Mobile Users Click Here For Video
(WNY News Now) – A local mother is speaking up in favor of greater security measures within the Jamestown Public School (JPS) system following an incident in which her son brought a knife to school.
Jamestown, N.Y. – Merry Williams-Diers is the founder of WNY Missing and Unidentified. Her son is a honor-roll student within JPS who faithfully attends church every weekend. He was also recently suspended for bringing a knife to school. Now she’s hoping to bring about change so that incidents like that don’t happen in the future.
According to Williams-Diers, it all began a few weeks ago, when her son was walking home with some friends when they were allegedly confronted by some of their peers, who began harassing one of her son’s friend regarding their deceased parent, accompanied by threats that they would steal their bicycle. When they arrived at the house of one of the friends, the mother resorted to calling the police, as the kids were waiting outside the house for the other friend to leave.
The following day, one of the kids involved in the previous incident again reportedly approached her son and his friend in the cafeteria and began demeaning the friend once more. When asked to stop, the student allegedly refused in a vulgar manner. After the student then began approaching the duo in an aggressive manner, Williams-Diers’ son pushed the student, resulting in an extended detention.
The following week, spurred by fear of students claiming to belong to gangs and alleging that they bring weapons with them to school, Williams-Diers’ son brought a knife in his bookbag, which fell out of the bag during breakfast. School staff were quick and effective in their response, and Williams-Diers’ son received a 5 day out-of-school suspension (OSS).
Williams-Diers commends the educators and other school faculty within Jamestown Public Schools for their actions and hard work, but believes that the current system in place to address issues like what occurred with her son is ineffective at solving the issue.
For students receiving out-of-school suspension, they attend school for 3 hours each day before leaving, compared to the standard 7 hour school day that their peers who did nothing wrong receive. While school attendance is important for academic success, Williams-Diers believes that from a child’s perspective, only going to school for a few hours a day may feel more like a vacation than a punishment. If a disciplinary action does not feel like a punishment to the offender, it may prove ineffective at disincentivizing the actions that led to the punishment.
Williams-Diers hopes that school administration will re-examine what actions they can take to make sure that students do not feel emboldened to take actions like bringing weapons to school. While her son may not have brought a knife to school with malicious intent, what tragedy could have resulted if he had? If he was able to bring the weapon into the school without being detected, what might happen if another student decides to do so in the future?
One potential solution, Williams-Diers says, would be to install metal detectors or use metal wands for students entering the school. If her son knew that he would be checked for a weapon when he came to school, he might not have tried to bring it in the first place.
While bullying has long been an issue for schools, Jamestown or otherwise, Williams-Diers believes the most important step that school administration can take is to ensure that conflicts are not given the opportunity to escalate. Whether it is taking action to ensure that weapons cannot be brought into schools or further educating students on the support and resources they have available to them, it is paramount that schools strive to make our children’s learning environment one in which they feel safe.
WNY News Now has reached out to JPS Superintendent Kevin Whitaker for comment.
Leave a Reply