In March of this year, it was reported that Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez had visited a Hartford NRZ meeting where she responded to a teacher reporting on the increase in students behaving badly, very badly in some cases.  Due to being confronted in public with this truth, Torres-Rodriguez had to put lipstick on this pig, and she replied, “I don’t see that…I’m in schools regularly and I don’t see that.”

This was three months before the end of the 2022-23 school year.  From EdSight, “Connecticut’s official source for education data,” which is data provided to the state by the district, we find that Torres-Rodriguez ought to have her eyes examined.  Comparing last school year to the year prior, we get the following facts about the behavior of Hartford students:

·         Violent Crimes Against Persons, up 45%

·         Sexually Related Behavior, up 6%

·         Personally Threatening Behavior, up 14%

·         Theft Related Behaviors, up 77%

·         Physical and Verbal Confrontation, up 12%

·         Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco, up 49%

·         School Policy Violations, up 14%.

And these are comparisons made on the number of incidents between school years yet between these two school years there was nearly a 3% drop in the number of students in the district, and still we see incident increases of 45%, 77%, and 49% !

The number of physical and verbal confrontations in the classroom rose 105% from the 2018-19 school year to last school year, yet enrollment over that same time period dropped 17% !  The enabling fallout of restorative justice practices?

With three months to go in the 2022-23 school year, the Superintendent claimed the district was not headed for a school year ending which would show the above bad behavior increases.  If you cannot admit there is a problem, how the hell can you fix the problem?

However, by her practice, she does admit the behavioral problem by contracting with multiple third parties for mucho deniro to institute programs at Hartford Public School which are designed to curb these issues, social and emotional development is the go-to phrase. 

So, if admitting it by practice but not in public, we can choose any of the following terms to describe the ‘public’ Superintendent of HPS: phony, fake, deceitful, dishonest, deceptive, evasive.  You don’t see those terms in the little write-ups HPS propaganda specialist Jesse Sugarman sends to the Hartford Courant or WFSB.  Some people will say and do anything asked of them for a few extra bucks and a gold star on the resume.

What we cannot ascertain from the data is the number of bad behaviors that are student-on-student, and which are student-on-teacher.  Do what Torres-Rodriguez and the Board of Education won’t do, talk to a teacher about this issue.

Teachers at HPS are being assaulted daily by students, physically and verbally.  The Noah Webster magnet school currently has 3 teachers absent due to being assaulted, and another who remains in the classroom but has sustained permanent injuries due to an assault.  Objects are thrown at teachers, teachers are hit with furniture, teachers are spit on, slapped, and kicked.  Last year at Global Communications Academy there was a very pregnant teacher who was kicked in the stomach by a student. 

Many of these incidents (aside from many being buried by central office) involve special education students who are illegally placed in classrooms without a paraprofessional.  A teacher at one HPS school reported that staff have seen paras hired one day and quit the next.

Last school year’s suspension rate (in-school and out-of-school) at HPS was 13.4%.  This is the highest it has been since the 13.7% in the 2016-17 school year.  This fact, and in keeping with the season, brings to mind the John Lennon lyric: “So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”