My day to day worries as a teacher center around covering all of the curriculum, meeting my students’ individual needs, and engaging my class in meaningful learning experiences. My eyes were opened recently, however, when I asked my fourth and fifth graders to write about their perspectives and concerns regarding our school: a small K-5 campus in Watts, with just over 500 students. While staff and administration at Weigand Elementary are in a panic over low test scores and struggling academic achievement, the students’ concerns focused primarily on their safety at school - a facet of life that shouldn’t be at the forefront of ten-year-old minds.

Student Comments: Safety

“My concern is safety. What if I am playing basketball and a man calls me and say come closer and they have a gun and they want to shoot you. We won’t have protection. We need protection so they won’t be killed. We need a wall they climb the fence and start shooting.”

“I am concerned that when they come in the school and they come and hide in here in a secret place. Then when we go somewhere they can get out of the place they hide and they can get somebody and maybe that person may kill a little kid and that’s what I’m concern about that somebody may get in the school.”

“The playground is dangerous because they might do drive bys and get shot.”

“I want Weigand to change not letting kids going home by there self because they get rob by grown ups. I am worried that [there] are people robbing kids and killing them and there parents are worried.”

“I am worry because I think that somebody comes and trys to steal us.”

“I am also concerned about somebody breaking in the school. I think we should have more protection. Maybe we should have more polices in Weigand.”

“What if I was playing something and some one call us and steal us.”

“I am concerned if I come to school and I am playing kickball and someone come up to me and say give me your money.”

Another prominent problem at our school is the high teacher and principal turn-over rate. My current group of fifth-grade students had three different teachers during their fourth grade year as teachers resigned and left the school. My current fourth-grade students are already on their second teacher this year as they were transferred to my class when their first class was closed for low enrollment. Beyond the academic consequences of working with different teachers within one school year, there are also psychological effects on students when they are abandoned.

Student Comments: High Teacher Turn-over

“I think teachers and principals leave because they didn’t like us and decided to leave.”

“I think they hated us so they left.”

“I think teachers and principals leave because they think they should get a better job in a school that has high scores.”

“I think the teachers and the principal leave because they had to do more work because they did not pay then enough money.”

“I think teachers and principals leave because we had low scores.”

“I think they left because they didn’t like us.”

“I think teachers and principals leave because they wanted to work somewhere else.”

“I think teachers and principals leave because we get low scores and it a dangerous place and other parents came and hitted other teachers or principals.”

“I think why the principals and teachers left because they didn’t like us.”

“I think teachers and principals leave because they get low score.”

“I think teachers left because we got a bad grade.”

“I think teachers and principals leave because we get low scores.”

Overall, I was impressed with my students’ insightfulness into the problems on our campus, and I deeply hope that we will be able to implement some of the changes they yearn for. I must note that a few of my students did share a positive light in their responses, such as “We are students that work hard and try our best to get better. We are the people that hope we get good awards. When we do all that in school, we become somebody in life.” However, it is the darker, fearful responses that keep me tossing and turning in the night. It is the voices like the one below that keep me pushing myself to help my students build moral character, internal strength, and the empowerment to speak out against the injustices in this world.

Student Comment:

“I would like to change some things in our school. The things I would like to change are people that fight, people that are trouble makers, kids that write in the bathrooms, teachers that smoke, teachers that say bad words, teachers that leave our school and go to other schools and people that kill around Watts.”