St. Paul teachers, administrators grapple with school violence
A 13-year-old Minnesota girl is being detained on assault charges after allegedly punching a staffer in the face at a St. Paul school for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, as teachers and administrations grapple with the latest of dozens of incidents of school violence across the district this year.
The student at Journeys Secondary School was taken to Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center on Wednesday on charges of fourth-degree assault, theft, disorderly conduct and making terroristic threats.
According to the report filed with police "a student punched a staff member in the face."
A security guard and an educational assistant were involved in the incident, a spokesperson for St. Paul Public Schools told Minnesota Public Radio. Neither sought medical attention.
There were 3,869 assaults reported in Minnesota schools in 2014-15, including 257 in St. Paul, according to Department of Education figures.
The incident at Journeys followed an incident Dec. 4 at St. Paul Central High School in which a teacher was violently assaulted by a student after trying to break up a fight in the lunch room. The teacher reportedly suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, and was choked unconscious before police arrested the teen.
The boy and his 15-year-old brother both were charged with assault. The teachers' union set forth a list of reform demands for mediation with the school district, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said the incident was the 27th presented to his office this year under a gross misdemeanor statute aimed at protecting school officials from being assaulted. The number of cases has nearly doubled from the previous year, he said.
The St. Paul Federation of Teachers proposed a labor deal to improve school safety. Denise Rodriguez, the union president, made several proposals including the hiring of additional staff to deal with troubled students and smaller class sizes for teachers to build better relationships with students.
"This year has been marked by too many instances of assaults on students, teachers and other staff members in the halls and classrooms of our schools," Rodriguez said. "We will not wait any longer for action by our district’s administrators."
But St. Paul Superintendent Valeria Silva said the union plan would cost too much.
“We are very committed to finding ways together to create safe schools for both our students and staff,” Silva said Wednesday at a news conference to oppose a union petition for contract mediation. “Believe me: I agree with the St. Paul Federation of Teachers that the violence that our students and teachers have experienced in our schools is not acceptable. It should never happen. Ever.”
Contributing: Dylan Wohlenhaus, KARE-TV in Minneapolis.