BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
The Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education recently held its annual public hearing to report on the number of acts of violence, vandalism and substance abuse that occurred in the previous school year.
The FRHSD is the largest high school district in New Jersey with a current enrollment of about 11,470 students. The towns that make up the district are Colts Neck, Englishtown, Farmingdale, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro. The district operates six high schools.
The week of Oct. 18-22 was designated as Violence Awareness Week. Special programs focused on teen dating violence; a random acts of kindness campaign; pledges of anti-violence; guest speakers talking about bias crimes; and programs that dealt with identifying and stopping bullying.
At the Oct. 11 meeting of the school board, Superintendent of Schools James Wasser reported on statistics from the 2003-04 school year. The statistics are for the entire district.
Under the category of violence, 59 cases of simple assault were reported in 2003-04 (58 incidents of student vs. student and one incident of a student vs. a staff member). There were 46 fights involving individuals and two group fights. There were seven reported threats, seven cases of bullying (six were student vs. student and one was a student vs. a staff member).
Three aggravated assault cases involving one student against another student were reported; there were two terrorist threats against staff members; and four cases of sexual offenses, which was a figure that was down from the previous year.
In total there were 130 cases of violence in all six high schools during the 2003-04 school year. That figure was up from 95 incidents reported during the 2002-03 school year.
A spokeswoman for the district said administrators can not provide an exact reason why the incidents of violence jumped. She noted there were about 500 more students in the district in 2003-04 than in 2002-03.
There were a total of 31 cases listed under the heading of vandalism.
That figure includes one case of arson; three incidents of fireworks; three cases of trespassing; 11 thefts; 11 incidents of damage to property (total cost to the district, $186; damages paid by offenders, $640); and two bomb threats (no bombs found).
Every category was down from the previous year.
The total of 31 vandalism incidents for 2003-04 was down from the total of 72 vandalism incidents reported during 2002-03.
The total number of incidents listed under the heading of weapons dropped from 17 in 2002-03 to 6 in 2003-04. Those six weapons possession incidents included five knives and one paintball gun.
There were 73 reported incidents involving substances in 2003-04, a decrease from 109 incidents in 2002-03.
Administrators said they believe the district’s zero tolerance policy as it relates to the possession of illegal substances may be serving as a deterrent for students to keep those substances out of school.
In some instances, administrators believe students are notifying school officials when a fellow student is believed to be in possession of an illegal substance in school.
Substances listed under substance abuse were marijuana (49), alcohol (8), narcotics (2), depressants (2), cocaine (3), prescription drugs (2), amphetamines (1), drug paraphernalia (2) and hallucinogens (1). There were two reported incidents of distribution in 2003-04.
Five students refused drug testing.
There were 13 disciplinary meetings with the superintendent and 24 expulsion hearings with the school board during the 2003-04 school year.
Substance abuse programs that are offered throughout the district include Adolescents Drug and Alcohol Prevention Team (ADAPT); peer leadership programs; assembly programs; school resource officers; and student assistance counseling, which had 760 students referred by parents, peers and faculty members for substance abuse, 667 students referred for other reasons and 1,745 parent contacts.