Safety concerns are widespread in Philly schools. Staff say the district’s policies are in part to blame.

When staffers at Dobbins High sounded an alarm about significant school safety problems, Philadelphia School District officials said they would move quickly to address issues there, adding staff and programs to quell a culture of hall-walking, assaults, and few consequences for students who act out.

But Dobbins’ challenges aren’t limited to just one school. Educators across the city say that they are hampered by district policies and procedures, and that a well-intentioned move away from reactive and exclusionary student discipline has not been replaced with meaningful alternatives systemwide.

“The district is trying to have fewer suspensions and expulsions, so the numbers are down, but it’s not because kids aren’t having the behavior,” a staffer at Benjamin Franklin High School said. The teacher, like most who spoke about school climate to The Inquirer, declined to be publicly identified for fear of reprisal.

» READ MORE: At Dobbins High School, ‘a chaotic, unsafe environment.’ What is the district doing to help?

For years, schools often relied on excluding students from class, either by suspension, arrest, or expulsion for poor behavior. But harsh consequences and zero-tolerance policies disproportionately affected Black and brown students, and generally didn’t make schools safer.

But now, “I think the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction,” a staffer at another district school said. “Kids thrive from structure, and when you’re able to blend expectations with support, you can do lots of great things. Where the district falls short is that support piece does not exist.”

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr., who recently announced a multipronged plan to focus on school safety, has pledged action, including addressing specific school needs.

“There are times when we say, ‘Certain behaviors are unacceptable, and we’re not going to tolerate it,’” Watlington said. “There are times when it’s appropriate to do an out-of-school suspension. The other side of that nickel is, we will never be able to remediate or suspend or discipline our way to the kind of excellence that we need and so richly deserve in this city.”

There are times when we say, ‘Certain behaviors are unacceptable, and we’re not going to tolerate it.’

But staff in many Philadelphia schools say they’ve heard such promises before, and they’re wary.

Mastbaum High School is similar to Dobbins in many ways: Both are career and technical high schools, offering multiple vocational programs, housed in a sprawling building on a busy street — Dobbins on Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia, Mastbaum on Frankford Avenue in Kensington.

But Mastbaum is set in a neighborhood especially troubled by the city’s gun violence and opioid epidemics, and it doesn’t have enough staffers to keep an eye on students.

» READ MORE: Philly superintendent pledges resources to five areas to make schools safer inside and out

So far this year, there have been multiple lockdowns because of neighborhood issues, intruders in the building, and teachers threatened, one Mastbaum staffer said. A tiny percentage of kids make trouble, but the effect is outsized, even though the school has a strong administration.

“I don’t want suspensions; I know these kids need support,” said the Mastbaum employee. “But ignoring it isn’t going to solve the problem. The things that do work take more energy than anyone can give it. It’s basically a nightmare.”

The school tried a demerit system in the past, but “there were so many demerits that the one dean couldn’t keep up with that. There was not enough manpower,” the staffer said. The same was true for in-school suspension. Although it kept kids in the building and got to the heart of discipline — teaching better behavior — Mastbaum had to abandon it because there weren’t enough adults to run the program.

In a phone call to a parent of a student who was acting out, “the parent said, ‘OK, what consequences did you give them?’ I said, ‘The only real consequence I can give them is calling you,’” the Mastbaum staffer said.

This year, the school is trying more proactive solutions, like a student ambassador program, conflict resolution, and mentorship, but it has a challenging freshman class.

“There’s still just not a lot of consequences,” said the Mastbaum employee, who noted a snowball effect. “Staff aren’t coming to work because they’re at the end of their ropes. There’s no system to help people when things are bad; there’s a lack of trauma supports for staff and students. You can’t support traumatized students as a traumatized staffer.”

Watlington’s safety support plan includes eight free sessions for staff per calendar year with Lyra Health, a mental health benefits provider that offers therapy, coaching, and online self-care tools. Students are also offered mental health services from a different provider.

One principal at another district high school was self-described as having “a heart for all kids.” But what, the principal asked, do you do when a student does something egregious — bringing weapons to school, making serious threats, or assaulting staff?

The principal would like the student suspended, but district staff “say, ‘No, this is a conversation.’ That applies to threats, that applies to lots of things. If a kid is smoking weed, they say, ‘You need to have a conversation, they need someone to talk to.’ OK, if that’s your stance, then when your hallways are filled with marijuana smoke, that creates a vibe that is not academic.”

Saving every single student is a great goal, the principal said.

“But if you’re going to be successful in this city, you have to look at the needs of the many vs. the few. That’s the part that they’re not willing to accept or acknowledge. In trying to save every single kid, you get schools like Dobbins,” said the principal.

The district has greatly reduced the number of students arrested over the years by sending students into a diversion program with social services rather than requiring them to enter the criminal-justice system. But it’s not always working as intended, the principal said.

“Students are offered all these services and they’re not required to participate,” said the principal. “And what we’re being told by the police is that a lot of students aren’t using these services.”

Despite Watlington’s recent public pivot to safety conversations, the principal remains frustrated.

“School climate and culture is not a priority to the district,” the principal said. “They will use up all of our time to talk about a math curriculum that’s half-baked. Until you get climate and culture under control, you don’t have an academic space to learn.”

Kevin Bethel, the district’s safety chief, said Philadelphia’s students “are coming from some of the most violent and challenging communities in America. They’re coming into our schools, and it does create a significant challenge.”

The issues cropping up at Dobbins are not isolated to one school or city, post-pandemic, district officials said.

“Across the nation, we are seeing an increase of student misbehaviors and violence,” said Evelyn Nuñez, the chief of schools.

Though climate issues are spiking now, Philadelphia had been trending in the right direction over the last 10 years, said Abigail Gray, the district’s deputy chief of school climate and culture.

“The past two years have been a setback for us, as they have for every district in the nation,” Gray said. “But we are paying attention to what we know has contributed to that improved climate in the past decade.”

That means programs and policies that center on relationships and rewarding positive behavior, Gray said.

“We as educators have to lean into the restorative practices both on the disciplinary end, but even more importantly on the front end,” Gray said. When a student misbehaves in class, a teacher needs to pull the student aside and have a de-escalating conversation with them, for instance.

“Those are new skills that staff have to learn, but we are working really hard with staff to help them learn those,” Gray said.

After conditions at Dobbins deteriorated — and The Inquirer detailed them — district officials sent more resources to the school.

But at least some of those resources were taken from other schools. An assistant principal was pulled from South Philadelphia High School to help at Dobbins.

And though South Philadelphia’s climate is better than Dobbins’, it couldn’t afford to lose that key staffer, another educator at the school said.

“Our kids aren’t bringing weapons in, they’re not pushing teachers down the steps,” the South Philadelphia staffer said. “But does that have to happen before they’ll fully staff us?”

The South Philadelphia teacher also worries about a lack of consequences for students. A case in point: On a recent day, a student refused to lock his cell phone away as required by school policy. Instead, the student kept the phone out, playing loud music, making it difficult for everyone else to learn. The teacher had a conversation with the student, which helped only for a few minutes.

The teacher ultimately called school safety officers for help, but the officers didn’t come. Administrators weren’t available. The teacher reached out to the student’s parents but never got a response; the student faced no repercussions.

“Restorative justice can only go so far,” the South Philadelphia educator said. “If kids are bullying each other, harassing each other, you mediate it, but if the bullying and harassment continues, you can’t keep doing that. What’s plan B? We don’t have a plan B.”