Afterschool dilemma: New freedom - and vulnerability
Insideschools has learned that a sixth-grade student was mugged yesterday afternoon at J.J. Bryne Park in Park Slope, the city park that essentially serves as MS 51’s de facto schoolyard, lunchroom, social hub and outdoor gym. The boy, who was chatting with friends after school, was approached by a group of apparently older children at 3:20 pm. When a would-be mugger found only a stick of chewing gum in the boy’s sweatshirt pocket, he took out his frustration by giving the younger boy a beating, leading to facial bruises, a black eye, three and a half hours in the Emergency Room (and a bruised young ego, too). The aggressors scattered after the attack and the younger students returned to MS 51, where parents were called and an ambulance summoned.
This morning, the boy’s mother went to the school to speak with the principal — and as she waited, another youngster came into the office to report an attempted assault on her way to school.
Sixth-graders at MS 51 and other schools citywide have new freedoms — they may leave school for lunch, they may take public transportation, and they have time to socialize and visit with friends. But with freedom comes risk. “These kids are open targets, on their own for the first time, in the park,” says parent Deborah Hodge, who says she was surprised to learn that her son’s experience wasn’t unique, and that other sixth graders had been victims of physical attacks near the school.
“All parents should know this,” she said this afternoon, after talking with others whose kids have been roughed up. “If I had known what happened before, I might’ve acted differently.” Ironically, Hodge says the physical freedom was one of the things that attracted her family to MS 51 — but she rejects the notion that “you need to run from school to home,” and feels her son, along with his schoolmates, should be safe and feel secure after school in the park. (NYPD officers are on hand intermittently, although they are not a daily presence.)
Hodge is interested in hearing from other MS 51 parents; she says she’d like to take something positive out of this scare and help make her son’s school community stronger. Contact her at deborahodge@gmail.com or drop a note in our comments string.
Editor’s Note: the Safe Haven program on the Upper West Side is one community’s response to similar challenges.
For more on middle-schoolers’ independence, read one boy’s manifesto, his mother’s response, and this conversation about one mother’s controversial, kid-driven choice.
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My son graduated from MS51 last year and he said there were intermittent problems with students from other school but he never had a problem. I know the administration is very responsive at 51. My sixth grader, who is not at 51, was mugged and the school’s response was fantastic. I also received a post from a Brooklyn listserv that ICE was holding a safety forum for parents and students and that members of the NYPD would be there to talk about safety and answer questions. My sixth grader’s principal did tell me that sixth graders are particularly vulnerable and are easy targets. But then, several of my older one’s friends have also been recently mugged. Unfortunately, it seem that these types of incidents are happening more frequently.
Comment by cps — January 13, 2009 @ 8:46 pm