Everything Yana, a 13-year-old Ukrainian refugee, knew about public schools in the United States was what she had seen on television or in the movies, often idyllic settings where teenage conflict and angst ironed itself out by the end.
She never imagined herself in those American classrooms.
Then the bombs started falling after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Yana and her mom fled for their lives in March, leaving friends, family and the memories of a typical teenage life filled with choir practice, art classes and homework.
Carrying the trauma of war and few personal belongings, the pair eventually landed in San Francisco where she started the new semester in January despite speaking little English.
There she joined hundreds of city students reeling from their own tragedies — loss of loved ones in the pandemic, poverty and homelessness. Like Yana, other students had fled their home countries to escape violence and death.
It didn’t take Yana long to realize that real life in her eighth-grade classes at Marina Middle School was nothing like the scenes that played out on her screen.
“I thought it was going to be better because it’s San Francisco,” she said in Ukrainian, with her aunt translating. “But after two days, I saw everything going on at the school.”
Students interrupted classes, jumped on desks, cursed at teachers. At first, Yana wondered what was going on, but then “nothing happened.” Students were not disciplined or prevented from repeat behavior.
“After one week, I understood that was normal,” said Yana, whose last name The Chronicle agreed not to publish in accordance with its source policy.
Not long after, Yana said, she became the target.
Her experience echoes what many parents and teachers have said is an escalating problem in the city’s middle schools, with bullying, violence and defiant students creating an untenable learning environment. While the situation has worried many students, staff and parents, for a girl already fleeing violence and chaos, it’s been particularly difficult.
Across the country, teachers say student violence overall has more than doubled since the pandemic began and that they are “increasingly the target of disruptive behavior in the classroom,” according to a survey released Thursday by education research firm EAB.
The survey also found that 84% of teachers believe current students lack the ability to self-regulate and build relationships compared with peers prior to the pandemic.
Nearly 75% of school leaders say staffing shortfalls are the biggest hurdle in addressing student behavior, according to the survey.
Middle school has long been considered one of the more trying times for students, when childhood and adolescence blur, leaving many tweens frustrated, angry and hormonally emotional, their identity still unfolding even as the pressure to conform grows.
But in recent months, middle school behavioral issues are noticeably more pronounced as students struggle to adjust to the academic and social expectations, district officials said.
“They were in fourth grade when everything shut down,” said Han Phung, San Francisco Unified assistant superintendent of middle schools. “Then they jumped into middle school.”
The students are still reeling, she said.
“Remember folks were in their houses and not having to deal with other kids and emotions,” she said.
At the same time, schools are struggling to address the needs of students amid a teacher, substitute and counselor shortage — a combination that often leaves administrators and support staff filling in for math class rather than working to stem behavioral issues.
Concerned parents, describing the situation as chaos, with so-called bad kids running amok, have demanded more discipline. But punishment, like suspending students, doesn’t address the source of the behavior, officials said.
The goal is to teach students self-control, better decision-making, relationship skills — or what educators call social-emotional skills — while guiding those who misbehave to acknowledge and take responsibility for their actions.
Prevention rather than punishment is ideal, but given the pandemic-fueled backlog of need, there aren’t enough resources to address the problems, let alone try to prevent them, officials said.
“Anytime there is a huge interruption to the routine of life, whether it is you have to leave a country, whether it is life as you know it has stopped, that is a huge shift to how we behave as people,” she said. “Trauma is at the center. … We need to get ahead of it, but right now we’re only able to react to it.”
District officials are rolling out increased services in middle schools to address the issues, with a social worker, nurse, community health outreach worker and more assigned to each site. So far, only five of the district’s nine middle schools have the full contingent.
The rest, including Marina Middle School, won’t see those resources until next year.
For Yana, the situation only got worse as the weeks went on, her fears escalating. She had escaped war, but not bullying and bad behavior by classmates.
Yana’s mother and aunt, Mariia Moroz, said the teen would come home from school and describe the chaotic scenes in her classrooms.
“She would tell us, and we were terrified,” Moroz said of the verbal abuse, hallway conflicts and classroom outbursts, adding that they told Yana to avoid eye contact and try to avoid the students acting out.
Within a month at Marina, Yana said, someone stole her cell phone in the cafeteria and then a group of students, who she believed was responsible, threatened her. Yana knew enough English to understand the gist.
“They started yelling and cursing and moving toward her,” her aunt said of the early February encounter. “A counselor came and intervened.”
The next day, Yana stopped going to school. School officials offered her a security action plan to make sure she felt safe. They also investigated the report of theft, officials said, although there was no evidence to identify who took the phone.
It’s typically up to the family to file any police report for stolen property, district officials said. At school sites, if the student behind the theft is identified based on solid evidence, school officials would follow protocols to address it — which could include suspension, reimbursement for the property as well as a restorative process, which allows the perpetrator to make amends, Phung said.
Yana’s aunt and mother have requested a transfer to another school, where the teen could start over without fear for her safety or an escort through the hallways, but so far, the district has denied that request and urged Yana to return with the support services offered.
So far, she hasn’t been back.
“I was scared, but now I’m thinking about (the students) with more anger that they are there and she’s sitting here at home,” her aunt said.
Yana just wants to go back to her hometown in central Ukraine, back to the only school she knew before the war, even as her mom and aunt have started to research camps and other programs in San Francisco to occupy the summer months.
“I didn’t plan to leave my friends and my family,” she said. “When you leave, you don’t know when you’ll get to go back.
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