After recent incidents of violence at Schenectady schools, parents, community members and even two students gathered Sunday at the Jerry Burrell Park to discuss solutions.
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — After recent incidents of violence at Schenectady schools, parents, community members and even two students gathered Sunday at the Jerry Burrell Park to discuss solutions.
In the last two weeks, multiple fights have broken out at Schenectady High School, including one involving a knife. The Schenectady School District told NEWS10 last week they are actively working to make students feel safer, including weighing the option of adding metal detectors in schools.
However, some parents feel the school is not doing enough. Jamaica Miles, a Schenectady school board member and co-founder of an advocacy group, All Of Us, hosted a community discussion Sunday to bring people together.
“My heart is broken this afternoon because there’s nobody here,” said Aisha, a Schenectady High School parent. “This is really sad.”
Aisha, along with many other parents at Sunday’s discussion want to see change for their kids.
“What are the solutions? My daughter is not going to keep texting me, calling me, ‘Oh we’re in a lockdown, what’s going on,’” said Takeylyn, a Schenectady High School parent.
“It’s never been perfect, but this year just started, a lots been happening,” said Marquan, a Schenectady High School senior.
Jamaica, along with some parents, believe none of the problems are rooted within the students themselves.
“We need more support, more training, more understanding from the adults in our building and we need more empathy and support and guidance for all of our students, because none of our students are a problem, a lot of our students have problems,” said Jamaica.
Attendees weighed in on the value of school resource officers. Those who spoke up on Sunday said they were against adding more police to their schools.
“We quite literally told them, as soon as you put police in schools, more violence is going to happen, and we’re all seeing that right now,” said Kasey Charles, a community organizer in the Capital Region.
They also said they believe the school needs to add more school counselors that represent the students.
“If they actually had someone safe to speak to, the violence in our schools would automatically plummet,” Kasey said.
“We have increased counselors, we have increased staff, it doesn’t mean that we have enough,” said Jamaica.
One thing everyone seemed to agree on was that now, more than ever, is the time for action.
“The more voices we have in the room, the closer we will get to the solutions we need,” Jamaica said. “Because it does take all of us.”
“These kids are not demons, you say we have a lot of greatness in Schenectady, its the youth,” said Gherian Foster, a former Schenectady schools employee.
There will be a school board meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25, at Schenectady High School. The discussion group encouraged people who are interested in voicing concerns, to attend. The district also said they plan to continue the conversation about safety at this meeting.
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