Lawrence School Violence, Bullying Statistics Released

Preliminary information about incidents of violence, vandalism, harassment, intimidation and bullying that took place in Lawrence Township’s seven public schools this year was disclosed during the township Board of Education meeting that took place last week.

The disclosure of that information follows the release on May 31 of the state’s annual school “report cards,” which provide data about each school in five categories – school environment, student information, school performance, staff information, and district financial data.

(Charts showing the district’s preliminary violence, vandalism, harassment, intimidation and bullying data can be found at the bottom of this story or in PDF format in the media box at the right.)

“With the new state requirements for violence and vandalism and bullying, we have to give a report twice a year instead of once a year like we’ve previously done. It’s an electronic report that we fill out. The system is open with some bugs, so the report that I’m going to give you now is very preliminary as we work out some of the bugs,” district Superintendent Crystal Lovell told board members at the June 11 meeting.

Between the beginning of the school year in September 2011 and May 30, she said, there were 153 allegations of harassment, intimidation and bullying.

“We’ve had a total of 153 investigations. Once a person fills out a report, a mandatory investigation has to happen. Whether or not it is confirmed bullying will be determined by the investigation. Over the course of the year throughout our seven schools we found 53 confirmed incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying,” Lovell explained

“Many of those incidents occurred during the first month of September when the law first was enacted. And we noticed that in some schools we had a lot of students filling out the forms and teachers not understanding the law to its full extent to understand how to fill out the paperwork. We’ve seen a decrease in the number of incidents and confirmed bullying events over the course of the year, which is a good thing,” she said.

“To be a harassment/intimidation event, you have to target race, color, religion, origin, gender, sexual orientation – one of the protected groups. And of all of those groups most of our incidents fall under ‘Other Distinguishing Characteristics’ – 34 of the 53 were under ‘Other Distinguishing Characteristics,’ which really means anything else besides those protected groups,” the superintendent continued.

“In terms of the effects of the incidents, most of them were insulting and demeaning to the particular students, and most of them were verbal – 40 of the 53 were primarily verbal altercations between children resulting in 39 of those 53 insulting or demeaning the victim.”

Disciplinary action taken against student offenders has ranged from individual counseling and conferences with parents to in-school and out-of-school suspensions, she said.

The violence and vandalism data released at the meeting covered the period from the beginning of school in September through Jan. 1.

“We’ve seen our incidents of violence go up to 53. And I need to clarify that. Of these 53, with the new reporting system, 39 of them are harassment, intimidation and bullying events that we would not have normally put in this part of the report, which really means we have about 14 or so actual incidents of violence, which is less than we were this time last year,” Lovell said.

“Much of that resulted in in-school suspension. Some of it resulted in out-of-school suspension depending upon the nature of the offense. And in terms of the offenders, we see an increase in the number of student offenders because we are also including the harassment, intimidation and bullying numbers,” she said.

The state’s school report cards for the 2010-2011 school year can be found by following the following links:

• Benjamin Franklin Elementary School
• Eldridge Park Elementary School
• Lawrenceville Elementary School
• Slackwood Elementary School
• Lawrence Intermediate School
• Lawrence Middle School
• Lawrence High School

Among the data included in the report cards is the following about Lawrence High School students’ performance on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the High School Proficiency Assessments for language arts and mathematics:

Lawrence High Average 2010-2011 SAT

Math - 508; Verbal - 505; Essay - 514

State Average 2010-2011 SAT

Math - 517; Verbal - 493; Essay - 496

Lawrence High Average 2009 - 2010 SAT

Math - 521; Verbal - 509; Essay - 508

State Average 2009-2010 SAT

Math - 520; Verbal - 496; Essay - 499

Language Arts HSPA

Partial Proficient

Proficient

Advanced Proficient

Lawrence High 2010-2011

5.9%

66.3%

27.8%

State 2010-2011

9.7%

69.3%

21.1%

Lawrence High 2009-2010

3.9%

70.2%

25.9%

State 2009-2010

12%

69.3%

18.7%

Mathematics HSPA

Partially Proficient

Proficient

Advanced Proficient

Lawrence High School 2010-2011

21.4%

50.2%

28.4%

State 2010-2011

24%

50.4%

25.6%

Lawrence High School 2009-2010

27.9%

48.4%

23.7%

State 2009-2010

25%

50.7%

24.3%

LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT HIB SUMMARY

Section A: Count of HIB Incidents

Number of reported HIB Incidents

153

Number of Confirmed HIB Incidents

53

Section B: Nature of HIB Incidents

Race

3

Color

2

Religion

0

Ancestry

0

Origin

2

Gender

5

Sexual Orientation

4

Gender Identity & Expression

0

Mental, Physical or Sensory Disability

9

Other Distinguishing Characteristics

34

Section C: Effect of HIB Incidents

Substantially disrupted or interfered with orderly operation of school or rights of other students

19

Offender knew action would physically or emotionally cause harm to the victim or damage to the victim’s property

24

Victim was in fear of physical or emotional harm or damage to personal property

15

Insulted or demeaned a student or a group of students

39

Interfered with victim’s education

19

Created a hostile educational environment by severely or pervasively causing physical or emotional harm to the student

24

Section D: Mode of HIB Incidents

Gesture

4

Written

2

Verbal

40

Physical

14

Electronic Communication

6

Section E: Disciplinary Action Taken

Other/None

12

Expulsion

0

In-School Suspension

12

Out-Of-School Suspension

5

Unilateral Removal / ALJ

0

Detention

1

Section F: Other Disciplinary Action Taken

Suspension of Privileges

8

Individual Counseling

46

Referral for Therapy/Treatment

0

Restitution and Restoration

0

Group counseling

14

Transfer

0

Student Conference

26

I&RS Referral

0

Parent Conference

19

Other Measures Imposed

9

LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT REPORT OF VIOLENCE AND VANDALISM

Section A: Count of Incidents by Report Category

Violence

53

Vandalism

3

Weapons

2

Substance Abuse

2

Unduplicated Total

59

Section B: Cost of Vandalism

Incidents Involving Cost to District

0

Section C: Actions Taken

Police Notified (No Complaint)

2

Police Notified (Complaint Filed)

0

In-School Suspension

24

Out-Of-School Suspension

21

Expulsions, Unilateral Removals, Removal by ALJ

0

Section D: Offenders and Victims

Student Offenders

63

Student Victims

39

School Personnel Victims

1

Student Victims of Violent Criminal Offense

0

Section E: Program Provided Upon Disciplinary Action

Assignments, Instruction and/or Support Services

31

In-District Program

0

Home Assignment, Home Instruction

20

Out-Of-District Program

0