Over the last month, Skyline has faced safety concerns from students, parents, staff, and people all over Oakland. These stem from a Nov. 12 incident in which two students allegedly brought guns to campus and shot another student, who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The school went on lockdown for the third time this year.
A Town Hall meeting on Nov. 20 brought school officials, including Principal Rebecca Huang and OUSD Director of Safety Nelson Alegria, to explain their plan for a safer campus. Principal Huang told the audience that the school had added five security personnel, along with a violence interrupter and restorative justice coordinator, and mentioned planned facility upgrades, including two new fencing projects, one stretching from the theater to the front entrance that will be installed over winter break.
This statement by Ms. Huang encapsulates the main objective that Skyline and district leaders seem to be trying to achieve: using security measures to prevent violent incidents that have been plaguing Skyline for years. While these measures focus on security, we believe the root of recurring violence lies deeper with problems with the school culture.
These problems with our culture are showcased with students skipping class, limited connections with staff and weak a student community. Fixing campus culture can be difficult and lengthy, but if Skyline leadership takes the appropriate measures, students and staff will attend school without fear.
One issue holding Skyline back is the normalization of tragic events, like the Nov. 12 shooting. Many students and staff wanted the next day off to process the trauma, but the district kept school open to support students. School resumed with some restorative justice circles and other activities aimed at supporting students. But because of the quick turnaround, teachers could not provide as much help as they would have liked, and many students felt there should have been more therapists and adults checking in on us and listening to our concerns. If the school had done this, we would have felt supported and confident returning to campus.
Instead, the school has prioritized a heightened security presence in which staff are stepping up enforcement of digital passes and school IDs and are conducting frequent sign-ins at the bathrooms. School leaders did implement restorative justice circles for every third-period class on Dec. 11, but many students felt they came too little, too late.
We believe normalization of school shootings and gun violence exists among students. No student should feel comfortable bringing a gun to school, let alone shooting peers. Staff shouldn’t ignore conflict, and students shouldn’t rush to film fights. Again,this issue is rooted in campus culture, and to fix it, students must step up equally and fight for the changes they want.
The Oracle acknowledges the nuances and challenges of addressing campus safety, where increasing security could lead to more extreme, potentially threatening measures such as pat downs and police on campus. However, we believe the school’s response after the shooting was not ideal, and greater emphasis should have been placed on supporting students rather than increasing the security presence.
