-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Las Vegas struggles with rising violence in schools
After several days of classroom lockdowns when violent brawls2 broke out inside Desert Oasis3 High School in Las Vegas, Cherish Morgan had had enough.
She began organizing parents and students to pressure the Clark County School District to crack down on expulsions, demanding more security and training for teachers. On the second day of the fighting in early March, Morgan recalls standing4 outside the school on the sidewalk frantically5 texting her seventeen-year-old daughter who was trapped inside.
"It's terrifying when you're out here and you're like, I know where she is, I could just go grab her, she would be safer with me if I could just go get her," she said.
In one of the fights that was all over the local news, a father of a Desert Oasis student could be seen right in the middle taking swings.
"Listen, our principal and our teachers should not be jumping on top of a parent to stop him from beating a student," Morgan says. "There's no world where that is OK, there's just not."
In the world of Vegas, violence has long been a problem. The mafia put this town on the map, after all. But since the pandemic, things have been especially tense, with violent threats, harassment6, theft, assaults and guns increasingly spilling into places many once thought safe.
Indeed, the trauma7 at Desert Oasis is hardly an isolated8 incident in the sprawling9 Clark County Schools District, the nation's fifth largest, home to some 305,000 students. District officials and police report an uptick in violence ever since returning to in-person learning last fall. There have been roughly 8,300 calls from Clark County schools to police dispatch reporting incidents of violence, up by some 1,300 compared to the entire 2018-2019 school year.
The most shocking attack in April involved a 16-year-old student who authorities say strangled his teacher and allegedly sexually assaulted her in her classroom during a dispute over grades. The student was charged with attempted murder.
Teachers are on edge and learning is being sidelined
While a recent national survey showed an uptick in harassment and violence against teachers, there's evidence it may be worse in Las Vegas. In interviews with staff, students and parents, many pointed11 to the fact that kids went into virtual learning for a full year and three months during the pandemic, causing a lot of social isolation12. Las Vegas's economy has also been hit hard by the pandemic, with mass layoffs13 and shutdowns in the entertainment industry, so a lot of kids experienced added stress at home.
Many teachers say they don't feel like the district — or the broader community — have their backs. Locally, at least three martial14 arts studios have even begun offering free or reduced self-defense classes for CCSD teachers.
"When you're constantly having to worry about your safety and your students' safety and what's going on in the hallways, it's very difficult to just focus on teaching and focus on the students' needs in your classroom," says Ariane Prichard, a biology teacher at the city's Bonanza15 High School.
Prichard, a 14-year public education veteran, thought several times during this stressful school year that she might leave teaching all together. Burnt out and exhausted16, she has decided17 to stay on but, for the first time, not teach summer school.
CCSD currently has at least 1,000 open teaching positions. At the start of the year, Prichard's classes were 40 deep. Teachers and administrators18 told NPR class sizes have gotten a little more manageable of late but only because more kids are truant19. Still others appear to have dropped off the map all together.
Violent crime is also up generally in major cities
Sergeant20 Ben Abarca says he's seeing more truants21 on patrol in east Las Vegas. Some get into trouble on these streets or become victims themselves. One recent morning, dozens of kids were milling around in the back of one school near some modular classrooms. Across the road, in a church parking lot, several students were cutting class, hanging out and eating fast food.
"You guys go to Chaparral? Why are you not in class?" Abarca said, rolling his window down from his squad22 car. "Go on campus."
Abarca is with the CCSD Police Department — the district runs its own law enforcement agency separate from Las Vegas Metropolitan23 Police. His agency also is facing a shortage of officers since the pandemic, just as the violence has risen in both the schools and the city. In fact, violent crime is up across most major American cities.
"A lot of people like to blame the pandemic but the kids have been in school for over a year now," Abarca says. "I think it's a community issue and I think everybody has to do their own part, including us."
In Vegas, Abarca is seeing a lot more shootings. On patrol, he points out several that had occurred recently within feet of schools, including one elementary school. In black shades, Abarca is a tall hulk of a man, a former Marine24 who served in Iraq.
He's soft spoken but can look imposing25, not the kind of guy you might want to talk back to, still: "I've been spat10 on, I've had a female pick up a pen and try to stab me with it like two weeks ago. I get punched, kicked. The respect isn't there like it used to be."
Abarca and other officials attribute some of this to a broader societal problem, declining trust in institutions and authority.
On this weekday morning, which he considers slow, there are some 20 active calls across the district. He scrolls26 through them on his laptop in his squad car: a fight at a middle school, another at a nearby high school, drugs at a middle school, threats made to an elementary school.
Abarca stops to interview a secretary who took that last threat, called in by a mom, who was apparently27 mad that her daughter was disciplined. She had demanded to know the address of the office and threatened to drive down, allegedly adding that she understood why "schools all get shot up."
Las Vegas schools went virtual longer than most
Sergeant Abarca later said he figured the mother calling in the threat has mental health issues. Nevada ranks last in the nation for mental health access. Its largest school district, Clark County, also frequently ranks near the bottom in education quality rankings. Nearly two thirds of the student population is considered lower-income.
"This is a ripe setting for these types of incidents," says Samuel Song, a school psychology28 professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
There were 18 suicides during the one year and three months schools went all virtual.
"Do I think it was too long? We were doing everything we could at that time not knowing, not having a play book," says Jesus Jara, the CCSD superintendent29.
Jara announced a slate30 of new safety measures after the 16-year-old student who attacked his teacher was charged with attempted murder and sexual assault. They include adding panic buttons in classrooms, more security cameras and tougher penalties for scofflaws as well as more mental health services.
Jara said the violence is a nationwide problem and it's not just in schools. So the challenge now is how to refocus students after so much upheaval31 and make sure they stay focused on learning.
"We can't measure how deep the scars are," he says. "This is why we have invested our extra dollars in mental health support not only for our students but also for adults."
But as the district tries to address the rise in violence, Jara says they also face a $6 billion deficit32 in maintenance and infrastructure33. A new ad hoc group of parents and students is calling on Nevada's governor to hold a special legislative34 session to address the crisis. One candidate for governor has even pledged to "take over" Nevada's schools if elected due to the violence.
Eighteen-year-old student Gianna Archuleta had several family members lose their jobs in area casinos. She says her hometown is on edge. Violence has always been a problem in the schools here, but it's noticeably worse. She has started showing up at school trustee meetings demanding student-led solutions.
"Morale35 is low, people don't want to be here and it's honestly just incredibly sad to see because there are a lot of people here who could do a lot of good but they don't want to be in this environment anymore because of what's happening," Archuleta says.
Things appear to be calming down, some
The district is using federal Covid relief funds to go toward a $4,000 teacher recruitment package to address the staffing shortage. They're also trying to offer retention36 bonuses for beleaguered37 staff. District officials have said the violence tends to be perpetrated by small groups of students. Meanwhile, they say things have quieted down some as the end of the school year approaches.
At Valley High School, east of the Las Vegas strip, teachers and support staff are trying to focus on the positives, scheduling fun activities for several straight days marking teacher appreciation38 week. During a crowded lunch period, mariachi music played for Cinco de Mayo.
"It seems as though students aren't socially interacting with adults or themselves in the way that we saw pre-pandemic," says Kim Perry-Carter, the principal. "There's a lot of anger and there's a lot of quick tempers."
But she pointed to some of her most troubled kids who recently returned to school who were out on the cafeteria floor dancing. Some students even dressed in costumes. She says many badly need some sense of normal, some stability.
"We have three social workers on our campus — phenomenal social workers — but those three social workers can't reach 2,800 students. And I will say out of all 2,800 students, it's a small group of students that are causing problems," she says.
收听单词发音 |
1
transcript
|
|
| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
brawls
|
|
| 吵架，打架( brawl的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
oasis
|
|
| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
frantically
|
|
| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
harassment
|
|
| n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
trauma
|
|
| n.外伤，精神创伤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
sprawling
|
|
| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
spat
|
|
| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
isolation
|
|
| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
layoffs
|
|
| 临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
martial
|
|
| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
bonanza
|
|
| n.富矿带，幸运，带来好运的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
administrators
|
|
| n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
truant
|
|
| n.懒惰鬼，旷课者；adj.偷懒的，旷课的，游荡的；v.偷懒，旷课 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sergeant
|
|
| n.警官，中士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
truants
|
|
| n.旷课的小学生( truant的名词复数 )；逃学生；逃避责任者；懒散的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
squad
|
|
| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
metropolitan
|
|
| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
marine
|
|
| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
imposing
|
|
| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
scrolls
|
|
| n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
psychology
|
|
| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
superintendent
|
|
| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
slate
|
|
| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
upheaval
|
|
| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
deficit
|
|
| n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
infrastructure
|
|
| n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
legislative
|
|
| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
morale
|
|
| n.道德准则，士气，斗志 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
retention
|
|
| n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
beleaguered
|
|
| adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
appreciation
|
|
| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
购买
在百度中搜索