who shot the video and posted it on Facebook, the fight took place at Evander Childs High School.
The video shows a mob of students swinging at each other with no adults in site. A source says the fight went on for 10 minutes before school safety officers were able to push past the crowd and begin breaking up the fight.
“It was a near riot,” said Gregory Floyd, president of the Teamsters Local 237, the union that represents school safety officers. “The students outnumber the faculty, so it was absolute mayhem. The fight continued after the video ended as the students tumbled down the stairwell and eventually spread to three different floors.”
This isn't an isolated incident but rather underscores an ongoing trend that is getting worse everyday-poisoning the environment for learning and risking the safety of both students and the school safety agents who protect them.
“We are calling on the administration to take immediate action to get crime and violence in our schools under control and to protect students, workers, and school safety agents. The administration has already announced they are scaling back metal detectors out of schools which will put our school safety agents at an even greater risk, this is a bad idea and should be abandoned,” said Floyd.
We need adequate level of staffing and personnel, including more level three school safety agents at a school like Evander Childs High School. Gregory Floyd, president of the Teamsters Local 237, is also calling on the administration to increase funding for school safety agents to increase training and overall staff levels at violent schools.
“The lack of transparency in reporting confiscated weapons and violence at schools distorts the realty: crimes in and around schools is up. We need greater transparency and more funding. How can we ask school safety agents to protect our students when we don't have the proper training and equipment for them?” said Floyd.