Two armed police officers patrol the hallways. Wanko puts more than three miles a day on his shiny black loafers to stay on top of the campus. Every afternoon, students with no after-school activity must leave within 12 minutes after the last class. And as of last month, two walk-through metal detectors are used for random or targeted screening of weapons, gang wear, tobacco, pagers and cell phones. Other new programs address different problems.
Participants learn how to mediate a truce effectively.
You don't hear each others' accents. But you reach for a common goal. So far, results are encouraging. Reported incidents of vandalism, violence, substance abuse and weapons violations have declined to 37 last year from 57 in the year of the stabbing. While that decrease may not sound dramatic, school officials note that the system for reporting problems also has been improved, so relatively minor incidents, such as shoving matches, are being recorded for the first time.