A Shootout on Pine Avenue? Quality Programs and Training in Schools Keeps Kids Safe Now - Might Even Save Lives Later
July 2023 marked the 20th anniversary of one of the bloodiest shootings. that took place in Niagara Falls, NY - blocks away from where I lived until two years before. Shots rang out on Pine Avenue outside of a restaurant called Dante’s, right across the street from a corner store I was in on a nearly daily basis. I was told that one of the young men who was shot ran into that store and dropped dead in the candy aisle shortly after being hit. Someone was charged with his and another murder and given 20 to life for it.
Two young men were killed that night – but I had only met one while teaching at Niagara Falls High School (NFHS). As a teacher at NFHS, I had a classroom of 12 city kids and an assistant. My students spent most of their day with me, all 10th graders – except one. The one student in 11th grade (for this blog, we will call him Rod) showed up in my room rather unexpectedly. He knocked on the door, and when I opened it, he handed me his schedule. My name was on the top, but all the classes listed were not those that I taught. I welcomed him in, and, although puzzled, gave him a place to sit and went through an awkward introduction. Some of my crew knew him – so we got through it.
Niagara Falls High School, Niagara Falls, NY - My Classroom was on the 3rd Floor
When the time was right, I called down to the main office and asked to speak to one of my multitude of administrators. NFHS had 3,300 students at that time – so there was a Dean, a Housemaster, a Chief Educational Administrator, Special Education Director, and more. Here’s how that conversation went…” Hi Manny, I think something must be amiss – you see, I have an 11th grader here, and this is a 10th-grade class.” Manny says, “I know Mike. We want him in there. The Special Ed Department will catch up with you on this.” Good soldier that I was, “No problem, Manny. I got it.” Truth be told, I hadn’t done the years necessary for tenure, and when young teachers piss off administrators, they don’t get tenured. That is just how it was…and still is in some places. I am sure I will get to that – but not now.
I knew nothing about Rod. I didn’t even have an IEP for him. In education talk – this is an Individualized Education Plan. It is a document that accompanies all students who receive special services – the kind I and a whole team of people provided. Rod wasn’t much interested in what we had going on in the classroom. He had two pagers, a pocket full of money, and a sense of humor that kept things lively. His mantra was kind of like I won’t mess up your class if you don’t expect too much from me. I knew I’d get him moving – but in situations like this pushing too hard too soon (without a relationship) can be catastrophic.
Even so, Rod’s residency in my classroom was short-lived. One day, he stood up toward the end of a class and started pacing the room. He clapped his hands and told me he had to leave the room before the bell. This was a no-no. If he left early, I’d have to call security. We always had an unarmed team of six and one or two police officers in the building. So, I broke it to him. “Can’t go, brother. You gotta stay till the bell; you know that.” He honored my request, and honestly, I liked him and didn’t have any issues with him…until a few minutes later. Bell rings, and he’s out the door, going the wrong way. He was supposed to go toward the center of the school, and he went to the other end of the hallway.
Then I heard the yelling and saw kids running by my door toward the way Rod went. I went out the door, and the Science Teacher across the hall and I made our way through the crowd, where Rod and another teen were going at it. The Science Teacher grabbed Rod, and I grabbed his opponent. When I got the student up against the lockers, I quickly noticed that he was bleeding from his face terribly. Blood was gushing out. I opened a door and pushed him into an empty classroom. He then ran to the room's back door and into an adjacent room.
That room was an English classroom – no kids, just the teacher sitting at her desk. She had an instant look of shock when he ran through the door with me right behind him. She is my sister-in-law (believe it or not). I had no idea what was happening and had to restrain the student. Within minutes he was getting medical attention; Rod was in cuffs, the hallway was cleared, and the police officers were moving the soda machines to see if they could find the weapon.
I can stop the story here and cut to the chase (no pun intended). In the de-escalation and intervention program that I teach, we use what Cornell University calls an “Individual Crisis Support Plan (ICSP).” This one-page document lets staff know about their students – very important things. Such as safety concerns, what upsets them, what they might do when triggered, and the strategies that effectively bring things to a state of calm for that student. It is really simple when you think about it.
Going back to 1999, I needed one for Rod. If I had known the possibilities with him, I could have stopped that from happening. But instead, I found out…the hard way. The day after the incident, Rod’s Probation Officer called me to introduce himself – to find out my observations of him in the classroom and what took place the day before. Then he told me some things about Rod that would have been REALLY helpful to know sooner. The bottom line is that excellent training in a great system keeps kids and staff safe. We were lucky that a murder didn’t occur in the hallway that day or that those of us tasked with breaking the fiasco up didn’t get hurt.
The boy Rod attacked as he exited his classroom that day was badly hurt. But he wasn’t killed until he was 19 years old, in that shootout in front of Dante’s on Pine Avenue that I mentioned earlier. And it wasn’t Rod that killed him. But high-risk kids need high-risk plans and meaningful interventions when they are young. Without them, this is exactly what happens.
With resources and training, we can get to them sooner. The right stuff at the right time can save their lives…or the lives of others.