Baltimore City Council members are urging the school system to adopt a conflict resolution curriculum for students in grades 3 to 12 in an effort to stem school violence. Members of the council's Education Committee voted to endorse legislation that supports student-to-student counseling, teacher training in nonviolent conflict resolution and community partnerships to stem after-school violence. The bill, which is not binding, follows several recent high-profile incidents of school violence and violence by students.
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FROM APRIL 2008: Educators in the Baltimore city school system say attacks on teachers have been a problem for years. This academic year, school police have made about 50 arrests for staff assaults, and the system has expelled students 112 times for assaulting staff members. (Officials couldn't say how many of those expelled also were arrested.) A teacher's beating earlier this month has drawn attention after it was recorded on a student's cell phone camera and aired on national news shows.
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After a cell phone video was posted on the Internet of a high school student in Baltimore beating a teacher, the head of the Baltimore Teachers Union and the city's mayor, Sheila Dixon, were pointing to the incident in calling for the city school system to dedicate more resources to reducing classroom violence.
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