During lunch after the Christmas vacation break, a fight took place between two students of the Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts which escalated into a big brawl between multiple students and school safety guards. One of the students went into a seizure during the safety agent takedown.

This fight caused the students and teachers to reflect on the role of the agents within the school, which is located on East Gun Hill Road on the Evander Childs campus.
“The agents forgot we’re just teenagers,” says Hope Mayes, a senior.

“That situation was blown out of proportion on both sides,” says school aide Joslie Rodriguez.

But students feel there is little they can do to prevent this from re-occurring.

“We’re taught we’re supposed to accept the system as if there is nothing we can do about it,” says Mayes. The fight was “totally uncalled for. That’s not what’s supposed to happen, especially between adults and students.” Students are reminded of it all the time because they see the agents involved in fights on a daily basis, working their regular shifts.

Other school aides, including Lashawn Jackson, hope for the relationship between students and school safety to change. The agents “need sensitivity training and a better system of communication,” Jackson said.

“There is no relationship” between school safety and other members of the staff, said an agent who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We come to do a job. For kids to respect you, you have to show it as well, but you have those who are rude.”

School safety agents are employed by the NYPD and are trained to use force when a child is considered a threat and to issue a summons, if necessary. Because of this, students tend to view agents the same way they view police officers. When questioned or asked for IDs, students interviewed said they feel harassed. Negative interactions simmer and have the potential to boil over when tempers are high.

“We’re people just like you students are,” said another agent who didn’t want her name used. “We have family and have bad days just like you do that we may bring to work with us just like you bring to school.”

But Assistant Principal Theresa Wyre-Jackson says some agents “tend to treat students like this is a prison system. Students become resentful.”