In recent days, teachers and administrators at William H. Lemmel Middle School learned of a rift between two boys they thought were friends. They tried, unsuccessfully, to get their parents to come in for a conflict-resolution session.
And then on Friday, 15-year-old Markel Williams was found outside the West Baltimore building with fatal stab wounds to his upper body, the first killing on city school grounds during school hours since 2001. Timothy Oxendine, 14, is charged with first-degree murder. He was denied bail yesterday.
City schools chief Andres Alonso said the school "was really working with these kids." In the two weeks leading up to the stabbing, teachers and administrators paid home visits to both boys. Williams had been suspended for pulling the fire alarm, and staff was recommending that he transfer to an alternative program. The staff was concerned about Oxendine because he wasn't showing up to his classes.
FOR THE RECORD - Several articles and headlines about the Nov. 21 stabbing death of Markel Williams, a 15-year-old student at William H. Lemmel Middle School, did not provide sufficient context about the history of violence in Baltimore schools. On Jan. 17, 2001, just before school began, Juan Matthews was fatally shot near the entrance of Lake Clifton-Eastern High School. The Baltimore Sun regrets the errors.
"It is a tragedy," the principal, Quianna Cooke, said yesterday as classes resumed. "Even the children today were saying they didn't know it was a beef; they were friends."
Williams and Oxendine had been invited to participate in a program that helps struggling students to get on track for college, Cooke said, but they declined. The principal was more successful in offering Williams a spot on the basketball team, an attempt to hold the interest of a boy who, in eighth grade, was two years behind his peers. His brother plays basketball for Baltimore City College.
"It was something he liked, and he was very good at it," Cooke said. "We wanted to give him something to hold on to." After the boy pulled the fire alarm, he was benched, but the principal decided not to kick him off the team.
Lemmel has long been known as a troubled school. In 2006, it was one of 11 in the city that state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick targeted for outside takeovers because of persistently low test scores, until the General Assembly blocked the move. Last spring, 40 percent of Lemmel's eighth-graders passed the state reading test; only 10 percent passed in math. In April, one student stabbed another with scissors, resulting in minor injuries.
But in recent months, officials have taken several steps to improve the school's climate. About 30 students who are older than their peers and have behavior problems were removed and sent to alternative schools. The steps have helped reduce suspensions to 14 so far this school year - 11 short-term and three long-term - compared with about 90 suspensions at this time last year.
