Back from the brink

Three years after a corridor killing, one high school offers a model of school safety.

Security devices: Swiping bar-coded IDs along an electronic scanner gains a student entry to New Jersey's Bayonne High School. It's one of several security measures put in place after a killing at the school in 1997.

The personal touch: Senior Frank Roberts, 17 (with Principal Michael Wanko): "We don't have all the answers. But we're doing the best we can with the little things that can really improve our school."

By Dennis McCafferty

ne morning, the PA system blares that homeroom will be extended by a half-hour. No one's going anywhere. Not to class. Not to the bathroom. Then come the sirens. And the ambulances. And the helicopter. Soon parents are rushing to school to take their children away.

That was the scene on .March 5, 1997, at Bayonne High School in Bayonne, N.J., between Newark and New York City. Aubrey Taylor, an 18-year-old junior, was stabbed and killed while defending his cousin in a hallway fight with another young man.

Though suburban and rural schools such as Columbine High in Littleton, Colo.; Thurston High in Springfield, Ore.; and Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., were the scenes of deadly student rampages now indelible in the national psyche, the fact is that students at urban schools like Bayonne High are more likely to become victims of murder, assaults and other violent crimes, reports show. Overall, violence in U.S. schools has either leveled off or declined during the past decade.

That decline includes Bayonne -- and not by accident. After Taylor's death, the school launched an ambitious, wide-ranging set of anti-violence initiatives that continues today -- with measurable results. Says student Adela Maskova, 16, "Now, I'm going to get my education and not give in to being frightened."

In dramatic contrast to three years ago, when the stabbing made headlines, today Bayonne High is known as a model of school safety, helping educators in their quest to answer the increasingly complicated question of how to keep America's schools safe.

Behind the changes at Bayonne is its principal, Michael Wanko.

Since the stabbing, Wanko has instituted an array of new programs and security measures, ranging from the limited use of metal detectors to discussion groups on racism. Among the lessons learned at Bayonne is Wanko's conviction that it takes more than metal detectors to make a school safe.

"Security devices don't detect young people's emotions," Wanko says. "They don't provide self-esteem. Everything we do here is aimed at achieving that."

From the outside, the killing at Bayonne could have been perceived as yet another violent act in yet another city war zone.

But that stereotype strays far from reality. For starters, Bayonne High looks unlike most schools, urban or rural, with its marbled, arching hallways, stained-glass windows, indoor pool, planetarium, even a hockey rink. Three of four graduates go on to college. With 300 computers linked to the Internet, students download Matisse works for projects on French art. And it brags of what is probably one of the nation's most diverse student bodies, with immigrants from about 50 countries.

Before the 1997 stabbing, more than 40 doorways allowed access to the school's buildings; now, only two do. To enter the school, every student must swipe a bar-coded ID along an electronic scanner. Two armed police officers patrol the hallways. Wanko puts more than three miles a day on his shiny black loafers to stay on top of the campus. Every afternoon, students with no after-school activity must leave within 12 minutes after the last class. And as of last month, two walk-through metal detectors are used for random or targeted screening of weapons, gang wear, tobacco, pagers and cell phones.

To help soothe misgivings -- including his own -- about the use of metal detectors, the principal has placed one at an entrance where he displays a wall of flags representing the homelands of Bayonne students. Says Wanko, "This makes the setting more inviting."

Other new programs address different problems. A weekly discussion class called ERASE (End Racism and Sexism Everywhere) was started the fall after the stabbing. A peer leadership effort, once an after-school activity, is now a for-credit elective. Participants learn how to mediate a truce effectively. And every freshman is required to complete a military-style obstacle course in total silence, scaling a 30-foot rock-climbing wall. "You don't talk to each other," Wanko says. "You don't hear each others' accents. But you reach for a common goal."

So far, results are encouraging. Reported incidents of vandalism, violence, substance abuse and weapons violations have declined to 37 last year from 57 in the year of the stabbing. While that decrease may not sound dramatic, school officials note that the system for reporting problems also has been improved, so relatively minor incidents, such as shoving matches, are being recorded for the first time.

Dorothy Warner, co-author of a new guide, due in July, to help parents evaluate the effectiveness of high schools, believes that Bayonne's approach works because it balances tighter security measures with compassion. "It's not just a matter of looking out for the bad guys," she says.

Students seem to agree.

"You can build a fortress," junior Nicole Signoretta, 16, says during an ERASE class, "but if someone wants to do something violent, he'll find a way to do it. You have to change what's inside."