Columbia Journalism News

YOUTH MATTERS

EDUCATION Peering into the Future:
Educating the Growing Numbers with Autism By Susan M. Sipprelle

The number of children with autism in public special education programs has ballooned to meet the needs of the swelling number of children diagnosed with the disorder. The future of private schools has become uncertain as fiscal and federal legislative pressures have combined to promote less pricey educational solutions aimed at integrating children with disabilities into general classroom settings.

EDUCATION Brooklyn’s School for Democracy and Leadership Tries to Create New High School By Gina Pace The School for Democracy and Leadership is one of a growing number of innovative New York City small schools that are trying to change a system where only about half of the students who enter the ninth grade graduate high school in four years.

JUSTICE Black and White Justice:
From the Bronx to Manhattan By Sheila G. Miller About 99 percent of the kids who come through Judge Michael Corriero’s courtroom are minorities. “Kids are always going to get into trouble,” he says. “But kids who get in trouble in Westchester go to psychiatrists.”

OPINION The Mind Police:
Monitoring Students’ Mental Health May Backfire By Catherine Shu Colleges are reporting a 41 percent rise in cases of student depression and about 1,100 suicides a year. The specter of increasing rates of mental illness is forcing administrators to juggle student privacy, appropriate care and legal liability in an exquisitely delicate and painful balancing act. But the measures some colleges are taking to patrol their students’ well-being may backfire.

JUSTICE Cracking Down on Shaquanna:
How Mayor's School Safety Initiative Affects Kids By Leslie Albrecht With increased police presence in schools, and no clear guidelines about who has authority on school grounds – the principal, the school safety agent or police officer – school systems are wrestling with how to keep kids safe without turning campuses into militarized zones. “The bottom line is this: It’s mass confusion,” said attorney John Sampson.

Faces

Housed in the Julia Richman Education complex on the Upper East Side, Manhattan International High School serves a small but incredibly diverse student population of recent immigrants. Students in Annie Gwynne-Vaughan’s English 10 class are studying “Romeo and Juliet.”