December 03, 2004
State ranks violent schools
By Kristina Wells
Times Herald-Record
kwells@th-record.com
Four local school districts were among New York's 25 most violent and disruptive in 2002-03, according to a state Education Department report released yesterday.
Greenwood Lake School District ranked No. 3 in the state, excluding New York City, for the highest number of reported incidents per capita.
Greenwood Lake Superintendent John Guarracino said he was shocked by the news, noting the state's report is not reflective of the "calm" day-to-day reality of the district's middle school, which was the only school for which the district reported data.
"I have no idea why that would be the case," he said. "I've been in a lot of schools and if that's an unsafe school, then there's no such thing as a safe one. They are nuts."
Liberty, Fallsburg and Valley Central school districts were also in the top 25, ranking 12th, 23rd and 25th.
The report was no surprise to Liberty Superintendent Lawrence Clarke. He said disruptive behavior "was definitely a concern for the district long before it was in the report. We knew that there was a problem, and we've made tremendous improvements."
There were no reported homicides in any of the state's schools, including those in New York City. Locally, all districts except Kiryas Joel reported incidents in 2002-03.
Four local middle and two elementary schools ranked in the top 25 in New York for highest number of incidents in 2002-03.
Kingston's M. Clifford Miller Middle School ranked as the eighth-most violent or disruptive in the state while Liberty and Greenwood Lake's middle schools ranked 12th and 13th, respectively.
A 2000 law requires districts to report to the state Education Department incidents ranging from homicides to weapons possession to assaults.
State education officials were quick to punch holes in their own report, saying the data are not a reliable way to compare schools. Some districts may be overly aggressive in reporting, while others may be under-reporting, officials said.
"Those who aggressively report probably should be given an award rather than condemnation for being honest and dealing with problems head on. It means they probably have a safer school," said Kenneth Trump, president of Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services.
One obvious example of a reporting discrepancy comes from the Newburgh School District.
Newburgh's Heritage Junior High reported 198 "personal injury or intimidation" incidents during the 2002-03 school year. The same year, North Junior High, which has nearly the same number of students, reported one such incident.
Joe Raiti, principal of Heritage Junior High School – ranked 16th highest in incidents in the state in 2002-03 – said the numbers don't give a true indication of how safe the school is. He said he doesn't flinch when it comes to disciplining students, so his reporting may be more strict than at other schools.
Reporting is left up to personal interpretation, Raiti said.
"What does an assault mean? It could be that somebody slapped me in the face, or somebody beat the crap out of me," he said. "I don't fool around with that kind of stuff as far as interpretation."
The state's 34-page report outlines ways to better improve the reporting system, from redefining nearly all the incident classification terms to eliminating a ranking system based on the total number of incidents.
Reporters Ben Montgomery, Dave Richardson and Ramsey Al-Rikabi contributed to this report.
State ranks violent schools
By Kristina Wells
Times Herald-Record
kwells@th-record.com
Four local school districts were among New York's 25 most violent and disruptive in 2002-03, according to a state Education Department report released yesterday.
Greenwood Lake School District ranked No. 3 in the state, excluding New York City, for the highest number of reported incidents per capita.
Greenwood Lake Superintendent John Guarracino said he was shocked by the news, noting the state's report is not reflective of the "calm" day-to-day reality of the district's middle school, which was the only school for which the district reported data.
"I have no idea why that would be the case," he said. "I've been in a lot of schools and if that's an unsafe school, then there's no such thing as a safe one. They are nuts."
Liberty, Fallsburg and Valley Central school districts were also in the top 25, ranking 12th, 23rd and 25th.
The report was no surprise to Liberty Superintendent Lawrence Clarke. He said disruptive behavior "was definitely a concern for the district long before it was in the report. We knew that there was a problem, and we've made tremendous improvements."
There were no reported homicides in any of the state's schools, including those in New York City. Locally, all districts except Kiryas Joel reported incidents in 2002-03.
Four local middle and two elementary schools ranked in the top 25 in New York for highest number of incidents in 2002-03.
Kingston's M. Clifford Miller Middle School ranked as the eighth-most violent or disruptive in the state while Liberty and Greenwood Lake's middle schools ranked 12th and 13th, respectively.
A 2000 law requires districts to report to the state Education Department incidents ranging from homicides to weapons possession to assaults.
State education officials were quick to punch holes in their own report, saying the data are not a reliable way to compare schools. Some districts may be overly aggressive in reporting, while others may be under-reporting, officials said.
"Those who aggressively report probably should be given an award rather than condemnation for being honest and dealing with problems head on. It means they probably have a safer school," said Kenneth Trump, president of Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services.
One obvious example of a reporting discrepancy comes from the Newburgh School District.
Newburgh's Heritage Junior High reported 198 "personal injury or intimidation" incidents during the 2002-03 school year. The same year, North Junior High, which has nearly the same number of students, reported one such incident.
Joe Raiti, principal of Heritage Junior High School – ranked 16th highest in incidents in the state in 2002-03 – said the numbers don't give a true indication of how safe the school is. He said he doesn't flinch when it comes to disciplining students, so his reporting may be more strict than at other schools.
Reporting is left up to personal interpretation, Raiti said.
"What does an assault mean? It could be that somebody slapped me in the face, or somebody beat the crap out of me," he said. "I don't fool around with that kind of stuff as far as interpretation."
The state's 34-page report outlines ways to better improve the reporting system, from redefining nearly all the incident classification terms to eliminating a ranking system based on the total number of incidents.
Reporters Ben Montgomery, Dave Richardson and Ramsey Al-Rikabi contributed to this report.
תוקן על ידי - davka - 03/12/2004 19:19:34