Saratoga Springs School District is seeing an "unprecedented rise in violence."
What is happening?
Saratoga Springs Central School District is witnessing an alarming increase in violence on campus. According to our source, the level of violence is "unprecedented" with assaults occurring weekly at the high school.
Vaping and drug dealing in bathrooms continues to be a serious problem, with the dealers continually bullying "non-customers" out of the bathrooms during the day.
Students are defecating on the walls and floors. Urinals are being ripped from the wall and toilets broken.
Hall monitors are regularly assaulted by students. An issue so problematic that it has caused many of the monitors to quit their position at the high school.
Most troubling is that several knives have been found on campus. According to our source, "one student created a hit list that included several classmates and members of the faculty.”
Teachers & staff are scared
We spoke to a teacher at the high school who told us that there is a large number of teachers that are scared and fed up with what is happening at the high school and as a result educators feel that they cannot foster a good academic learning environment for their students.
According to our source, many educators feel that the discipline process is totally broken. The source suggested that there is a lack of support from the administration, and zero transparency on student disciplinary records. The flex time schedule "is giving kids time to get into trouble."
Who or what is to blame?
Clearly there are several factors having an impact here. An obvious one is the pandemic. School closures, hybrid schedules, social isolation have all had a serious negative impact on the mental and physical health on our communities youth.
But in addition to the pandemic one must look at the culture, and overall lack of leadership from both, the Administration and Board of Education. Board President, Angie Emeka, Vice President John Brueggemann and member, Natalya Lahtakia have put an emphasis on "equity" over the safety of students and staff.
These "Woke" members of the school board suggest that any disparity in discipline between ethnic groups MUST be caused by racism and discrimination.
That's right, no other factor, not income, or issues inside the home could possibly explain the statistical disparity between groups. The answer is ALWAYS racism....
As a result, administrators and building leadership seem unwilling to discipline anyone, afraid of being accused of discrimination and their careers forever impacted but such baseless accusations.
District needs to fix the problem
Superintendent, Mike Patton, and the building leadership team at the high school need to examine the culture that they are creating. By emphasizing "equity" over discipline and sanity, the district has created a monster that is only going to continue to spiral out of control.
There is a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, April 12 @ 7pm, located at the Robert S. Meade auditorium at the High School.
With district teachers and staff ready to see action, will the administration listen?
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