A teacher who coaches and evaluates new teachers for Oklahoma City Public Schools says it’s not low pay or exhausting hours that’s driving them out the door but verbal and physical abuse by students.

A tearful Mackinley Cross told school board members Monday night that the district is about to see a “mass exodus” of teachers unless something is done to correct the widespread lack of discipline she said she sees on a daily basis.

“I’m here this evening because I feel that we as a district are rapidly approaching a point of no return, a point at which our district will implode,” she said. “If we do not begin to speak openly and honestly about what is happening in our schools, we will reach this point sooner than any of us can imagine.”

For two years, Cross has worked with first-year teachers at each of the district’s 55 elementary schools in hopes of improving their performance and keeping them on the job, something the district has struggled to do in recent years. Instead, her assignment provided her with insights she hadn’t expected.