Preventing children’s violence – should be our choice

Letter to the Editor by Angel Martin. Published in The Islander News September 25, 2009.

Tuesday's heartbreaking loss of Juan Carlos Rivera’s life at Coral Gables Senior High School was a tragic incident for all and especially for the two children involved, their families, all students at CGSH and the communities the school serves, including Key Biscayne. This terrible event is a painful confirmation that the school serving Key Biscayne children has changed dramatically over the years and is no longer the good school it once was. It also highlights the urgent need for Key Biscayne residents to exercise their right for their children to have the choice of attending a safe public high school in their own community.

Although student violence can strike anywhere, even in the most unexpected places such as Key Biscayne, outbursts of youth violence in our country have only occurred in large schools. It is common knowledge that various forms of violence and intimidation flourish in an overcrowded setting, where adult supervision is non-existent or severely limited and students remain anonymous as teachers can’t get to know their students or students don’t get to know each other. With over 3,300 students from different communities and all walks of life, Coral Gables Senior High School is an epitome of overcrowded and failing schools where youth violence, not education, flourishes.

Abundant empirical evidence has demonstrated that large and overcrowded schools are breeding grounds for violence, bullying in its many form being a norm, and that smaller schools are much safer, more conducive to learning and less expensive to operate per graduate than large metropolitan schools. It is heartbreaking these findings have been known for years, but not acted upon by many school districts, including M-DCPS. It is also distressing to hear how some leaders, including M-DCPS’s Superintendent Mr. Carvalho, try to diminish the gravity of this unfortunate incident by comparing it to recent violence at Yale. However, comparing acts of escalating violence among adolescents in large and overcrowded schools to a crime in the workplace is just being disingenuous and irresponsible.

Unfortunately we can’t do anything about the loss of Juan Carlos’ life, or about how the School District operates the public schools. However, we can provide our children with the opportunity and choice of attending a safer school in their own community by exercising our right to establish and operate our own municipal charter high school. A school where the faculty members can get to know each student and their guardians, and students can get to know each other. A school where children are not merely faces and numbers but real people with real needs which can be effectively and safely addressed. A school of choice for our children and future generations, funded with the tax dollars we already send across the bridge each year. Why would we choose not to exercise our right?

It is high time for our community to come together and stand up against the minority but vocal establishment supporting the status quo and forcing public school advocates and less privileged residents to send their children to the unsafe and unsuitable Coral Gables Senior High School. Key Biscayne children deserve the choice of attending a safe and worthy public high school education in their community.

Let’s stop the nonsense and make sure we all do something to overcome the critical high school deficiency our community endures. And let’s do it now, before a Key Biscayne children becomes another victim.

Angel Martin

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