Poor kids deserve safe and healthy schools, too
By Siobhan Boylan
Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 11:10 am in General, Siobhan Boylan.
Two days ago the septic tank at our school burst, spewing dirty sewer water, feces, urine, and toilet paper all over our blacktop "yard." This is the central meeting space for children, parents, and teachers. This is a high-traffic area where the 4th and 5th graders, who have been quarantined into portables, travel from their rooms to the cafeteria and the outdoor bathrooms.
Did our school get closed? No. Were parents informed about the accident? Only if they asked. In a middle class school with better-informed parents, school would have been cancelled and parents would all have been informed of the safety and health concerns of the accident. To their credit, the administrators asked that the gates be locked so as to keep children and families out of the yard. They called the city and had trucks out cleaning up the yard all day. But this did not prevent kids from venturing out on their own to check out the spill nor did it prevent teachers from walking right through the filthy water and right into their classrooms.
If you read this and are as outraged as I am, please call the Oakland Unified School District (510-879-8200) and complain. They need to hear what is happening. We need to stand up for the safety of our children.
Siobhan Boylan is a 3rd grade teacher at East Oakland PRIDE.
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October 22nd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Hello Ms. Boylan,
Thank you for the information about the unfortunate situation at Webster/East Oakland Pride. I was out of town this weekend and the first that I have heard about this incident was through your blog. If the situation is not resolved by tomorrow, please call me.
Thank you,
Chris Dobbins
Oakland School Board Director, District 6
510-562-2506
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
My initial reaction — "no s***!" — is probably not appropriate.
I was just talking to a veteran San Francisco school board member about the sky-high number of little schools scattered all over Oakland and how logistically unmanageable that is. This does seem like a side effect of that system.
Wouldn't it be the principal's decision to close school for the day (and a tough one with parents having to come get their kids — what do you do about the kids whose parents can't be reached or can't come get them)?
October 24th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Any time a government official says anything like "the first that I have heard about this incident was through your blog" you know you've got trouble.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:02 am
When you have a triage situation, emergencies and crises become acceptable norms. We had a fire the other day here and the rooms next to the bathroom were not even evacuated. No bells were rung. Firemen poured in and set up blowers to get rid of the smoke. My students didn't even blink!
It is good that humans are so adaptable. It is also bad that humans are so adaptable: No matter how crappy things get, you will see humans surviving in the midst of it all!
October 25th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Had this happened at Skyline, heads would have rolled, classes been cancelled and it would have been a lead story on KTVU. This happens in all districts–poor or low-income schools' safety is not valued as much. I believe Districts care, albeit not enough, but angry parents–in much greater supply at the "upper" schools–get a lot done.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:47 am
I work with Siobhan, and the principals (all except for one assistant) were at a "meditative retreat" sponsored by the district somewhere way outside of the city when our blacktop flooded with sewage.
Does sucking water off of the ground with a giant sucking machine make it sanitary?
November 1st, 2007 at 11:18 am
I am a first year teacher and an OTF graduate who dropped out after the fifth week of school. I was teaching PE for both Best and Excel High Schools at McClymonds. Like the other first year teachers chronicled in this series, I became a teacher to make a difference, and I expected a challenge. In fact, I was in it for the challenge. So, I was not too surprised when some kids challenged me to fist fights, swore at me, and flouted the rules.
I started to become seriously disillusioned with the administration, however, as the weeks went by. The number of events leading to my sense of participating in a completely disfunctional system goes beyond the scope of this blog. I can, however, encapsulate the two main events of my last day, which capture the gist of the problem:
First, the previous week I had informed the principal of Best, that one of his students had threatened to "slit" me, and informed him that this student further told me that I was "marked" and had better not return to school. The principal told me during a face-to-face meeting at the time that I did not need to worry because a hearing would be held regarding the incident, and it was very unlikely that the student would return to campus. There was no hearing, however, and I discovered on my last day that the student remained on campus when he brushed past me in the hallway (no word from the principals).
Second, there was absolutely no useable gym equipment at the beginning of the school year. No basketballs, tennis balls, soccer balls, etc. I requested emergency funds to get started, and the principal of Excel responded in an email as follows: "You can not [sic] purchase materials and be reimbursed." She further said I needed to fill out an order form from one of the school's vendors. So, I purchased all of the equipment for the first two weeks out of my own pocket, filled out the order form, and was expressly told by the assistant principal at Excel that the order had been placed. I purchased equipment for an additional two weeks, and waited for the order to arrive. Then, on my last day, I asked the principal about it, and she said that the order had not been placed because she had been confused about the ordering procedure.
These two events — the fact that a student could threaten to knife me and remain in school without any warning from the administration, combined with the fact that neither principal kept his word about matters of importance — left me with the realization that I was not safe, and that the administration was not reliable. In the end, I am personally disappointed because I invested an enormous amount in this job, having left my much higher paying position as a lawyer to do it; but, more importantly, I am concerned about how these events, taken in the broader context, affect the students at Mac.
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Chris isn't the only one who's quit. A great teacher at my school quit a couple weeks ago without telling anyone. He just walked out. I'm still not quite sure why. Katy Murphy is working on a story about burn out. I'll be very interested to know just how many teachers have already quit this year.
November 4th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Hi everyone, I stumbled across this just today and am a second year Oakland Teaching Fellow in this district. When I heard about what happened to Siobhan, it was sadly familiar. Last year I worked at Claremont Middle School as a special education teacher. My students were considered severely handicapped so we were pushed to a portable on the stretches of the campus with our own little bathroom. Several times last year, there were sewage problems. Admin not only didn't respond, they were not even aware of the situation because they rarely came to visit this classroom. Like Chris from OTF I also had my share of run ins with admin because they just didnt support me. I couldnt bail on Oakland so I am still in the district, but I moved to a school/schools where my admin does support me (Garfield and Manzanita SEED Elementary Schools). I wonder why Oakland higher ups are so surprised when people quit on them when they dont give us basic things to stay afloat!
November 7th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Keith: You clearly have an outmoded view of Skyline. It is not the hills school of yesteryear. I I think Tech has surpassed it academically. It is in its third or fourth year of "Program Improvement" and has been a complete disaster this year.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
I hope that there is a story about burnout - or am I too late? I would happily talk to Katy. I worked at Lockwood for 8 years and LOVE the children - some of whom are like family to me. The conditions of the school were often comparable to the Third World. I wish I was surprised by raw sewage spilling onto the playground, but that just seems like par for the course in OUSD. I can't talk about it much because I want to cry - these kids deserve so much and I, for one, can't give it to them any more because the district has pushed me past my breaking point.