And PLEASE do not use comments on this blog as your basis for research for OUSD schools. These comments are anonymous and quite often cite “information” that posters cannot/should not have access to (and I usually believe is false or misleading). I would not accept as fact anonymous posting on the internet (for a similar situation, go to yelp and look up your favorite restaurant!). PLEASE go to the school on the regular and meet the people with whom your child will be spending all their time!

And Catherine, I wasn’t aware that there were any middle-class middle schools in Oakland. I’m not being facetious. Are you talking about Montera? Would you consider Claremont or Westlake to be middle class?

Also, to Catherine, what is your source for your statement about “this activity every 11 or 12 school days”? So the schools don’t have to report 3-day suspensions to the district or the Board, but they do track them, don’t they? So a Public Information Request could get this data? Not identifying students by name, of course, but just to get pure numbers. Katy, would tracking down that information be of interest to you?

You are right about the clothes not being removed weekly from teens in middle school. However you are wrong about the frequency of boys circling girls in the stairwell in our local middle school to push themselves against girls that are pinned against the wall. In our middle school it happens almost weekly.

We give excuses – over 25% of our students are on IEP or 504 plans, they’re better off in school than on the streets, they live in poverty, their father is in prison and so on, and so on. There is no excuse for this type of activity. When you see a student who has committed a crime – or what would be a crime in let’s say, a charter school, a private school, a parochial school or in terms of the actual law a citizen would be required to abide by, that student does not have the legal or moral right to be in the classroom and the same stairwell to continue to commit crime. Yes, look at the “middle=class” middle schools in Oakland – the smaller ones, look carefully and you will find this activity happens weekly or about every 11 -12 school days. Not reported because the suspension, if it happens is only 3 days – 3 days and I don’t have to report the situation to the district or the board.

In the case of an egregious assault, of course the parents and the community should be upset, and they should respond by increasing their involvement in the school to ensure that a positive school culture exists.

In terms of sexual assaults, those are not happening “frequently” in our middle schools, as you say Catherine. When a sexual assault does occur (like anywhere else) it is both a personal and community tragedy, and if the root causes are not addressed, an assault will happen again. In any situation, the privacy of the victim is of the utmost importance, and that trumps the desire of the public to know the details. If you have actual documentation of repeated assaults and their the consequences for the perpetrators (as well as information about the counseling they receive, and IEPs they might have, etc) and you are dissatisfied with the situation, you already know to discuss that with whoever shared that information with you or with their direct superior.
In terms of not buying “privacy,” I agree that it can be very frustrating to not know all the details of something that directly affects the mental and physical health of my family. That being said, neither of us are using our full names, nor are we disclosing our own past teenage indiscretions (or much worse). If we reserve that right for ourselves, we must extend it to minors that do not belong to us. Or at least, we must understand that our society, for better or worse, has laws that protect that privacy.
While I’m here I might as well respond to “ex-oakland staff”… I’m not sure what statement of mine you are disagreeing with. I don’t think I really addressed anything you are talking about.

Reaching up a girl’s top and down her pants without her permission and on school grounds is not the same as finger in cake.

These are criminal activity. When we, as a school community, do not appropriate deal with the situation, we should EXPECT to see the same boys in prison before they would have graduated high school because they will continue to sexually assault girls and women. This is happening frequently in Oakland middle schools. The boys are back on campus within three school days of each incident. I do not buy the “privacy” argument. Witnessed report, boys continue behavior and continue to be on campus, girls are frightened and leave the school. Period.

No one on this board was there. No one has any first hand knowledge of what took place. Obviously, children were hurt, but we don’t know more than that. We hear from a few upset parents, but we also (should) remember that no matter the case the district is LEGALLY BARRED FROM DISCUSSING THE INCIDENTS IN PUBLIC. These are children whose privacy CAN NOT be compromised. As a parent and ex-student, I feel a huge amount of sympathy for kids and families who have experienced bullying, especially in the extreme, but that does not change state law.
In terms of requiring a district lawyer to be present for a meeting, I have seen that happen (and made the same requirement) many times. Sometimes it has been because the school/district was in error and liable and didn’t want to increase liability. In other cases it was because the parent had assaulted a staff member, did not have custody of the child, etc. It can be anything, and the parent has the same rights to ask that their attorney/advocate be there. Again, we don’t know the details. I feel very sympathetic with these families but no one knows the facts—that’s why the lawyers are involved!
Lastly, a little about bullying. It’s one of the oldest human behaviors there is, but has only recently become a concern at schools. The reality is that at every school in the world today (including colleges and universities) there was at least one incident of bullying. Probably at most work places, and probably in many families. We’ve definitely seen it on this board, hell a few posts above I was accused of not existing (probably because whoever anonymously made that accusation felt threatened by me as well!). Many people can only identify bullying when they are the victims of it, not when they are the perpetrators. That doesn’t excuse it, but we also need to have some perspective on this. There is no quick answer, and no easy answer. Restorative justice is a great avenue to giving kids (and adults) insight in to their behaviors & the effects of them, but not every school can afford to have an adult sit with two kids for hours at a time as they explore these issues. And not every parent would go for it either—many just want the offender to be suspended!
A quick anecdote:
This entire thread came into mind last night as my grandkids ate desert at the table. The elder child (they are both in primary grades) kept pinching pieces of his younger sibling’s cake when the younger one was distracted, much to the younger one’s frustration. We kind of thought it was a little bit cute. Eventually, the younger one grasped their table knife and said “now you won’t take any” and we all laughed as a family.
Of course, if that had happened at a school, the elder sibling would be disciplined for bullying, and the younger would face mandatory expulsion for brandishing a weapon. And this is exactly what makes school discipline so tricky, especially since it is legislated by outsiders and discussed by strangers.