Schools
fare better on reports of trouble
But Warren, Sussex post more
incidents
Thursday, May 05, 2005 • BY JOHN MOONEY AND JIM
LOCKWOOD • Star-Ledger Staff
The good news is that violence and
substance abuse in New Jersey schools continued to drop last
year, with the problems virtually non- existent in
two-thirds of the districts, according to the state's annual
survey.
But the bad news in Warren and Sussex
counties is that incidents of school violence and vandalism
increased last year, compared with 2002-03.
In Sussex County, the grades K- 8 Green
Township School District had one of the larger spikes in
incidents of violence reported, from three in 2002-03 to 18
in 2003-04.
Green has 500 pupils and one school, and
its 18 incidents of violence put the tiny district on par
with the grades K-12 Sparta district, which has 3,900
students in several schools. Sparta reported 17 violent
episodes in 2002-03.
Green Hills School Principal Robert Watts
attributed the sharp increase to a zero-tolerance stance by
his district and a newer electronic method to report
incidents to the state.
While the state strives for consistency
in reporting, there still may be subjectivity from district-
to-district in how incidents are defined, and a variability
in results, according to the state DOE report.
"We have high standards here, so what
might not be reported elsewhere would be reported here,"
Watts said. "As far as character education, we were trying
to get the message out that we were not going to tolerate
any bullying and violence."
In Warren County, Great Meadows Regional
Superintendent James Alercia echoed his
sentiment.
"Our school has very few incidents, but
everything gets reported," he said. "A pushing match between
eighth-graders waiting in line will be reported as a violent
act. But any parent who has been in our school on a
day-to-day basis knows it's as peaceful as any school you'd
find anywhere."
The numbers, too, can be deceptive, he
said.
"A first-grader who brought in a pen
knife to show his friends was considered a weapons offense.
The second offense was a bullet found by a student on the
road on his way to school," Alercia said. "I would caution
people if they see two weapons offenses -- that doesn't mean
we took two loaded weapons away from two kids at
school."
Overall, state officials said yesterday
that they are encouraged the data is improving and schools
are indeed better at taking steps to address safety
problems.
"Our schools are safe, and getting safer,
but they are not going to stay safe unless we are very
vigilant and gather the information and ask the hard
questions," said state Education Commissioner William
Librera.
In all, 20,207 incidents of violence,
vandalism or substance abuse -- or roughly 100 per school
day -- were reported at schools last year, down 9 percent
from the more than 22,000 the year before.
Most of the cases also took place in high
schools, but the numbers rose in elementary schools to
almost 2,500 last year. Almost a third of the incidents took
place in the classroom, as opposed to the corridor or
elsewhere on school grounds.
More than 12,000 were incidents of
violence, mostly assaults, fights, and a new category of
bullying, all categories that saw significant decreases from
the year before.
The one exception was incidents involving
street gangs, in which the number almost doubled to 81 last
year, still a small fraction of the total. The weapon
offenses also rose, virtually all involving knives and other
non-firearms. There were only 17 incidents of handguns
reported in the schools.
For all incidents, the most popular
punishment by far remained out-of-school suspension,
representing 90 percent of all disciplinary actions taken.
Most were for five days or less.
Three quarters of the incidents involved
regular education students, and victims in almost a fifth of
the violent acts were school personnel, nearly 1,400 cases
in all.
In the vandalism category, the vast
majority of 3,866 incidents involved property damage,
followed by theft. There were also 14 cases of
arson.
There were also 2,648 incidents of drug
or alcohol abuse, another decrease from the year before, and
more than 1,800 cases involving marijuana. About 500
involved alcohol. There were only two cases of steroid abuse
reported.
Paterson had the highest number of
substance abuse incidents in the state, at nearly 100,
followed by Middletown and Freehold Regional at about 70
each.
But with the comparisons came the
perennial cautions about the accuracy of the
numbers.
The state has an online system that eases
reporting and sets specific standards and scenarios to
define each category. New regulations have set penalties for
under-reporting the data.
Yet state officials concede there is
little double-checking, although they do plan in the future
to analyze the data against that of student suspensions to
see if there are any disparities.
"It is a self-reporting system, and we of
course don't have a large staff to go out and verify
thousands of incidents," said Assistant Commissioner Isaac
Bryant.
Staff writers Rebecca Schmoyer and Kristen Alloway
contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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