The first fight at Oak Park and River Forest High School this year occurred on Sept. 22. That’s nearly a month later than the first fight physical altercation between students last year, which occurred on August 25, 2022.
That’s evidence of an improved climate at OPRF this year Principal Lynda Parker told the District 200 Board of Education at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 12 when Parker presented a report titled “Updates on Safety at OPRFHS.”
“There’s a very noticeable difference within the building in terms of conduct and how it’s being monitored,” Parker said.
Parker delivered a similar message two days before the school board meeting to the OPRF Community Council.
Parker said that new measures such as an increase in the number of security guards, known as the campus safety officers, and new strategies are having a positive impact. OPRF also has a new Director of Campus Safety this year, having hired Cindy Guerra, a former high ranking Chicago Police Department officer, to replace Cherlynn Jones-McLeod after Jones-McLeod resigned over the summer.
OPRF also has hired more security guards this year. OPRF now has 28 full-time and eight part-time campus safety officers compared to the 19 full-time and nine part-time employed last year. OPRF is in the process of hiring two more full-time and two additional part-time campus safety officers.
There is now increased coverage of active areas in the school where students congregate, including cafeterias, shared hallways, camera blind spots and restrooms. Security guards are monitoring entries and exits from bathrooms — bathrooms have been a primary place where students go to vape. A security guard is also stationed at the third floor “box” where students tend to congregate. One security guard is now always monitoring the feeds from the cameras deployed around the school.
Last spring, in making the case to the school board about the need for more security guards, Parker pointed to the frequency of students making unauthorized exits from the building during the school day. She said many doors to the schools were not covered during the school day.
Because a security guard is now assigned to constantly monitor the camera feeds, Parker said that school officials can now more easily identify the students who are leaving the building without permission during the school day and have follow-up conversations with those students.
“Yes, there are still students leaving through the doors but not at the same rate as last year,” Parker told the school board. “I can say that it has lessened.”
Four security guards have been assigned to the new position of behavior response leads. They are expected to be first responders to incidents and to act as intermediaries to minimize the loss of instructional time as a result of punishment, such as suspensions. There has also been more training for OPRF staff in de-escalation techniques, crisis management and crisis prevention and intervention.
According to the report that Parker presented, there were 33 incidents of excessive physical aggression at OPRF last year, 23 verbal threats, 13 cases of bullying or cyberbullying, 11 incidents of physical force to a student and 8 incidents of physical force to a staff member. There were six incidents of students found with a weapon other than a gun, five incidents where two or more students committed an act of violence, three incidents of non-consensual touch and six incidents of distribution of alcohol or drugs.
At least 91 incidents of vaping or smoking at the school were reported and 78 cases of behavior disrupting a classroom.
There were more infractions last year that resulted in interventions from deans than the year before. During the 2022-23 school year, there were 844 such infractions compared with 679 such infractions during the 2021-22 school year.
More findings include:
- Last year, Black students accounted for nearly 58% of the infractions that resulted in the intervention of a dean despite Black students making up just 18.3% of the school’s student population according to the latest Illinois School Report Card.
- White students accounted for a little over 22% of the infractions resulting in the intervention of a dean while white students make up about 55% of the student population.
- Hispanic students accounted for just under 12% of the infractions while making up about 13.5% of the student population.
Last year, a couple of OPRF teachers told the school board that they didn’t feel safe at the school anymore. Some school board members pushed back against the perception of some that OPRF is not a safe school. Board member Mary Anne Mohanraj said that people’s perceptions of safety are often influenced by cultural factors and implicit bias.
“Just because somebody doesn’t feel safe doesn’t mean they aren’t safe,” Mohanraj said. “But, also, we want people to feel safe.”
Board member Audrey Williams-Lee pointed out that just because there are occasional fights at OPRF, that doesn’t mean that students don’t feel safe.
“A student coming home saying there was fight today doesn’t necessarily mean ‘I didn’t feel safe,’” Williams-Lee said.
