DRUGS HARM SCHOOL SAFETY

Incidents of crime and violence in Cumberland County schools
increased by 11 percent during the past school year.

The biggest increases from the 2003-04 school year to last year were
for incidents of drug possession -- from 135 to 178 -- and in
assaults on personnel -- from 65 to 91. The number of bomb threats
reported in Cumberland County decreased from 50 to 25.

The numbers were published in the 2004-05 Annual Report on School
Crime and Violence, which was released Wednesday by the state
Department of Public Instruction.

Schools must report incidents of 17 different crimes to the state
each year so that systems can assure law enforcement officials
receive correct information for investigations, said Tim Kinlaw. He
is associate superintendent for auxiliary services in Cumberland
County. Across the state, schools reported 10,107 incidents, compared
with 9,800 last year.

A revision of the bomb-threat policy last year resulted in the
decrease in threats, Kinlaw said. Schools no longer evacuate
buildings for insubstantial threats such as "bomb" being written on a wall.

When students realize a threat may not disrupt the school day with an
evacuation, they are less likely to make bomb threats.

Drug use has increased on campuses, and the most common drug among
students is marijuana, Kinlaw said. The rise in drug-related
incidents could be because teachers are becoming better trained at
identifying signs of drug use, he said.

"Based on those signs we're seeing, they're doing more searches of
students," Kinlaw said.

Most of the assaults on personnel occur when teachers try to break up
fights, and they are not typically directed toward teachers, Kinlaw said.

"In the nature of breaking up a fight, teachers are hit, are grabbed,
are pushed, and that is of course considered an assault," he said.

Board Chairman Greg West said the increases surprised him because he
has not seen a rise in student appeals of discipline incidents or
complaints from teachers or parents.

West said it is important to compare Cumberland County to other
larger urban school systems in the state. There were 10 incidents per
1,000 students in Cumberland compared to a rate of 11.6 in Wake
County, 9.6 in Durham and 5.5 in Mecklenburg.

"I do think we are more vigilant and better-trained at recognizing
and reporting incidents than other school systems that I'm familiar
with," he said.

"That doesn't mean it's OK, but I'm glad that we're reporting it and
recognizing the incidents. Then we can address them."

Reporting incidents can be a double-edged sword, said Bob Barnes,
principal at South View High School. When schools report incidents,
their rates go up in the annual report. When they don't report
incidents, the actual crime rates at schools may increase because
students do not fear punishment.

South View had 10 reported cases of weapons' possession and 21
incidents of drug possession last year -- two of the higher numbers
in the county.

The school has a zero-tolerance policy for both issues, Barnes said.

"We push the envelope on anything that could be considered a weapon," he said.

For example, students were charged with possessing a weapon last year
because one had a sawed-off baseball bat in his trunk and another had
pruning shears locked in a toolbox in the bed of his pickup.

"You can't say, 'Well, I know that kid, and I know what he meant to
do with that,'" Barnes said.

Any illegal drug possession is considered an offense, Barnes said.

"If there's been an increase, it's because people have become much,
much tougher on what they're doing to try to root drugs totally out
of the schools," Barnes said.

When teachers and administrators do that, students eventually catch
on that their behavior is risky, and the rate of incidents drops, he said.