Code of Conduct

Many have been wondering about the new Syracuse City School District Code of Conduct. Tah-dah! We have a draft copy right here. Further revisions are expected. Once the draft is completed, at least one public hearing with comments and feedback must take place before the Board of Education is allowed to vote on whether or not to adopt it.

SCSD Draft Code of Conduct

What do YOU think?

Does it go far enough in ensuring the maintenance of a safe, chaos-free learning
environment for ALL students in the district?

Does it adequately safeguard the rights of students and staff?

Will it create an environment where students learn appropriate ways to
handle anger and frustration? 

Does the district have the right resources in place to effectively implement this code?

Will it impact instructional time for students in the classroom?

Follow-Up on Incident at Dr. King

One of the parents of the young man who wrote the letter to Superintendent Contreras followed up with a letter to all seven Board of Education Commissioners, with copies sent to:

• Mayer Stephanie Miner
• all Syracuse Common Council members
• Governor Andrew Cuomo (in part because they could find no email address for the AG)
• Superintendent Sharon Contreras

She included her son's letter with this note. The letter to the Board is attached here in its entirety (with personal information removed as needed for confidentiality).

 Parent's Letter to Board of Education

This situation appears to have been resolved in a way that supported ALL of the children involved. We hope that this is a sign of things to come from the Syracuse City School District. Maybe we are seeing some results from the fruits of our labors. 

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!

The Reason We Exist - And Why We Wish We Didn't...

Today a child at Dr. King Inclusion Summer School had a major - and dangerous - meltdown, resulting in a room full of third-graders curled up in balls to protect themselves, six adults trying to protect the kids in the classroom AND the child who was melting down, and one child being injured.

A nine-year-old child who was in the room as the incident unfolded, wrote and emailed the following letter to Superintendent Contreras after he arrived home today...

"Dear Superintendent,
I would be grateful if you would listen to me as I tell you about my horrible experience at Dr. King Summer School. A kid that I cannot remember his name was having a bad day and was thumping his desk in my classroom. Another kid named D*** was politely Asking him to stop the other kid was mad at D*** for telling him what to do and began to throw pencils and crayons at him. They then began throwing insults at each other the kid that was throwing pencils at D*** picked up a nearby chair and threw it across the room luckily it missed D*** and slammed against the floor kids and teachers were frantically dodging the chairs it was very intense.

My hopes of leaving alive were very slim. I couldn’t hear myself think with all The teachers yelling for the kids to stay in one place and talking about how To handle the situation and people screaming with fear .

I must be honest with you it was the scariest event of my life

Now things are calmed down I am home typing this on my computer.
Also I remember the image of children in my class curled up in the corner
Fearing a hit to the face. Five minutes or so later when we believed the chaos had ended our friend came back and had a basketball in his hand and threatened to kill D***. I am completely terrified to enter that school again I fear that that same kid will come back and nobody will be safe.

Just to inform you, M***"

 

This is why we must continue to be loud!

What can and will the district do to help the child who melted down - and who so clearly appears to be in crisis - so that they can learn how to handle their anger and frustration appropriately? What can be done if they do not have the support of the parents, family and community members?

As a school community, we must help these kids.

 
And what about the twenty-five other children who are afraid to go back? Who is protecting them and their right to a safe classroom?

They are the forgotten ones...

Although not to the parents who had to soothe them to sleep tonight and reassure them that they WILL be safe in school tomorrow. And who pray that - indeed - they will be safe.