Several hundred people attended the February 27 meeting of the Pine Bush Central School District's Board of Education. These included almost a hundred students, joined by parents and faculty. The Circleville Middle School auditorium was seated to almost full capacity. Following a performance by the jazz band, and some routine budget discussions, the meeting agenda was essentially usurped by the crowd.

At issue was the ongoing matter of school violence. This issue had been brought up during several previous meetings, as part of the "public input" session, starting last January. Initially, school board president Virginia Esposito, together with Superintendent Rosemarie Stark, attempted to deny that any problem existed. But the parents, and later students, kept coming back with more complaints.

During the February 20 meeting, which was a postponement from the February 13 blizzard, school board trustee Roseann Sullivan made a motion to move the public comment session forward. Normally, the public is not allowed to speak until the bottom of the agenda, which can run up to four hours, past 11pm. A strict time limit furthermore restricts each comment to only three minutes. Several students spoke out on Feb. 20, when given the expedited opportunity to address the board. "The punishments that this school has created to try and deal with these problems, are not actually dealing with the problems that we're having," lamented one senior at Pine Bush HS. She cited policies which affect hundreds of innocent bystanders, such as denying bathroom passes to entire blocks of students, whenever a fight erupts.

Fights only involve a very small percentage of the student population and occur for the most part in school corridors in between classes. Therefore, it is ineffective to deny bathroom passes to students, which are commonly used during academic class periods. One teacher agreed. "Between bells is when the fighting occurs, not during classes when the kids get passes to the library, computer lab, or bathroom," she said. Better ID tag enforcement was suggested to help keep order during crowded hallway situations.

Another senior suggested that more fights at the High School should end with criminal arrest. "All they get is a slap on the wrist, five-day vacation, and they come back and start trouble again." Trustee Eric Meier commented, "Yes, fighting is illegal. However, we have to consider the ages of the combatants. If we have people involved who are less than 16 years old, it may not be a crime, it may be a simple violation of the law which the police cannot make an arrest." Some penal statutes distinguish assault from petty harassment, or disorderly conduct, he explained. Trustee Sullivan remarked, "I'd like to say something as a parent. If your child gets assaulted in a school building, you can file charges. And I think it's very important for parents to know that."

Eventually, Pine Bush HS principal Jeanette Green was asked to speak about what is being done to curb school violence. She stated that a variety of measures, including mediation, orientation programs, new security patrol patterns, and increased teacher vigilance, are employed to help maintain a safe and peaceful environment. Later, however, more people spoke out. One parent claimed her child suffered a broken wrist, which was slammed into a school locker, during a scuffle between two other students.

By the time of the Feb. 27 meeting, members of the public were obviously fed up, with what they felt was mere lip service by the school trustees towards the ongoing school violence situation. They had come out in force, to deliver a strong message to the board of education. After the initial budget presentation, when public comment was supposed to be limited to fiscal questions, the entire audience erupted into shouts, hoots and applause. President Esposito chose not to wield her large wooden gavel, as she sometimes has in the past. A motion from trustee Sullivan moved the general public comment period forward once again, as had been done at the previous meeting a week earlier. What followed was 45 minutes of discussion devoted to the high school violence predicament.

Pine Bush Teachers Association president Carla McLaud set the tone for the crowd. "As you look around the room, do you get the point? Do I really need to say anything? It's not just a few cranky people making phone calls to Board of Ed. members. Many people have a serious concern, taken to the central administration by the Pine Bush Teacher's Association leadership, as well as many individual teachers by making appointments. The concerns apparently were not heard. Subsequently, I called board of ed members to voice my concerns, as a PBTA officer, as a teacher, as a parent, and as a taxpayer. Board of ed members asked me to have other teachers call them, and numerous teachers made such calls. Many individuals in the room this evening are in support of the issues raised in the phone calls that you received. Hopefully you not only listened, but heard our concerns, loud and clearly. We are not just talking the talk, we are walking the walk."

Levon Barris, president of the 2007 graduating class, presented a petition to the board concerning the issues that seniors have about the High School. "We hope that we will be recognized, and a committee will be formed quickly, comprised of seniors, as well as board members, high school administrators, teachers, and parents, to discuss the solutions. Some of our major concerns are: poor morale in the building, unfair treatment of students, lack of support of fundraisers and activities, and various safety issues. As a member also of the student senate, I can attest that several of these issues have been brought to the attention of the administration, in our past years. Today, we are bringing them to you in hope for solutions."

A parent who originally brought up the violence topic in January, stated that he has since received phone calls from dozens of other parents, with similar stories, who had seen him speak on public access cablecast. More recently, there has been a new rash of fighting in the past month at the High School. He demanded to know, "What are we going to do about the fighting problem?"

Superintendent Stark responded, "The consequences that are meted out for discipline, are meted out fairly and across the board. We have all our school administrators here this evening, and they are serious about all the discipline issues in the High School. And I am also very serious about making sure that our students are safe." President Esposito added, "All the administrators in the High School do get together, not only do they plan among themselves, but they have embraced the local police department to include the town of Crawford and also the town of Wallkill. The school district also has other groups that do come together to focus on youth initiative which embraces students who are part of that team; we have administrators, teachers, there are service organizations to help pull together and come up with solutions. I know that everyone is trying to do whatever they can because nobody likes the idea of fighting anywhere. We're working very hard to make sure that it is kept to a minimum."

Trustee Sullivan, who had been the only board member to acknowledge the problem last January, apologized to parents for underestimating the extent of the violence. "I didn't know how bad it was until I started getting phone calls." A member of the audience retorted, "maybe more of you still don't know," to thunderous applause from the people in the auditorium. Esposito followed-up, "We're not just here one night, we're in contact with the superintendent, with the administrators, and it doesn't stop. For us, we are kept in the loop on a weekly basis on what is happening. The superintendent makes sure she updates us, every single board member is given that information." Sullivan countered, "I was not given that information, and neither was the rest of the board," to more thunderous applause.

PBHS Principal Jeanette Green was asked to address the problem. She attributed some of the fighting to rumors that students are involved in, personal space issues, myspace internet issues, and other interpersonal issues outside the building, which are all hard to deal with. "You need to look at a series of initiatives which will address these types of problems," Green said. "There is not one thing that will solve everything."

Then came the bombshell. A parent stood up and asked the hundred members of the student body in attendance to rise from their seats if, within the last two weeks, any have witnessed a fight. Almost all of them stood up. Next, they were asked how many had witnessed blood spilled, in the past two weeks, and most remained standing. "We are the community. You are our board. We're here to help, and ask you to help us -- the community -- affect change for those kids." A sign up sheet was established inviting anyone interested, to form a committee devoted to reducing the violence.

"I think that your recommendation to establish a stakeholder's committee, is an excellent one. And it is something that I'd like to do very very quickly," answered Stark. She also mentioned a "focus on youth initiative," between the district and the town of Crawford, which has 35 people. They work on methods to improve student behavior, and help encourage them do better. "We are always involved in that, but I think you have a unique set of issues, and I think we need to hear those. And so, I will be in contact with you shortly to set up that committee," Stark promised.

Every student who had something to say was given an opportunity to speak. Much more was discussed, including a recent "lockdown," and numerous criticisms of the size of the security force. Ten guards are unable to handle a brawl involving 40 students, especially when another twenty are having an entirely different melee simultaneously in another part of the school. Some students felt generally disrespected by the district, when it comes to listening to what they have to say. The students stressed that they weren't at the meeting that night to cause trouble, but merely wished to make PBHS a better place to learn.

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