Schools try to tame tensions

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The first week of school was supposed to mark a triumphant return to classrooms at San Francisco's Everett Middle School after more than a year of distance learning.

But as computer science teacher Yesi Castro-Mitchell welcomed a class of sixth graders, last fall, a student started punching her, again and again.

Castro-Mitchell wrapped her arms around her head and hoped for the blows to stop. She remembers the stunned silence in her classroom as other students witnessed the assault. The teacher suffered a concussion, a dislocated jaw, chipped teeth and hearing loss in her left ear that now requires a hearing aid.

Across America, one of the nation’s most difficult academic years was also one of the most violent. Experts who track school behavior nationwide said fights and other aggressive behavior, including shootings, appear to have increased. Now, with students heading out on summer break, schools are taking stock of what went wrong and how to fix it.

At Everett, many of this year’s problems were no different than before the pandemic, but “they were absolutely greater in severity, intensity and frequency,” said Cris Garza, a teacher at Everett for eight years and the teachers’ union representative.

In addition to the attack on the teacher, fights broke out almost daily among students, according to several teachers and parents. One brawl left a student hospitalized for at least two days. In other incidents, packs of students would barge into classrooms, disrupting lessons and sometimes destroying school property.

Educators and psychologists say the pandemic contributed to the volatility in schools by causing a surge in student mental health problems, trauma at home, a lack of socializing opportunities, and a shortage of teachers and counselors that reduced adult supervision and guidance.