Warmer Climate Aggressive Program At Chase Middle School Promotes Better Understanding And Tolerance

When it opened in the fall of 1994, Chase Middle School revealed the glitches expected of any new building — gas odors leaking into classrooms, cranky fire alarms going off for no reason, lockers too small to hold a violin case.

But along with the normal quirks, the first year at Chase was filled with staff feuding and racial tensions so intense than then-Principal Rodger Lake called it the worst year of his life.

Four years later, that turmoil is gone, staff members say.

Perhaps the definitive sign of the new, improved Chase came last month, when the school watched Principal Alison Olzendam accept a human rights award from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. The award praised the school’s efforts to promote tolerance and diversity.

The moment was a far cry from Chase’s chaotic inaugural year, when a group of teachers filed a complaint against counselor Lionel Harding-Thomas, saying he created a hostile work environment and intimidated co-workers.

Harding-Thomas, who is black, claimed the staff was retaliating against him for defending minority students.

A parent of one of those students had filed a complaint after school officials searched the lockers of her son and three other black students. The anger culminated in a rally attended by more than 150 parents and students.

State officials investigating the charges found Chase to be a “hostile working, teaching and learning environment.”

“It was really difficult to work here” said teacher Mary Uptagrafft. “There was so much tension that first year that you didn’t laugh, you didn’t talk to people. A lot of people didn’t want to come to work, and that included me.”

So what caused the turnaround? For starters, the school has a new student program to promote a safe environment, and a take-charge principal.

Olzendam says she took the hot seat at Chase in its second year knowing what she was getting into.

“Very definitely, I had a plan,” she said. “I couldn’t just tell the staff, ‘You’re going to all come back and have a positive attitude.’ I had to foster that.”

Olzendam started with neighborhood coffees to hear the public’s concerns. What she found was a community experiencing growing pains.

Located in an affluent section of the South Side, Chase replaced Libby Middle School, a beloved but rundown building near the freeway in the low-income East Central neighborhood.

In addition, Chase opened its doors to around 900 students - nearly double that of Libby.

Now that teachers have had time to reflect on what went wrong the first year, they say those factors combined to cause a lot of the problem.

“There was anger in the Libby community,” said Uptagrafft. “To come up here meant losing their neighborhood.”

Mary Langford, one of six black staff members at Chase, spent a lot of time talking with the East Central community. She says the district didn’t do a good job selling neighbors on the benefits of Chase.

“The neighbors felt Libby was one of the best-kept secrets in the district,” she said. “A lot of people didn’t want to come to Chase, so they came with a lot of baggage.”

Contributing to that unease was an administration unprepared to deal with the transition, said teacher Georgiana Sutherlin.

“We just moved in too fast,” she said, adding that racial issues weren’t addressed that first year. “There was no system in place to deal with it.”

Now, say teachers, there is.

The cornerstone of Chase’s efforts to deal with conflict is the school’s Positive School Climate program, launched this year.

Each month, students and teachers spend a day addressing different issues, from harassment to anger management to social justice.

Students can fill out incident reports if they feel they’ve been harassed. Administrative action ranges from a warning to suspension.

Judi Hopkins, large-school facilitator at Chase, said the school receives between five and eight student reports a month. Most reports can be handled with a warning, she said.

Helen Bannerman heads up the school’s equity council and developed the PSC program. Bannerman, who was one of the first to lodge a complaint against Harding-Thomas, said the program’s aim is to make sure everyone at Chase feels respected.

“If you’re going to see a change in attitude, you have to see that everyone’s buying into it,” she said.

This month, students are looking at cultural awareness. Music students studied songs of different regions.

In physical education, students spent last week researching different countries in preparation for a school Olympics.

“It helps students understand these things better,” seventh-grader Laura Cook said as she studied a book on Ireland. “I like it.”

“Some kids whine because it’s extra work,” said teacher Cathy Edgren. “But it gives kids a different perspective other than their own.

“Anytime we can do that - making the child see the world a little differently - is great.”

Parent Susie Kuznetz, who is Jewish, said Chase is an environment for kids of all backgrounds.

“Alison chooses to address all those issues no one wants to address,” she said. “She is just a very pro-active individual.”

“She has worked to make sure that each and every one of the students respect and understand each other,” said David Levitch, associate national commissioner for the Anti-Defamation League.

Susanna Sweeney-Martini, a Chase eighth-grader in a wheelchair, transferred to Chase after being harassed at her previous school.

“Nothing has happened here,” she said. “I’m a lot more comfortable.”

Eighth-grader Siwanna Grant moved to Chase from Chicago last year. Grant, who is black, said Chase students are more accepting than her former classmates.

“Here, you don’t have to have an attitude to be accepted,” she said.

But even with a new principal, a tolerance program and time to heal, the school isn’t perfect.

“It’s still a sensitive issue,” Olzendam says of Chase’s first year.

“You know, time heals most wounds. But a lot of staff members took this really personally, and they were crushed by this.”

Rodger Lake requested a transfer and is now principal of Browne Elementary on the North Side. Harding-Thomas is still a counselor at Chase but didn’t return phone calls to comment on this story.

Current Chase students say they know little about the problems in the school’s first year. They were, after all, in elementary school at the time.

But some add that there are still racial divisions, just not hostile ones.

“There are cliques of black and white,” says eighth-grader Ladan Maleki. “But they’re just more alike, so they stay together.”

“You can be friends with the black kids,” says eighth-grader Rikki Vallance. “But you can’t hang out with them.”

Elliot Wilde, who is black, said he sees it differently.

“I hang out with everybody,” the eighth-grader said.

And others say they’re not sure the Positive School Climate program, which teachers are still fine-tuning, is getting through to students.

“You can’t really relate to it; it’s so overexaggerated,” said eighth-grader Robyn Lapoint. She said the videos shown are sometimes outdated. Who can take seriously teens preaching the virtues of tolerance while dressed straight out of the 1970s?

“They need to bring people in - people who have been through what they’re trying to teach us,” said Grant.

Still, said Lapoint, PSC is at least raising awareness.

“People have realized there are all different races,” she said.

It’s a start.

“Everything has a starting point,” said Uptagrafft. “And I think here at Chase we’ve started.”