City's Response To Fatal School Stabbing: More Teacher Training

HARLEM, MANHATTAN — Teachers across New York City schools will get training on defusing conflicts and reporting bullying after a student fatally stabbed a classmate in a Bronx school last week, city officials said Monday. The city's weekly training sessions for teachers will focus on "de-escalation" of potentially dangerous situations over the next three weeks, city schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said Monday morning at a discussion about school safety in Harlem.

The Department of Education is also reviewing its protocol for how teachers and staff report bullying and will reinforce those procedures with teachers, Fariña said.

The efforts are part of the city's response to the Sept. 27 stabbing death of 15-year-old Matthew McCree at the hands of Abel Cedeno, his 18-year-old classmate at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation. Cedeno, who told reporters he had been bullied, also stabbed a 16-year-old boy that day and was charged with murder and attempted murder.

"When you see bullying, you worry where it could lead, and you want to make sure that everyone in the school community takes it seriously and follows up on it," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at Monday's event, which was attended by about 40 officials and parent leaders.

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De Blasio and Fariña acknowledged the city has room to grow when it comes to reporting and preventing bullying and counseling troubled students, but they touted the mental health programs and security that schools already have in place.

Monday's discussion featured little discussion of security infrastructure such as metal detectors, which NYPD officials said would have detected the three-inch switchblade knife that Cedeno used in the fatal stabbing. Students at the West Farms high school have been randomly screened with metal detectors since Thursday, according to the DOE.

The mayor cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the Bronx stabbing.

"We need the professionals to do their investigation and tell us everything when they ultimately have really found the whole picture — everything that happened, including what worked and what didn't," de Blasio said.

City officials pledged to improve communication about dangerous incidents in schools and about resources available to students and parents worried about bullying. The DOE hired 50 to 100 more guidance counselors and social workers this year and may bring in more going forward, Fariña said.

The city also offers mental health resources through its Thrive NYC program, which connects students and parents alike to counselors, de Blasio said.

Last week's stabbing shocked Renesha Westbrooks, a Bushwick parent who said she has seen out-of-control classrooms and school cops resting on their laurels in schools she's visited.

She said she wants teachers and security officers to be disciplined, if necessary, when they're not doing their jobs well.

"I don't want to believe that my children aren't enrolled with adults and no one is going to jump up and help them when they're in danger," Westbrooks, who sits on her local Community Education Council, told reporters after Monday's event.

Parents said the emphasis on bullying and teacher training is a good place to start, but some stressed that it will be crucial for teachers to bring what they learn into the classroom.

"Training is wonderful if you implement that training, step across that threshold, and I find that that is the issue," said Gigs Taylor-Stephenson, a parent leader at Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem. "There's no accountability."

De Blasio said city officials "don't accept" disorderly classrooms and effusively praised the NYPD's School Safety unit, calling it the "gold standard" for a police presence in schools. Anyone seeing problems with school cops should tell their school principal or superintendent, he said.

"When, god forbid, there is an incident, all elements of NYPD that need to respond are going to respond," de Blasio said. "There's no question about that — it's going to be an immediate priority."

(Lead image by Noah Manskar)