Colin Flaherty: Black Chocolate City Schools. Parents Lied to About Safety

Black Chocolate City Schools. Parents Lied to About Safety. Colin Flaherty Commentary Video "Longtime County Teacher Edward Kitlowski: Parents Lied to About Safety" black school violence fight beatings and non discipline. Education Board. no child left behind. suspension rates. black teen student behavior violence crime

by Chris Papst Wednesday, July 18th 2018
A former Baltimore County teacher says parents are being lied to concerning their kid’s safety in public schools.

After spending 33 years teaching in Baltimore County classrooms, Ed Kitlowski is now running for County School Board. He’s frustrated, because during his career, he saw how student discipline has changed and the effects it had.

“The lie is that what we're doing is working,” says Kitlowski, who states parents are being lied to.

Kitlowski says No Child Left Behind, passed in 2001, drastically changed public education because it shifted the focus to data. For example, Project Baltimore investigated suspension rates. We found in-school and out-of-school suspensions, statewide, have plummeted 58 percent since 2007. Kitlowski says student behavior didn’t improve, the discipline just stopped because principals wanted their school’s data to look better.

“One school I was at, the principal made a policy of not suspending students. Didn't broadcast that to the student body, but after a while the students start to see. Well, so and so did this really bad behavior, and nothing happened to him. I'm gonna see what I can do,” says Kitlowski.

He recalls a time, 25 years ago, when a student called him a “stupid jerk.” He still has the paperwork showing the kid was reprimanded, and his parents were called to the school for a meeting. Towards the end of his career, Kitlowski says a student brought a knife to class. The weapon was taken, but the student was not disciplined.

fter he says he was kicked, punched and sworn at during the latter part of his career, Kitlowski retired in 2016. Now, as a school board candidate, he says it’s time to shift the focus from data back to students and tell parents what’s really happening inside their kid’s school.

“Teachers aren't trained to deal with a lot of the discipline problems they're seeing,” he says. “I find that there's a lack of transparency about what's happening, and Project Baltimore seemed to be looking at that and bringing some transparency.”