My name is Michael Aiello and I am a teacher at the School for the Deaf, in Rome, New York that is run by the NYS Education Department. I have worked at the school for fourteen years. I am here today to strongly implore you to recommend the development of enforceable standard on safety and security for public sector workers to the Commissioner of Labor.

    This testimony is based on notes I took immediately following each incident in which I was involved. My intention is to tell of the situations and occurrences of which I have first hand knowledge. Other events have taken place that I am aware of but, lack the direct knowledge to address conclusively.

    Starting on the first day of the 2001 school year, students were suspended almost daily. Several students recieved the bulk of these suspensions because they were acting out, destroying school property, and threatening students and staff. These students were refusing to serve their time in suspension and were permitted to wander around the campus disrupting classes and often being chased by staff as a method of monitoring their behaviors. Whenever staff expressed their concerns, they were either told that administration knew what these students were doing or it was suggested that maybe staff should seek counseling to help them cope with the situation.

    In October, I requested a meeting with the school superintendent to discuss report card issues and to express my concerns about school safety, staff fears, and moral issues staff had conveyed to me. The response was that it was not considered a problem and no other staff had expressed any concern.

    The superintendent called a department meeting in November. Staff members raised the following questions:

    Staff (teachers and instructor assistants) was told that it is their job to control these students' actions and behaviors, and if this was a problem for staff that they should start seeking employment elsewhere. Staff and students were being threatened and intimidated daily. The staff was doing their best to maintain productive classrooms despite the ongoing daily disruptions. Following this meeting, I met privately with the superintendent to voice my personal concerns and the anger and frustrations that staff had expressed to me. I suggested that that the superintendent's own anger and frustration appeared to be very much a part of her need to confront staff in this meeting. I did not feel uncomfortable having this conversation because I believe my relationship with my superintendent has always been a good one. At this time, I also suggested to both the superintendent and my department head that perhaps it would be beneficial to invite the Chief of Police and the Mayor to come to our school and discuss ways of controlling student aggression. Their response was that the situation was under control and that we did not need to involve outside help.

    The morning of December 13, 2001, we were informed that a student was suspended for getting three detentions. At various times that morning, both our superintendent and supervisor told us that the suspended student was uncooperative and refusing to serve his suspension. Several times through out that day, I witnessed staff chasing this student both inside and outside of buildings and around the campus. About lunchtime, I witnessed this student taking a chair that he had removed from the superintendent's office outside of the administration/academic building and throwing it around attempting to break it. Then, he placed the chair in the center island of the parking lot facing the administrative/academic building and scraped his feet around in the mud. Next, he stood up on the chair and wiped his boots on the seat, acting out for the benefit of the students and staff. Right after this incident, my supervisor informed me that the student had attacked him, twisting his arm backward and forcing him to the floor breaking his glasses in the process, and that he had also forced another staff person out of his way. At about 1:00 p.m., the superintendent informed us to lock all of the doors in our building and stated that the student was not allowed back into the buildings. We were also told that if this student was seen in the building, we were to tell him to leave.

    I immediately went around and locked all of the doors and closed all blinds, where possible, and informed other staff. Our superintendent was in our building at this time, able to communicate with other involved administrative staff through a walkie-talkie. On my return from locking doors, I met this student in the main lobby of the building. I told him, as directed, that he must leave the building. The student charged toward me, placing his shoulder under my right armpit and forcing me off the ground. He then punched me from behind on the side of my head, and put me in a bear hug forcing me into a brick wall. I was able to regain my footing, quickly turn around and restrained him to the floor, preventing him from injuring me further. I called for help while I had him in a restraint (unaware that our superintendent was at the bottom of the stairwell close by). Within seconds, another male staff member happened to walk by and assisted in the restraint. Shortly after that, three other male staff members also came to assist us. At this time, the police were called, as the student continued to resist. The police arrived and unsuccessfully tried to placate the student. He was then handcuffed, shackled, carried to the police car, and transported to the police station.

    My department head (who assisted in the restraint) and I were told by the police to follow them to the police station. We first went to our school nurse to report the incident and my injuries. Then, we went to the police station to write a deposition. After several hours at the station, I went to three separate Urgent Care facilities for treatment of my injuries, which included injuries to my head, my right hand, arm, and shoulder.

    In January and February, there were other student/student and student/staff altercations. On February 4, 2002, the student that assaulted me returned to school having served his 45-day suspension. This student was again suspended on Feb. 13, 2002. Shortly after his suspension, staff was told that the student had escaped from the suspension room. At this time, my department head told me that I should lock myself in a room for my safety, other staff was told to do the same. I question why the police were not immediately informed of this situation. This most certainly would seem to be a violation of the terms of his return to school, and also put staff and students in danger. The following day staff received an E-mail saying that the rumors concerning this student’s behaviors were untrue and that administration was very unhappy that rumors spread throughout the school about this incident. This E-mail also said that 2 administrative staff found the student at about 10:30 a.m. at Jervis Library; so, the student had obviously escaped. Once again, I question why staff is searching the city instead of turning this matter over to the proper authorities.

    In February, yet another student that had been acting aggressively toward staff and students was assigned a one-on-one assistant to control his behavior. Unfortunately, he attacked his assistant, breaking a wooden pole across the assistant’s chest and physically assaulting the assistant. Once again, other staff including myself was required to restrain the student. After the student was effectively restrained, staff escorted him to a bus that took him home. To the best of my knowledge, the police were not informed.

    This assault has caused great physical as well as financial losses for me. I have a serious and permanent injury (a detached shoulder to torso muscle), which I have been told will only worsen with time. I have had to use my own sick leave accruals for all doctor and physical therapy appointments, which has not only exhausted my time, but due to the fact that I did not have enough time to cover vacations, has cost me pay. I have not received, and am told will not receive any financial compensation for my permanent partial disability, which is awarded for lesser injuries. Prior to this assault, I had always been a very physically active and self-sufficient person; doing all of the mechanical repairs as well as bodywork on my vehicles, home repairs including construction, cutting and splitting firewood. I am no longer able to perform any of these activities. More personally, I can no longer lift and carry my grandsons or play baseball with them or do many of the daily activities which I was previously able to do. Now, I have to pay someone else to do much of the work that I used to do myself.

    I have received no support or concern from the administration at our facility. I was not permitted to return to work with the restrictions that my doctor felt were important to prevent further injury or damage to my chest and shoulder. In the midst of my health issues, my wife passed away. Left with mounting financial burdens, I had to return to work. However, this meant asking the doctor to remove the medical restrictions from my records.

I have worked at this school for the past 14 years. The totally unacceptable student behaviors that I have witnessed were not tolerated in the past. There are policies and procedures in place that attempt to deal with some of these incidents, but this current administration has chosen not to follow them. Other staff and myself have made every attempt to try and resolve these issues. We have been threatened and assaulted by students on practically a daily basis. Some of us have been injured, in my case permanently, because of administration’s reluctance to follow established procedures, and their inability to provide for the health and safety of both staff and students.

    I was not hired as a security guard whose job would be to control overly aggressive students nor should my job be threatened because I am questioning administration’s handling of situations that directly affect my health and safety. In fact, my job requires me to question these things as outlined in our school's Vision Statement. We need to recover order and control of our school and students, reaffirm our staffs’ position as leaders, and involve appropriate outside agencies to minimize the violence in our school when necessary. Staff needs to know that they also have rights. The right to work in a safe and healthy environment, the right to question administrative decisions, the right to teach students and not have to be a referee, the right to call the police if they are threatened or attacked, and the right to receive immediate and appropriate medical attention when needed. Someone needs to stand up and be heard. I am taking that responsibility before any other staff or student is injured. I do not want to place blame on any one individual. My intention is to prevent further violence in our school and to insure that our staff is safe and free to teach, and our students are safe and free to learn. Please join in me in pursuing these goals by recommending that the Commissioner of Labor promulgate and enforceable standard for safety and security of public sector workers. Thank you.