Violence, vandalism numbers issued for Lawrence Schools

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Vandalism has shown a decline, but the number of reported incidents of violence, substance abuse and weapons in the Lawrence Township public schools is on the rise compared to the prior year, according to the school district’s annual violence and vandalism report.
   The Lawrence Township Board of Education accepted the report at its Oct. 15 meeting. The school district is required by law to report the number of incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons violations and substance abuse incidents that occurred during the prior year to the state Department of Education.
   Despite the increase in violence, substance abuse and weapons violations during the past school year, the overall number of incidents has continued its downward trend — from 137 in 2005-06 to 111 in 2006-07 and 108 in 2007-08.
   There were six incidents of vandalism last year, down from 14 in 2006-07. But substance abuse incidents more than doubled, from two incidents in 2006-07 to five last year. Weapons offenses went up by one — from three in 2006-07 to four last year. The incidents involved a chain, a knife and a pin.
   Violence increased from 92 in 2006-07 to 95 incidents last year. Violence is defined as fights, assaults, harassment, bullying, intimidation and threats. The majority of the violence incidents — 67 — occurred at the Lawrence Middle School and of that number, 32 involved harassment, bullying, intimidation or threats.
   Superintendent of Schools Philip Meara said he was pleased that the overall number of incidents has continued to drop, even though the reported number of violence incidents increased slightly.
   Mr. Meara attributed the downward trend to the district’s emphasis on intervention. The school district revamped the short-term suspension program to help students last year, for example. Those sessions are led by teachers at Lawrence Middle School and Lawrence High School, he said.
   Students who are placed in short-term suspension get a chance to examine what happened and why they took the actions that they did, Mr. Meara said. The teachers talk to the students to help them figure out what happened. The students also have an opportunity to keep up with schoolwork, he said.
   ”One thing we noticed is specific schools is that bullying and harassment has gone up, while the incidents that we would consider more violent have gone down,” he said. “That’s good. What we are trying to do is to identify possible areas of concern much earlier, so they don’t develop into more serious violence incidents, such as fights.”
   Mr. Meara said he thinks the number of reported incidents of bullying and harassment has gone up because students are encouraged to report those incidents sooner rather than later.
   ”We are working very hard to fight the perception that many children hold — that if you tell, it’s tattletaling. We talk about how critical it is to report it — not only if it occurred to you, but if you witnessed it,” he said.
   Many times, children would not report an instance of bullying or harassment because they did not know it was an offense, he said. There is a push to educate the children that it is wrong and should be reported.
   The school guidance counselors are working with the students and often bring professionals into the schools to speak to them, Mr. Meara said. The middle school and high school students listened to a speaker from Rachel’s Challenge, which is a program that deals with those issues.
   The GREAT program — Gang Resistance Education and Awareness — focuses on preventing children from becoming part of a gang. There is research that indicates some children join a gang to be protected from a bully, but then the gang controls the child by bullying him, Mr. Meara said.
   The Child Assault Prevention program is another example of working with students, he said. Adults go into the classroom and talk to the children about bullying, and stress the importance of speaking to someone about it. The presenters often use a puppet simulation to illustrate the issue for children, he said.
   ”Students have a difficult time making the distinction between making fun of someone and when does it become bullying,” Mr. Meara said. “We encourage the students to tell someone — a guidance counselor. We use the guidance counselor’s judgment on how upset the child is, how strongly the child feels about it.”
   The school tries to intervene with all parties involved in a bullying incident — the child who is being bullied, the bully himself and the students who may have witnessed the incident, Mr. Meara said.
   ”The district is very pleased with the efforts that the teachers and administrators have put into this anti-bullying initiative,” Mr. Meara said. “We believe we are beginning to see a pay-off in a renewed emphasis on respect among our students. This is so critical in a district such as ours, where the diversity of our students is such an important factor.”