Post Magazine: What REALLY Happened at School Today

Michael Leahy , whose story chronicling a week in the trenches with Oakton High School security guard Wally Baranyk appeared in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine is online Monday, June 5, at Noon ET , to field questions and comments.

Michael Leahy is a Magazine staff writer.

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Michael Leahy: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us. We have a lot of questions, so I'll try answer as many as possible during our hour. Let's get started.

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Fairfax, Va.: I enjoyed your fascinating, well-written story and the well-rounded portrait of day to day life at a public high school. But I felt distress with the Oakton approach to getting information, what with their kind of police approach and tendency to turn some of their students into snitching rats by allowing them to provide information anonymously about misbehaving kids. Did you have any reaction to this technique?

Michael Leahy: Thanks for the nice words.

With regard to your question, however, what would you propose as an alternative technique for Wally Baranyk and the rest of the Oakton security department? If students see, say, a beating or drug use occurring on campus, can you envision them reporting it to Baranyk if they DIDN'T have the protection that anonymity affords? School is no different than the real world in that regard.

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washingtonpost.com: Crimes and Misdemeanors (Post Magazine, June 4)

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Cape Cod, Mass.: Excellent read. Do you feel these kids get a break where others in less elite schools would not?

Michael Leahy: This is a very difficult question for me to answer, given that I have not spent considerable time researching the same security issues at urban high schools. I can only tell you that I believe that Baranyk would be equally tough in any other atmosphere. Take the issue of drugs and the two girls busted for possession of the prescription painkiller. There was no sale of the drug on campus; simply possession. But Baranyk believed strongly in the policy of the school district: that county disciplinary hearings for the girls involved needed to happen; that the girls needed to account for their mistake and suffer a penalty; that they would better in the long run for having gone through the stiff disciplinary process (one girl has been tossed from Oakton and reassigned to a new Fairfax County high school; the other can no longer attend classes at Oakton, finishing up her senior year at home, essentially).As mentioned in the story, Baranyk had a brother who battled a drug problem for many years before recently passing away. He is passionate on the subject, something that would not change if he were serving in another kind of school. It's my judgment that his approach to thing would not be markedly different in another kind of school. I think he would try to ensure that wrongdoers suffer a punishment that would be instructive without needlessly ruining their lives.

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Richmond, Va.: You've probably gotten 100 versions of this question, but did you ever find out the "assaulted" kid's full story? Great article.

Michael Leahy: Thanks. The "assaulted" kid's story remains just as murky this week as it did a few weeks ago. That kind of murkiness is one of the things that Baranyk says can be awfully worrisome about the job: a security guard can only know so much about what is happening in the shadows, particularly away from school. But the kid has not reported any new assaults since I finished writing the story.

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"Snitching Rat"?: Wow. Life is not an episode of The Sopranos. When someone sees a crime being committed, they have a legal and moral duty to DO SOMETHING about it.

Michael Leahy: This reader's view reflects Wally Baranyk's.

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Baltimore, Md.: Is there any potential legal problem here if a school security man like Baranyk or others working with him are looking at students' MySpace sites on line? Thanks for the story. Well-done.

Michael Leahy: No, there is no legal problem. MySpace sites are on the Internet, and all of us can look at the Internet. If you want to pose it as an ethical question, Baranyk's response, as reflected by the story, would be that if he can save a student from harm or trouble by doing some intelligence work on the Internet, then the student and those around him might be spared some misery. In a post-Columbine world, you can't avoid the Internet if you're in the school security profession.

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Fairfax, Va: I am torn between applauding Baranyk and the good things he is obviously doing and the total disregard for the juveniles' 4th and 5th and 6th amendment rights that appears to consistently occur during his encounters. It wonderful that he doesn't want most of the students to be injured for life with say a felony conviction and he is simply straightening out the knuckleheads when they need guidance. The part that worries me is the students that end up in the juvenile court have had their constitutional rights ignored by Baranyk through mandatory interrogations in which they are ill-informed on the protections the laws affords. There is no easy answer to the question. When Baranyk is on your side all works out well. When is not on your side, he has gotten what he needs to prosecute in way that is unconstitutional.

Michael Leahy: I think you're certainly right that questions of juvenile justice are complex. But these students are not being charged with criminal wrongdoing as they enter Baranyk's office. Usually, it's along the lines of: "Tell me what's happening about such-and-such because I'm hearing some stories..." If the kid declines to talk (which happens sometimes, as evidenced by one of the story lines in my piece), that doesn't by itself lead to some disciplinary charge, so in that sense kids sometimes do exercise the kinds of right you've referenced here. Baranyk will then investigate further. Sometimes it will lead to nothing while other times a disciplinary hearing will occur -- or something more.

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Mitchellville, Md.: How were school IDs used to support the efforts of the school security officer? There are smart school ID systems used in the U.K. and Japan that notify school staff, security personnel and parents when a student's presence is not detected on school grounds. Do you think that kind of solution would have some merit in our schools here?

Michael Leahy: Short answer: yes. And that is where many security people think we're headed.

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Oxford, Miss.: Great story -- Thanks for the focus on the social curriculum and its obvious influence on the academic. (The social and academic curriculum often work closely in tandem. With the partial funding of the No Child Left Behind Act, it seems federal programs which address this issue for may schools has been cut.) A question -- Based on demographics and your knowledge of this community, is it your opinion that the social ills of the school are a microcosm of the community that the school serves?

Michael Leahy: I think Baranyk and others at Oakton would agree that the ills (and strengths) of any school generally reflect those of the represented community.

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Richmond, Va.: Congratulations on a great article.

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions that parents have about life at an affluent suburban high school?

Michael Leahy: I think the greatest misconception is that all is "just fine" in every moment. Just look at that one week with Baranyk: there was worry about an allegedly assaulted kid who might soon be targeted for something worse; there was talk about the need to keep an eye on a student who had done some things to make people worry that she might be suicidal; there was concern over the girls who'd had the drugs and what this might say about a possible larger problem at the school.

What Baranyk and his security colleagues do so well is make a school like Oakton FEEL so idyllic when, beneath the surface, things are always happening that need to be skillfully addressed by Security. Nearly everything terribly troublesome at a suburban high school happens in the shadows, which makes Security's job challenging and even scary sometimes.

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washingtonpost.com: Crimes and Misdemeanors (Post Magazine, June 4)

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Reston, Va.: My grandson is a junior at Oakton High. Your article horrified me. Maybe I'm naive, but the blase quote from the administraters about it being a quiet week, no one was suspended scared me. What will the next quote be, it was a quiet week, no one was killed. This supposedly is a good school. What happens in the bad schools? There must be a better way to resolve this.

Michael Leahy: Again, the observation of the administrator (in this case, the school's principal, John Banbury) only serves to underscore how much of Baranyk's work is spent probing the shadows. In that moment, the principal didn't know everything that Baranyk had confronted during that week. It spoke to the value of a Baranyk. That he did his investigations so quietly and deftly -- without interrupting the normal routine of classrooms and lunch hours -- enabled others at Oakton to feel serene.

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washingtonpost.com: Crimes and Misdemeanors (Post Magazine, June 4)

Michael Leahy: Our skilled producer Rocci Fisch has put a link to the story here.

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Washington, D.C.: As a fairly recent Oakton Grad, I thought this was an accurate reflection of the school during the time I spent there. Although there were never any major incidents during my 4 years, the security team maintained a presence on campus while being friendly at the same time. Judging from your piece, that tradition has continued. Thanks for a great article.

Michael Leahy: Thanks.

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Medford, Mass.: Thanks for the great read ... As a writer, I still go back and read your Michael Jordan piece when I need some inspiration.

Were you at all (secretly) disappointed that your week at Oakton turned out to be one of the calmer, assault-free, weeks at the school? How did you have to reshape your story without a compelling (or dangerous) event as the focus?

Michael Leahy: Thanks for the nice words. And I'm chuckling reading the rest of your note here. On my last day at Oakton, I said to Wally Baranyk, 'Wally, I thought you had one lunchroom fight a week.' Wally smiled and said with some amazement: "Gosh, yeah, not one all week."

But I really much preferred not having a week filled with an unrepresentative number of fights or busts. It allowed me to write about a quite typical week at Oakton and many other suburban high schools in this area -- a week nonetheless filled with security worries and challenges, all of it happening in the shadows. Again, I was fascinated by how virtually everything occurs in those shadows. I think the week was ideal for arriving at a nuanced story.

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Herndon, Va.: This is a great article! Do you have an update on the student who was being "targeted" and threatened by other students?

Michael Leahy: Thanks. Again, nothing has really changed in that child's story. Nothing else has happened to him.

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San Diego, Calif: Mr. Leahy, I'm a highschool student who has seen many events take place at my school that are reminiscent of some scenes depicted in your article. I noticed late in your article that the security considered the week you visited to be a "calm week." I thought that was interesting, because to many of the parents I know, these events would come as--atleast in comparison to when they attended school--a surprise. What were you most surprised to learn while doing your research? And what do you think has remained most consistent over the years? Really great article...enjoyed reading it.

Michael Leahy: Thanks for the good question. I think people of my generation (I was in high school in the 1970s)were accustomed to seeing misbehavior out in the open -- fights outdoors, drug use in bathrooms, etc. Security staffs were genreally non-existent. You'd have a single administrator at my high school walking around and killing time before he went back to his office. Today, the bathrooms are SO quiet for the most part. Again, kids move into the shadows to look for trouble.

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Portsmouth, Va.: I'm curious about your observations of the changing role of the school administrators in this situation. For example, just a short time ago the reality in most schools was that principals were the disciplinarians. They were the ones charged with dealing with behavioral and security issues (at least the ones not involving criminal behavior). Thus, the principals commanded more attention and had much more interaction with students. Now, it seems much of that has been passed on to, quite frankly, law enforcement personnel. How effective can teachers be in their jobs when they are essentially teaching in a de facto law enforcement environment?

Michael Leahy: Without excepton, the teachers with whom I spoke (on and off the record) at Oakton were grateful to have Baranyk and the Security team around. It stands to reason that they would want a Baranyk. He and his colleagues generally spare teachers and administrators from having their days consumed by disciplinary cases and problem-kids. Outwardly, Oakton is a quiet place precisely because Baranyk is toiling in the shadows.

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Tysons Corner, Va.: You're probably not still taking questions, but I wanted to thank you for the first article in ages that I, a male, felt like reading in the Post magazine. I page through the magazine every Sunday to read "Cul De Sac" and the dining column, but most everything slants toward women. It's as if the magazine is edited by women, for women. Same goes for the Sunday Source section. But your article drew me in and held me there. Thanks again.

Michael Leahy: I'm very happy the story drew you in. There are a couple of other fine stories in the Magazine this week as well that you might want to take a look at.

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Vienna, Va.: Why won't schools write, implement and enforce anti-bullying policies?

I was small for my age and was shoved, beaten, and ridiculed daily for over three years. In gym I was always the last one picked -- and even worse they would say "we don't want him, you take him" and push me back and forth. The coach would react by either ignoring the situation or laughing.

And things more horrible than I can share happened all the time.

Kids need responsible adults to keep a keen eye on things and tackle bullying as soon as it surfaces.

Michael Leahy: Baranyk says that the incident that has bothered him the most at Oakton was when that disabled boy was beaten up (the assailant was tossed out of school). He is fiercely dedicated to stopping bullying.

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Oahu, Hawaii: Always enjoy reading your stories. You put me right there at Oakton High. Every generation thinks the newest one is going to hell in a handbasket. Is this one?

Michael Leahy: Short answer: no, they're not going to hell.

You sound like you're from my generation. Remember how much we got AWAY WITH in high school, precisely because there were no Wally Baranyks around.

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Clifton, Va.: Hello. I found it facinating that students continue to bring drugs to school, fight at school, etc., when they know there are severe penalties for doing so. Is this a "last cry for help" or "I don't care what happens, I'm going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it attitude?" It also seems to me that the number of security personnel in our schools should be increased; they are stretched way to thin to be really effective.

Michael Leahy: Some school counselors believe it does represent a last cry for help in some cases, and that in others it simply speaks to a limited capacity at 16 or 17 to weigh risk.

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Reston, Va.: Could regular teachers handle many of these disciplinary problems just as well as security guys at a savings to budgets? In my school days, teachers handled many of these things. And while I admit they didn't need to deal with all the things that schools have to deal with today, they had their hands full at times. Another question: Do former policemen like Wally Baranyk receive or need to receive any training to ratchet back the aggressiveness that they used on the streets as cops? I'm guessing that this might be useful in needing to adopt a milder style for dealing with students.

Michael Leahy: No, there is no way a typical teacher or administrator could do the Security job as effectively as Baranyk or one of his colleagues. A Baranyk has skills honed by many years in this field and related fields, as evidenced by the deft way he handled interrogations and investigations during my week there. Teachers are far less patient under those circumstance, as many will acknowlege. Baranyk learned restraint and savvy early in his police years.

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Fairfax Station, Va.: Nice article. I often wonder what's behind people like Lenny Cleveland at my children's high school, Robinson, and this was an interesting peek behind the scenes. With regard to "rats", I am really troubled by the number of students who refuse to come forward when they know of destructive or illegal behavior. I like to believe that we have a very open and positive relationship with our daughters, 15 and 18, and learn a lot about bad decisions being made by their classmates (e.g., cheating on exams, heavy drinking at WMZQfest, vandalism). However, I know that my children share this in confidence and have not approached other parents since it would betray my children's trust and, possibly, ruin otherwise good friendships. In addition, my wife believes that parents "know what they want to know" and since they believe that their children are good kids, this is simply a random act.

Michael Leahy: A reader's comment from Fairfax Station...

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HS Teacher: Thank you for your article! Very few people out there realize the issues our security staff deals with on a regular basis even in the "elite" fcps system. It was great to see the reality.

Michael Leahy: Thanks for your comment.

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Michael Leahy: Unfortunately, we've run well over our alloted time. My thanks for all the great questions and insightful comments. I'll look forward to chatting with everyone soon.

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