Recent events indirectly point to the need for a community safety, health, and education wraparound program envisioned with the Rochester Children's Zone. It's been several years now since former city schools Superintendent Manny Rivera introduced the idea based the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City.

The RCZ is searching for an executive director. Some possible candidates have been identified, but the program has sputtered along and needs a more permanent funding source if it is ever to going to be effective.

A successful RCZ can't happen a moment too soon. The city school district is once again being asked to fill a considerable percentage of the RCZ role on its own. And it's simply not possible.

Consider the East High teenager found shot to death Monday evening. Pleasant kid, city school officials say, but he hadn't attended even 15 days of school since January.

And a report released yesterday on Rochester's dropout rate stated that more than 60 percent of students who dropped out of school said one of the reasons they left was due to lack of teacher interest.  

If teachers had taken the time to listen to them and to understand the reasons they were having trouble with school, students said, they wouldn't have dropped out.

But nearly as many students reported that family issues, truancy, and drug use contributed to their decision, too.

The report, "Rochester's Dropout Rate: Looking Beyond the Numbers by Listening to our Students," was the result of interviews and focus groups with students conducted by child advocate Mary Hale and city school board member Van Henri White. Many of the students had dropped out of school.

Two young men joined Hale and White at the conference where the report was released. One was asked what his parents said to him when he dropped out. "Nothing," he said.

There is no question that principals and teachers play a critical role in the district's graduation rate.

Of course, teachers need to be caring and motivating. Most of them are.

But to continue to shift parental and community responsibility for student safety, mental health, and achievement back to district teachers isn't going to increase graduation rates. It has produced the opposite.

So, what's the definition of insanity?