3 days Ago By Bill Cloutier
A survey presented at a Waterbury Board of Education meeting this March revealed a disturbing level of violence in the city’s schools. According to the Waterbury Teachers Association 86% of teachers say current student discipline policies and protocols do not create a safe classroom. The current congressional representative for Connecticut’s 5th District taught history for 15 years in Waterbury’s John F.
Kennedy High School and now sits on the House Committee on Education and Workforce. Yet it is the Republican candidate for the 5th District, George Logan, who has taken action to address the problem of school violence. Logan has taken the initiative to follow up on two Department of Justice investigations regarding the safety and security of students, teachers and staff in Waterbury public schools in June 2022 and February 2024.
In an April 15, 2024, letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Logan urged the department to immediately review the June 2022 and February 2024 investigations and subsequent policy changes regarding the safety and security of students and teachers in Waterbury Public Schools. “I demand full transparency regarding the Department of Justice investigations, findings and subsequent policy recommendations regarding the safety and security of Waterbury Public Schools and ask that you take whatever action is necessary to ensure a safe learning environment for students, teachers and staff,” Logan wrote. Logan charges that teachers and administrators have been told not to report incidents of violence in order to suppress data and falsify records to meet artificial quotas that do not reflect the reality in Waterbury schools.
“Waterbury Public Schools serve approximately 18,610 students and the policies recommended in secret by the Department of Justice are failing these students, their parents and guardians, as well as the teachers and staff throughout the Waterbury school district,” Logan wrote. It is this kind of initiative and demand for transparency on a major issue of concern to students and teachers that we can expect from George Logan as our congressional representative. Bill Littauer Lakeville.
