Good behavior is required.
So is entering school through a metal detector, since the program offered by the V.I.S.A. Center at the University at Buffalo is designed to provide students who have been suspended from the Buffalo Public Schools for acts of violence a safe, weapon-free environment where they can feel comfortable expressing themselves. Since it opened last Nov. 15, the center, part of the UB School of Social Work, has served the needs of roughly 200 students from the Buffalo Public Schools. Even the toughest-acting students seem to be finding something they need at the center. The few students who have been asked to leave the program because of continued behavior problems have cried and have asked to be allowed to stay, said Linda Lavid, senior clinician at the center and a social worker with the Buffalo Public Schools. Of the 200 students who have been assigned to the center, only a handful has repeated the program.