Violence a concern at Matoaca Middle
Published: July 13, 2009
Heather Egan and other parents of students at Matoaca Middle School in Chesterfield County are concerned about violence at the 1,100-student school.
"The violence is too high at this two-campus school," she said.
To find solutions, last week a committee of concerned parents had a second meeting with school officials, including the new principal, Wayne Carter, and School Board member David Wyman. Their first meeting was in April.
"It looks like we're making progress, and we would like for more parents to get involved," she said.
Carter, who has been in transition at the school for a year, said the school takes pride in fostering positive relationships with students and parents, which seems to be curbing the discipline problems.
"The number of student infractions has decreased from 2006-07 to the present," he said. "No students were expelled this year, and our out-of-school suspensions decreased as well."
Matoaca Middle had 442 in-school suspensions and 295 out-of-school suspensions in the school year that just ended. That puts the school in the middle of the pack when discipline reports from other county middle schools are compared.
But that is no consolation for Egan and other parents.
"We do have concerns about the administration's comparisons of our school for the safety and suspension standards," she said.
Egan said she doesn't want Matoaca Middle to be compared with Falling Creek, Salem Church or Bailey Bridge middle schools, whose boundaries adjoin Matoaca's and which have a higher number of suspensions. She wants the school to be more on par with Midlothian Middle School, which has had the fewest suspensions in 2008-09. That excludes Perrymont Middle School, which serves students needing extra help.
Henrico County and Richmond school officials also have reports of parents expressing concerns about violence in schools
The Henrico schools, which enrolled about 48,000 students, had 11,207 in-school and out-of-school suspensions in 2007-08, the most recent data available.
Richmond, which serves about 24,000 students, had 11,904 out-of-school and in-school suspensions in 2008-09, which is a significant decrease from the past two years, spokeswoman Felicia Cosby said.
"Our goal is that our school are as safe as possible," she said. "That our children are in a safe and secure environment where optimum learning can occur."
With more than 58,000 students, Chesterfield's schools had 18,138 in-school and out-of-school suspensions in 2008-09, a slight decline from last year.
Wyman said he shares parents' concerns. His daughter attends Matoaca Middle.
"But I also know that the system has taken many different actions in the last couple of years to reduce the discipline actions at Matoaca and all schools," he said. "We've installed video cameras in all middle schools. The principals themselves are regularly monitoring halls and areas that are more prone to behavior issues."
One of the things Matoaca Middle parents are asking, Egan said, is to have an additional resource officer or at least a second part-time person. Matoaca Middle is the only school in the district with two separate campuses. Currently, there is one resource officer per middle school.
"We would like two resource police officers, since there are two buildings to this school," she said. "These buildings . . . are very separate and probably need more police presence to help prevent some of the fighting that does go on. If the children feel that police will always be there and walking the hallways and bathrooms, this could eliminate some of the fighting and safety issues."
But that's not likely to happen for the coming school year because the school system is facing major budget constraints, Wyman said. Ten additional resource officers had been included for middle and high schools in the 2010 budget, but with a $52 million budget deficit, which later was reduced to $32 million with federal stimulus money, the positions were taken out of the budget, he said.
Even if those resource-officer positions had been funded, Matoaca Middle may not have gotten one because other schools have worse violence issues, he said.
"It's unfortunate that the budget only allows one resource officer per school," Egan said.
She said parents and school officials have discussed ways to fund an additional officer, including looking at grants and reworking budget money.
"The administration and board has a job to keep our children safe at school and not place them in a position of having to defend themselves," she said.
Parents are encouraged with the new principal taking over the school, Egan said.
"He seems pretty sharp," she said. "He's got some really good experience. We think he'll be a fresh start."
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or
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Reader Reactions
m23,
Do you believe in freedom of the press? I don’t believe the RTD needs to get your approval or anyone else’s in order to run news articles. If you don’t like to read news stories in the RTD, then don’t. You have that freedom also.
This is a news article, since the content of this article was “news” to me!
Best to you!
Interesting that you see the role of a news reporter to send “a message to the parents of other middle schools, to form a group and you can make a difference.“ Again - this seems a nice editorial piece or a letter to the editor - not news. If the article had focused on facts or even the actual content of these meetings—that would be news.
I wish the group success, as I would any group with such a noble purpose, but the sensationalism of the topic and the eye catching headline insinuating the problem is some how worse at this school are disturbing. So no I do not commend this type of “report”
m23, Mr. Lizama is reporting on the fact that “Heather Egan and other parents of students at Matoaca Middle School in Chesterfield County are concerned about violence at the 1,100-student school.“ This is the theme of his article - that a group of parents has formed a small coalition to promote a safer school and call the administration to accountability for proactively creating a safer school. How can anyone not commend this??
Are their parent coalitions doing this in other middle schools? It has been my experience, and the experience of almost all the parents I know, that when parents express concerns to the school principal, we are dismissed and told we are the only ones concerned. In other words, go away, you are bothering me. So here we have Egan along with several other parents getting somewhere. One parent is a fly, several parents get noticed.
So maybe Mr. Lizama is sending a message to the parents of other middle schools, to form a group and you can make a difference. If he had not reported on this at all, m23, then parents in other schools (who have been individually dismissed) would not know what they need to do to solve this problem. They need to form a group and then they cannot be ignored!
Hope this makes sense, m23.
In my experience, kids act out with negative behaviors because their needs are not being met. But educRAT$ could care less about kids, truly.
And they won’t allow teachers or counselors to really help troubled kids.
“Truth” you have missed my point- perhaps I was not clear in my post. This article was about concerns at MMS- there were passing comments and a chart (that does not appear on the online version) that referred to other schools. I think is it is unfair of the paper to post an article pointing to our school in the headline and most of the article (though most of it seemed to be quotes and paraphrased comments from this parent group). MMS is no different than other middle schools—is that good enough- of course not— but I suggest the article then should have been more general to all schools- especially the headline. Of course I, like you, would like to see a zero incidence rate at all schools. My comments are more directed at the paper for taking the comments of a parent (or group of parents) and giving it so much print space in the news section. Perhaps it belonged in the letters to the editor section and a real story about the issue facing all schools could have taken the space in the news section.
Parents are in denial in Chesterfield. The fact that this type of violence is considered to be the “norm” within any given middle school by parents responding to this article is extremely disheartening. Just because violence has not happened to YOUR child, does not mean that violence does not exist. STOP SAYING BECAUSE IT DOES NOT HAPPEN TO MY CHILD, THEN IT MUST NOT EXIST! We do thousands of victimized children and families a disservice when we do this.
Would the same parents state that Iraq is safe because they have not lost a loved one that was stationed there? Would the same parents state that Richmond is safe at night just because their child has not suffered violence there? WAKE UP! And yes, administrators and educators are told to falsify discipline reports in order to avoid being placed on the “Persistently Dangerous” school list which allows parents to transfer their students from highly violent schools under No Child Left Behind. Do you think that your children are going to come out and say, “MY SCHOOL IS VIOLENT AND NOT SAFE MOM, SO PLEASE MOVE ME OUT HERE?, “ especially when parents promote the idea that violence is common within middle schools? Could it be that our children are no longer sensitive to the violence? ignoring it? or just compelled to remain as silent as the educators and administrators from Columbine and VA Tech? If adults are not serving as role models to report violence and abuse, what hope do children have? I would watch my child in order to monitor whether they are becoming more violent; either verbally, physically, or otherwise.
I recall the parents at Columbine and VA Tech being in the same state of denial and ignorance as these parents…that is until a horrible tragedy took place and opened everyone’s eyes. Schools should be the safest place on earth for children besides home and church, but they are not, and to assume they are is poor stupidity.
To just accept the fact that this is the way that all middle schools are is a sad testament to the state of the “elders” in the “village” that are to ensure that above all, children are to be protected. If one child does not feel safe, or if the Virginia Department of Education documents violent trends, then we owe it to our children to have zero tolerance, not ignorant tolerance.
I have a child at Matoaca Middle at the East Campus and we have been pleased with the school. This TD article is the first I have heard about violence concerns. I asked my son and several of his friends about violence or safety concerns, they were not aware of any. I agree with one of the earlier commenters that this article could have been written about almost any middle school, and find it unusual that Matoaca Middle was prominently mentioned in the headline. Detentions may be for many reasons, not only violence. I applaud the administration for adding video cameras and for other actions taken to maintain safe schools.
concerned- What responsibility do teachers then hold for not reporting it? Just because they are told not to, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. They are just as much as fault for not making the reports, even if the administration doesn’t follow up, they should at least make it. Think of the message that sends the kids. You think they don’t realize that their behavior is going unreported and unpunished?
Said teachers, if they do actually exist outside of your imagination, should be complaining all the way up the lines to the state level if they are being forced to under report or ignore violent behavior all together.
Uniforms aren’t necessary, but a ‘normal’ and enforced dress code is. I’m sure though those same teachers who are ignoring bad behavior are also ignoring the dress code violations.
All parents should be concerned about the violence Chesterfield schools. I have been told by teachers that the number of violent incidents reported on the state report card are just a fraction of the actual number. Teachers are told not to report all incidents in order to make the school’s report look better. These parents are very wise to be concerned.
I think teachers being proactive in developing positive relationships and using positive behavior interventions with their students is the key to reducing negative behaviors. Students need to feel that adults in the system care about them and their success. Also, uniforms at all middle schools would be another positive step.
I am amazed at the Times Dispatch for this article. I have had two children go through MMS very successfully. Sure there are some issues at MMS as there are at every middle school (as the chart of in and out of school suspensions showed), but this is a good school with good people. These parents cannot and should not pretend to speak for all of us. These parents have been sending around emails that contain mis-truths and half truths. I am appalled that the times dispatch would give such a large space for a non-story! How about printing some of the good things being done by the students in this area of Chesterfield! For the record I live in the same neighborhood as some of the parents involved in this campaign—I was also re-zoned into the matoaca district a few years ago and am very happy with it. This is such a case of sensationalizing a story that really could have been written about any middle school!
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