Paramus Schools Show Decrease in Violence Reports for 2011-12

The Violence and Vandalism Report for the 2011-2012 school year shows Paramus has a mixed bag of results in incidents with double digits in the number of reported violence and HIB incidents but lower numbers in vandalism, weapons and substance problems.

The State Department of Education released the results of the survey for school districts across New Jersey Tuesday afternoon. The results showed statewide, the total number of reported incidents is up about 50% from 17,386 in 2010-11 to 26,139 in 2011-12, the report said.

The state attributed the increase to better reporting mechanisms, as 2011-12 was the .

According to the state data, Paramus recorded the following numbers of incidents over the past four school years:

The release from the DOE highlights the following statewide trends:

•  The reported numbers of assaults, fights and criminal threats decreased from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 
• In the vandalism category, the reported number of total incidents declined by approximately 14.4 percent over the three-year period
• In the weapons category, reported firearms incidents (handguns and rifles) increased from five incidents reported in 2009-10 to nine in 2011-12.  In addition, incidents in the “other weapons” category increased by 55 during the same three-year period.
• In the substance category, the number of incidents of possession of substances increased by 149, or approximately 15 percent from 995 in 2009-10 to 1,144 in 2011-12. Marijuana accounts for the majority (67.9 percent) of the total number of substance incidents reported in 2011-12, and the number of incidents involving marijuana decreased from 2,543 in 2010-11 to 2472 in 2011-12, or a decrease of approximately 2.8 percent.

Paramus' 2011-12 data compared to reported numbers from surrounding districts as follows:

See the complete set of data here.

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