New York City: Schools for Hard Knocks

Teachers expect certain challenges when they sign on in New York City schools, but contending with knife-wielding assailants is not among them. A teacher in the Bronx was stabbed more than a dozen times by a mugger in an elementary school bathroom last month; another was savagely beaten with a bat after confronting a playground intruder; a third was badly injured by a powerful firecracker thrown into her classroom; a fourth was slugged by a student who objected to being asked to put out his cigarette.

City and school authorities reacted last week with stiff security measures: ID cards for students, metal detectors at building entrances and classrooms equipped with silent alarms. But controversy flared over one provision: students who attack teachers will be expelled. Although the schools' dropout rate is about 37%, state law guarantees even thugs an education until they are 16.