Traditionally, school has been a safe haven for youth—a refuge from the violence of the streets. Every student is entitled to a safe, non-threatening and non-violent environment in which to learn. Unfortunately, today’s street violence has moved into our schools. Students and parents are concerned about safety in the schools. Schools are clearly frustrated with the inability to control disruptive and law-breaking students. Law enforcement feels that its hands are tied in their ability to identify and adjudicate juveniles who chose to break the law. The present system raises barriers which prevent the sharing of information about dangerous juveniles with parents, students, teachers, law enforcement, prosecutors, and the public. Other communities have developed inter-agency collaboration approaches to providing services to youth and their families. The key is the sharing of information. A multi-disciplinary team, including a court school liaison, would solve many of the problems now preventing our schools from being the safe havens for youth that they should be. We believe that the Fayette County Public Schools should create a Safe Schools Program which includes multi-disciplinary teams that will meet weekly in one of the city’s five public high schools to ensure the sharing of information and allow for the consistent enforcement of criminal and school rules throughout the school system. Members of such a Safe Schools Team should include representatives of the school system, social workers, law enforcement, prosecutors, and juvenile probation officers. This team should monitor juvenile crime on the streets and in the schools through case evaluation and discussion of at-risk students. The goal of the Safe Schools Team is school safety, crime prevention, and coordinated prosecution. The problem of juvenile crime affects every part of our community, including the schools. The re-entry of juvenile offenders into the schools raises a host of questions and problems, most importantly the safety of other students and teachers. At the very least, the criminal justice processing of such offenders should be tracked, and if they are permitted to return to the schools, their behavior monitored by someone from within the school system. The courts often place conditions on juvenile offenders after their appearance in court and as part of their adjudication. Much of the time, these students are ordered to attend school and to adhere to certain behavioral expectations, and they often fulfill community service requirements in addition to school. Dangerous juvenile offenders should not be allowed back into the regular classroom, where they pose a risk to others and can disrupt the learning environment. Even if a juvenile offender is appropriately ordered back into school, a problem exists when the student fails to attend school, and the school system—aware of the juvenile’s involvement with the criminal justice system—believes the student to be incarcerated and unable to attend school. This lack of coordination lets youthful offenders avoid society’s detection, allowing their problems—and the community’s—to grow. This lack of coordination prevents the sharing of essential information between the courts and the schools. A first-time juvenile offender may have amassed a significant disciplinary history in the school system, but this information may not reach the criminal justice decision makers because of a breakdown in communication, and the court may fail to administer an appropriate punishment as a result. The appointment of a Court/School Liaison would enable information sharing between the courts and the school system in order to effectively and consistently enforce the criminal and school rules system wide. The liaison would: Act as a link between these systems, keeping appropriate school personnel apprised of the student’s status while committed to the criminal justice system. Communicate daily with police, courts, prosecutors, social services, and corrections to ascertain the sanctions placed on juvenile offenders and any responsibilities relevant to the schools. Monitor compliance with court instructions and notify the appropriate juvenile justice personnel of the offender’s progress or lack thereof. Provide a system of communicating with truants and persistent absentees. The improved coordination facilitated by a Court/School Liaison would not only improve the criminal justice system’s response to juvenile offenders, but it would also allow the school system to increase attendance rates, improve student retention, and maintain a safe and non-violent, non-threatening school environment. |
Liaison Between Courts & Schools Critical To Sharing Important Information
