The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Student conflicts on rise at many U-46 schools

By Seth Hancock
  Last week, the final week before Christmas break, South Elgin High School administrators moved their offices to the hallways to watch student activity as violent fights have been reported in recent weeks.
  Additionally, two dean’s assistants and a school resource officer were added to morning arrival, according to a Dec. 10 message sent to parents by Kurt Johansen, South Elgin’s principal.
  Videos of fights at the high school have surfaced on social media, while violence has been reported at other School District U-46 schools.
  Johansen’s message was to announce that there would be “a few procedural changes that will be implemented upon our return from winter break. The focus of these changes will be to help increase the safety within our building.”
  “Since returning to in-person learning this school year, schools nationwide are dealing with behavior challenges that seem to be heightened,” Johansen wrote. “Overall, student conflicts at SEHS are declining. However, we have seen a recent uptick in both verbal and physical altercations the past two weeks. As we work to address these conflicts, we have learned that self-regulation and de-escalation strategies need to continue to be a priority for our students. Furthermore, the impact of social media and sensationalizing these behaviors has presented new issues that we are working to address.”
  The changes last week were to help “our students to process through conflict in order to prevent both physical and verbal conflicts from occurring,” Johansen wrote.
  At the U-46 Board of Education meeting on Monday, Dec. 13, there were 13 staff members, primarily social workers, who spoke during public comments to state they are seeing a mental health crisis in schools. They said the district never had a plan to address mental health when in-person learning returned this school year.
  The teacher’s union also gave a presentation. Megan Jones, a social worker at Elgin’s Huff Elementary School, said there have been 347 discipline referrals, 215 related to safety concerns, as of Dec. 3. Last year, there were only 84 referrals, but Jones admitted that was during distance learning. However, the previous year there were 249, 41 concerning safety which is nearly 100 fewer than this year.
  Tammy Reicha, a teacher at Streamwood’s Canton Middle School, said behavioral issues were rising “long before the pandemic.”
  “We are in defense mode constantly,” Reicha said. “Fight, flight or freeze are our options.”