This fall, students across Maryland will convene their own school safety summit, the state schools superintendent said Tuesday.

“I think the voices of students are so critical,” Superintendent Nancy Grasmick said at a statewide school safety forum.

“... So we want to engage students from all over the state to be able to hear what we ought to be doing on their behalf.”

About a dozen students from throughout Maryland attended Tuesday’s summit, organized after a video was posted online showing a female student attacking a Baltimore City teacher in her classroom in April.

This story continues below
Advertisement

Youth lash out with violence in school because they are angry, said one summit participant, Epiphany Butler, 17, who graduated this past week from Doris M. Johnson High School in Baltimore City.

“They feel like they have no options,” she said.

“It’s a tug of war between the schools and the streets. As long as the school system doesn’t pull, the gangs will win.”

Butler said she considers her school and teachers her family because her mom’s in jail and she grew up in an abusive home.

“Teachers shouldn’t have to raise us, but they basically have,” she said.

Schools should send more progress reports home to parents and invite parents to get involved, said Ariel Dye, 18, a recent graduate of Dunbar High School in Baltimore City.

Adrienne Hall, 17, a rising senior at Reginald F. Lewis High, where art teacher Jolita Berry was attacked, said she agreed with what one summit speaker and violence researcher, Ivan Juzang, said about how teachers fail to authentically connect with kids.

Hall supports a successful but controversial program for enticing students to behave at Lewis. Youth who boost their grade point averages get New Balance sneakers.

She earned a pair after improving her grades.

“It’s really helped,” she said.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com