An Urban School Reduces Violence . . . With Nonviolence

When students feel like they are in jail when at school and the adults around them consider them all potential criminals, how do they act?

In a word, badly.

Happily, it seems like if you have the courage to retreat from treating them that way, they change.

Check out this incredible story of a school in Philadelphia whose violent incidents plummeted after they removed metal detectors, window bars, and armed police presence, and focused resources instead on supporting kids and reaching out to the community. It should be required reading for anyone concerned with educating children who are living in violent circumstances.

(Photo by BBC World Service, CC BY-NC.)

Miriam Axel-Lute is CEO/editor-in-chief of Shelterforce. She lives in Albany, New York, and is a proud small-city aficionado.

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