If there’s one thing Brockton school and city officials agree on, it’s that disciplinary issues such as violence, vaping and truancy are out of control at Brockton High School.
“There are fights practically every day. Students and teachers are suffering bodily harm,” senior Lydia Bloodsworth said during a Jan. 31 special school committee meeting — the second meeting during this school year where students, parents and teachers voiced their concerns about these issues.
But while officials agree on the problem, the question remains: why are these problems — which affect every school in the state — seemingly worse at Brockton High School, and why now?
The COVID-19 pandemic’s role
During an recent interview with MassLive, Mayor Robert Sullivan said he believes the COVID-19 pandemic played an outsized role.
“Not to blame COVID, but COVID changed all of us, and it definitely changed the next generation,” he said. “A lot of the students skipped a year and a half, two years of school.”
There is no question that the pandemic had a severe negative impact on children’s mental health. In January 2022, the American Psychological Association declared that children’s mental health was in crisis as a result of COVID-19 and society’s response to it, and 2022 meta-study found an “urgent” need for intervention with children who have behavioral issues as a result of the pandemic.
Additionally, a 2023 report from Harvard University and Stanford University found that the average American public school student in grades 3 through 8 lost a half a year of learning in math and a quarter of a year of learning in reading during the pandemic. Many children who were in those grades in 2020 and 2021 are now in high school.
Changing school leadership
Sullivan also cited the fact that both school and district leadership have changed a lot in the last few years as one reason student behavioral issues have gotten so bad.
In October 2021, Brockton High School’s former principal, Clifford Murray, moved to a district-level position, and Cynthia Burns, a different Brockton principal, was named interim principal, according to The Enterprise. Burns was only supposed to stay on one year, but she agreed to stay an extra year.
Then, in June 2023, the Brockton School Committee voted to make Superintendent Mike Thomas interim principal of the school for the 2023-2024 school year. But right before the school year began, a $14 million school department budget deficit was discovered, and Thomas went on extended medical leave shortly after, leaving the district without a superintendent and a principal at Brockton High School.
Ultimately, Jose Duarte — a retired Brockton principal — was named interim principal at the high school, and James Cobbs — another experienced Brockton school administrator — was named acting superintendent during the fall semester. In December 2023, Kevin McCaskill — an experienced Massachusetts school administrator — was chosen as the new principal of Brockton High School before taking over the position the following month.
Sullivan and other Brockton officials have been optimistic that McCaskill’s installment will help turn things around at the high school.
Lacking leadership and discipline
But many city councilors have cited inadequate school leadership as a major factor in Brockton High School’s ongoing issues.
“I’m convinced the lack of enforcement of uniform, consistent and reasonable controls over student behavior is the primary reason for our problems,” Brockton City Councilor-at-Large Winthrop Farwell Jr. said Thursday.
Farwell’s sentiment echos that of himself and other councilors last month in response to four school committee members’ call to have the National Guard deployed at Brockton High School to help address the disciplinary issues.
“Calling out the National Guard infers that there’s nothing else that the public schools can do. But is that really true?” Ward 4 Councilor Susan Nicastro questioned previously.
Brockton educators have made similar comments. During the Jan. 31 special meeting, the presidents of both the Brockton teachers and special educators unions said they have been hearing from members that nothing is being done to address student disciplinary problems.
“Having no consequences for this and other unacceptable behavior is part of the overall issue,” Brockton Education Association President Kimberly Gibson said.
And it’s not just high school officials that need to do more, according to educators and city councilors. It’s a school committee that has long been hampered by internal divisions. At the beginning of both this and last year, the committee fought over the vice chair position for months, and the split over whether to call in the National Guard fell along the same division lines.
“I think the committee is more focused on its own pride than the school’s pride,” Ward 6 Councilor John Lally said previously.
In a recent interview with MassLive, Sullivan said that school committee meetings have “been rough at times,” but that he’s hopeful that things will be better going forward.
“I can’t really look back in time. I can just forge ahead,” he said.
