Woonsocket teachers and students tell the School Committee they feel unsafe

If anyone asked me about teaching and if they should go into it now, I would say ‘No.’ If I knew then what I know now, I never would have become a teacher - and I love teaching.

Hundreds of Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild (WTG) teachers and supporters crowded into the Hamlet Middle School cafeteria to address the Woonsocket School Committee with their concerns about school safety. These concerns ranged from student assaults on teachers and children to lost instructional time due to frequent shelter-in-place calls, lockdown orders, and evacuations.

Teachers pleaded for more staffing and safety for themselves and their students. They also wanted their concerns to be treated seriously and to start building a plan towards possible solutions.

The Woonsocket School Committee typically does not include public comment in its videos. The video below, however, hopes to rectify that situation.

Teachers spoke over 100 minutes about school safety issues, the Woonsocket Education Department, and the Woonsocket School Committee’s lack of response.

“We, the educators of the 11 public schools in the city, are here tonight because we want you to see us and hear us,” said Robert Stewart, President of the WTG. “We want to be safe. Woonsocket educators and the School District have a disagreement right now, but our history has been more collaborative in the past. We’ve had an increased number of dangerous situations in the schools, and we’ve reached out to the Woonsocket Education Department to resolve the problem. Our request was met with silence, no email response, and almost no discussion of possible solutions. We were concerned - there have been documented assaults [against] staff, students, and an administrator - and from the beginning of this dispute, what the Guild was looking for was a conversation. We needed the District to sit with us, lay out reasonable steps, a plan, if you will, and a timeframe to address issues to make the classrooms safe. There’s no point in filing a grievance or arbitration if we’re talking and working together. This was a solvable dispute.”

One heartbreaking story came from Annette Levasseur, a dedicated special education teacher who is retiring, rather than put herself in danger.

“I’m speaking for a lot of the teachers in my building who can’t speak because a lot of them are new. Our building is very dangerous. I have pictures of two injuries that I had this year, and for one of them, I had to go to urgent care. I needed a tetanus shot, and I needed antibiotics because the child’s bite was so bad he broke the skin. When I went to the school nurse, I was told that it was just a little bruise, but at urgent care, they told me I was lucky I went in because, being a diabetic, I could have gotten very ill from it.

“Last year, I was injured in class. I broke my foot, and I was in a boot. I went back to school, and on Valentine’s Day, there was a child running through the hallway, and she kicked my boot and rebroke my foot. When I went back to the doctor, he took me out of school until my foot was completely healed, so I missed six months of school last year. Being a special ed teacher, that broke my heart because my kids mean a lot to me.

“There’s not enough staff in the class. There’s not enough help. I have been shorthanded since the beginning of the year. I had children that needed a one-on-two, and I never had anybody. I had a classroom assistant who retired in December. She has not been replaced yet, and I know that other TAs (teacher’s assistants) are missing.

“This is part of the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). This is part of their federal grant. These kids need these teachers’ assistants, and you need to find them somewhere so that these teachers do not work shorthanded. Our school is considered one of the most dangerous because of the kids and our behaviors, yet we only have one behavioral interventionist (BI). That makes no sense to me.

“As a special ed teacher, I rarely call for help because I usually can take care of all my behaviors. This year, I have been calling for help, and nobody has been coming. There are days that I call, and I have to call back an hour later because the behaviors are still going on.

“I’m retiring this year. I would’ve loved to have stayed on for you. I would’ve loved to stay on because I love my kids, and I love working with my kids, but I don’t feel safe, at my age, to be working. So unfortunately, something that I love I can’t do anymore. I have to say that I used to love getting up and coming to school every day. Now, it has become a chore. I wake up in the morning at five o’clock, and I have to talk myself into coming to school. There are days when I come in and I sit and cry in my classroom, and my kids come over and hug me because they know how bad I feel. I have had meetings with the Principal and the Assistant Special Ed Director where I started crying because I’m so upset about the situation. If anyone asked me about teaching and if they should go into it now, I would say ‘No.’ If I knew then what I know now, I never would have become a teacher - and I love teaching. It breaks my heart that this is going on and that nobody is backing us up.”

“Over the past few years, the District has been moving to a platform of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), BMPH (Behavioral, Mental, and Physical Health) and restorative practice, and I one hundred percent buy into all of these things,” said middle school teacher Ian Cheransky. “I fully support them, but when you read into them, the foundation of all these programs - every single paper you read on it - says these can only work if your children have a safe and stable environment where they can develop a rhythm and things are predictable. The important reality is that things are not safe and predictable in our middle schools right now.”

Students also spoke:

“I’m extremely disappointed in how our school district handles safety measures at my school, and I’ve been in the Woonsocket School District my whole life,” said Amber, a senior at Woonsocket High School. “As you all know, on Monday, March 24th, we were in a lockdown for over an hour - during our sixth period. The staff I was around took proper measures, and it was taken as a joke. The classroom I was in left the windows open and continued teaching. The classroom beside mine was laughing and saying it didn’t matter. Staff has also said, today at school, and I quote, ‘The threat is not real, so I’ll continue to teach in my classroom during a lockdown as I least while we are in a lockdown.’ That is a severe problem for me as a student because I should not feel like that while in that building.

“Another point I’d like to make is at some point this year, a 22-year-old was let into the building. That is an intruder and we were put into shelter in place. The shelter in place at our school is not a shelter in place anymore because there’s no shelter being held. Students are allowed passes during this time. They’re not kept in the classrooms, and the teachers don’t care. Like I said, teachers take it as a joke. The 22-year-old that walked into our school signed in as a student and was let in through the main office, which should be the hardest portion to enter our school from - which I find a little bit ridiculous - they were led into the school and they made it to the second floor of the building into a classroom.

“To me, that is a problem because if that woman had a weapon, whose lives would’ve been at risk? The students and the staff work every day to keep us safe.

“This is from my parents: The watered-down emails don’t help the problem and don’t provide any credibility about what’s going on in the school.

“Kicking everything under the rug is not going to help us at the end of the day; it doesn’t keep us safe, and it doesn’t give parents any mind to feel safe sending the kids to Woonsocket High School. I felt, multiple times within my three years, that I didn’t want to go to school that day because there have been threats made against the school and nothing is done about it. We’re put in a shelter, and they call it a day. That’s not okay, and it needs to change after I graduate or while I’m still a senior at this school.

“What will it take for you guys to invest in metal detectors in the school? It’s not something very hard to get. Any type of weapon or something that does not belong in the school will be detected, and the resource officer at our school can deal with it. What will it take for you guys to invest in metal detectors to improve the safety of our schools before it’s too late and something truly bad happens?”

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Here’s the Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild press release:

“Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild and the Woonsocket Education Department (WED) have a dispute over the handling of an egregious safety threat. WTG apprised WED of the threat, but their inquiries were met with silence. A safety grievance was lodged, the School Committee denied the grievance, and WTG has filed for arbitration.

“Last night, over two hundred educators gathered in an overfilled cafeteria to express their safety concerns to the School Committee. These concerns ranged from student assaults on teachers and children to lost instructional time due to frequent shelter-in-place calls, lockdown orders, and evacuations.

“WED highlighted that city and state contributions to the education budget have been woefully inadequate. The perennial underfunding of $20 million has resulted in dangerous staffing problems in Woonsocket schools. Robert Stewart, President of the WTG, stated, “The state funding formula is primarily responsible for our underfunded schools, but the local contribution, the portion the city is responsible for (roughly 16%) has been stagnant for many years. The local contribution from the city was $16 million ten years ago and had the city given the typical modest increases of 3% to 4% per year, the schools would have the funding to keep the children safer. After ten years the local contribution is still less than $17 million, but would have been $21 to $24 million if increases had kept up."

“TWG expects the central administration and School Committee to enact policies that ensure our schools are safe places for staff and students. The WTG is hoping to work collaboratively with WED to resolve these issues. The children and educators in Woonsocket public schools have a fundamental right to be safe.”