Officials tackle violence at TCHS
posted by Loki on Oct.13.2009 at 11:20 am
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October 09, 2009
STAFF WRITER
The Times of Trenton
TRENTON — Violence inside the walls of Trenton Central High School has decreased significantly during school hours, officials said last night.
But once that bell rings at 2:40 p.m., it’s a whole different story.
“At 2:40 p.m. I have to go outside with my administrative team to survey the area,” said TCHS principal Elizabeth Ramirez. “Sometimes we have to get on the phone immediately and call police. Why do our students have to go out of this school and be fearful?”
Concerns over community violence and school safety dominated the conversation at last night’s “Safety Summit” at TCHS, where school officials, parents, police and community and religious leaders gathered to discuss how student safety could be improved and enforced, both within the school and outside its confines.
Ramirez said violence at the high school has decreased 20 percent since school began in early September. But problems still exist in the hours before and after school, she said, when students become involved in fights with other students and city teenagers on their way to and from school.
Some of those problems first surfaced at a Sept. 29 school board meeting, when a number of parents from across the city gathered to petition for more school buses and safer walking routes that would help protect kids walking home through dangerous gang- and drug-infested neighborhoods.
Ramirez said the implementation of more safe walking routes was a top concern for her and her administration, who have heard countless stories from kids who worry about walking only a few blocks from school to home.
“Our major concern is we may be able to add more cameras in our hallways for surveillance, we may add security Ã??94;??t when we walk out these doors at 2:40 or 2:50 and I notice that the individuals who have to go home can’t feel safe to walk home,” said vice principal Keith Taylor.
Regina Thompson-Jenkins, a teacher at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School and mother of a TCHS student, said she knows only too well what it’s like to receive a phone call from a hurt teenager.
Her 16-year-old son was attacked last Thursday while waiting at the bus stop after school, and then jumped again when he tried to return to the high school to get help.
Luckily, he suffered only from a concussion, she said, and an asthma attack brought on by the incident.
“He rang my phone and he said, Mom, I got jumped,” she said. “My heart was in my stomach.”
“This can’t keep going on and on,” she said. “These are good kids. My kid is not a gang banger, he is not a thug. We have to take this high school back. We have to.”
Ramirez said the implementation of more safety measures would begin today, when the section of Chambers Street between Greenwood and Hamilton avenues will be shut down between 2:40 and 3:30 p.m. every school day to allow for greater police presence outside the school during the dismissal period.
Calls for increased parental accountability, greater community involvement and the creation of more before and after school programs drew appreciative murmurs and bursts of applause from the more than 50 parents who turned out to the summit, which Ramirez hopes to turn into monthly forums.
“Our parents care,” she said. “They care about the well-being of their children and the well-being of the community.”
Contact Erin Duffy at eduffy@njtimes.com or 609-989-5723Â??94;©
©2009 Times of Trenton