Target 11 investigates uptick in school violence

“It’s the biggest problem facing the district right now. We have a crisis,” said James Fogarty, the executive director of A+ Schools, a nonprofit with the goal of making sure every child gets a quality education.

“I’m not going to wring my hand and say things are horrible. Yeah, it’s not good. So, let’s fix it,” said Fogarty.

We also showed Fogarty — who has two children in the district — brand new videos of 10 recent fights at Taylor Allderdice High School.

“It’s making me sick even watching it,” said Fogarty.

Fogarty believes one of the biggest issues facing the district is staffing. Even though the district has lost students, Fogarty says there’s still not enough staff to cover all of the school buildings.

“You’re spreading your staff across a lot of buildings. and so you don’t have enough people in each building to really support the kids and keep things as safe as they need to be,” said Fogarty.

A handful of teachers and staff have been injured breaking up fights.

And, Fogarty said the district is sitting on nearly $70 million from the American Rescue Plan that could provide much needed assistance.

“In my mind, that process would be: bring your principals in, say what do you need today to stop the violence, and who do we go get. If it’s additional paid staff for the district, great — if it’s community-based programs that can come in,” said Fogarty.

Similar to one Fogarty’s group helped launch at Perry High School in November, with the help of some other community organizations, community members go into the school and work with students. Fogarty said it’s only a couple of extra people in the school, but so far he said it’s made a big difference.

“It’s not a lot, but it’s two more people in the hallway. It’s two more people who say he let’s get to calls in a friendly when teachers are trying to get set up for class. And last week there were no fights or suspensions,” said Fogarty.

If successful, Fogarty said the program could expand to other schools in the district.

Target 11 also showed the new videos of violent fights at Taylor Allderdice to the president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.

“As a parent and educator, as a human being, I’m disgusted, in a rage. We are concerned about the safety of our students as well as our staff and faculty,” said Nina Esposito-Visgitis.

And she believes members of the board of education are partly to blame for the uptick in violence.

“We are very concerned about what seems to be the lack of action by our school board,” said Esposito-Visgitis.

She’s referring specifically to a request by some principals to reinstate a policy allowing them to hand out more severe punishment, such as after-school suspension, to a student with three or more minor offenses like misbehaving in class.

But the board voted it down.

“It’s absolutely, utterly ridiculous. Students know there’s no accountability,” said Esposito-Visgitis.

And, she issued a challenge to some of the board members.

“I listened to a school board meeting last night and I become enraged, listening to people who have never been in the classroom. When is Pam Harbin or Devon Taliefero or Jamie Piotrowski ever going to come into the schools? And, I invite them in anytime to come in and substitute. I would really like to see that because I’d like to see how they handle it,” said Esposito-Visgitis.

Target 11 reached out to those three school board members and to every other member as well. Only a couple responded but declined to comment. Target 11 also reached out to the administration multiple times, but they never made anyone available to answer our questions about school violence.

The interim superintendent did issue a news release several weeks ago, condemning the violence and calling for a new opportunity to embrace and rejuvenate meaningful change, but he did not provide any details about the opportunity.