Being Down

by Casella, Ronnie; Anyon, Jean

• ISBN13: 9780807741474
• ISBN10: 0807741477
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

This book looks at the lives of young people and the violence that is a daily part of their world in an urban high school. Being Downstudies school violence comprehensively#x14;linking school ethnography, policy analysis, and urban studies and encompassing city politics, racism, policing, and systemic and economic injustices in it's all-too-real portrait of youth violence in American society. Rich with dialogue, this timely volume considers school violence in its many forms, including gun and weapon usage, assault and harassment, bullying, fighting, suicide, and hate crimes. In addition to youth violence, the book examines federal policies and court cases that have shaped judicial and punitive responses to violence. Chapters cover: zero tolerance policy; school discipline; urban policing; community and school relations; segregation and school inequities; alternative schools and Boot Camps.

Author Biography

Ronnie Casella is an assistant professor of secondary education and educational foundations at Central Connecticut State University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Jean Anyon
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(3)
School Violence at Ground Level	4	(2)
A Bird's-eye View of Violence	6	(3)
A Framework for Understanding Violence in School	9	(17)
Violence in the Context of History, Culture, and Economics	9	(5)
The Policy Picture	14	(3)
Where Policy Meets the School	17	(1)
The City and the School	18	(2)
Entering Brandon High	20	(4)
Being Down	24	(2)
Violence in the Organization of Schooling	26	(28)
Systemic Violence	28	(7)
Interpersonal and Hidden Violence	35	(4)
A Glimpse at Peer Mediation	39	(4)
Suicide and Self-mutilation	43	(6)
The Spectacle of Violence	49	(2)
A Portrait of a School	51	(3)
The Screening Committee and the Prison Track	54	(25)
Going Before the Screening Committee	56	(15)
On Placing and Dropping Students	71	(4)
Suspension and Expulsion	75	(2)
The ``In'' of Outplacements	77	(2)
Of Hood Rats and City Cops	79	(19)
Enter the Police	81	(2)
Police, Families, and Youth	83	(4)
A System Apart	87	(3)
Police, the Community, and Antagonism	90	(3)
Community and Police Crossfire	93	(2)
From Street Beat to School Police	95	(3)
Policing the Urban School Crisis	98	(19)
Theoretical Foundations of School Policing	99	(2)
The School Police Officer	101	(3)
Policing Brandon High	104	(7)
The Role of a School Police Officer	111	(2)
Alliances in Unexpected Places	113	(2)
From School Police to Classroom Cop	115	(2)
DARE Students Speak of Violence	117	(27)
DARE in a National Context	121	(4)
The Curriculum	125	(4)
Viewing DARE Class	129	(7)
Being Smart	136	(4)
The Benefits of DARE	140	(2)
Power, Ownership, and DARE	142	(2)
Public Policy, Popular Discourse, and Education Reform	144	(13)
Linking Theory and Practice	145	(2)
Education Reform in Short	147	(3)
The School and the City Revisited	150	(2)
School Restructuring for a Just Environment	152	(3)
A Policy Postscript	155	(2)
References	157	(8)
Index	165	(10)
About the Author	175