Students, Teachers Fear for Their Lives

PINOLE, Calif., Nov. 16, 2004 — -- Students and teachers at an East Bay high school are so worried about violence that they say is spinning out of control, they fear their lives are in danger.

Teachers and staff told ABC News affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco that major fights break out at least once a week at Pinole Valley High School. School officials admit that some students have been acting up, but say the school's security staff has been stretched thin because of budget cuts.

Budget cuts, and the negative effects they can have on the level of education and security schools can provide, is a problem districts are having around the country.

In Baltimore, the city's schools have been hit by a rash of fires that police and district officials believe have been set by students. As of Nov. 12, there were 76 fires in the district during the first two months of classes. In all of last year, there were 168 fires in Baltimore schools.

The fires get students out of classes -- and sometimes shut down a school for the whole day. Because the district is operating with a $58 million deficit, security personnel have been cut, as have most extracurricular programs.

Students "want to be out on the corner instead of getting an education," Walbrook High junior Christopher Spruill, 16, told The Associated Press. He said students are too afraid to come forward about the fires. "People know who's doing it, they're just not saying."

At Pinole Valley in California, Rachel Monzon spoke out about what has been going on, but she said the response was not what she expected.

"I wrote the truth. I put it out there," said the senior, who wrote a front-page article in the school paper. "I would like to see our school get better. And I think that if one person steps up, more come to follow."

But said she was reprimanded by the principal over the school intercom.

School officials denied the principal directly reprimanded the student for the article.

"The issue has been one of maintaining a standard of journalism that matches what the profession upholds," school district spokesman Paul Ehara told KGO-TV.

The problems at the school have shocked teachers. One said that when a fight erupted recently between two girls in the doorway of her class, no one was able to stop it because the students wouldn't let them.

"It was a very rough, physical fight," said teacher Barbara Gerry. "The kids who are the audience, act as though it was a gladiator festival, crowd around, lock arms, make it impossible for any adults to intervene."

Gerry and other teachers told KGO-TV that since the school cut the number of security staff in half, due to budget cuts, there has been a rash of violence.

"I've seen fights. I've seen people pushed into lockers. I've had verbal assaults directed toward me many, many times," said Caroline King, another teacher. "I just have felt most times this year unsafe here on campus.""