AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2005 > August > 26 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSchool Crime & You
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Update: Here’s some info on the South Atlanta High School brawl a poster refers to…
According to this story, a federal audit found Gwinnett County, City of Atlanta and Houston County underreported crime in their schools.
The AJC broke this story a couple of years ago based on an analysis by our database editor that showed Gwinnett and Atlanta were underreporting, based on their populations and crime reports of other districts.
This audit found no evidence that the underreporting was intentional. It’s easy to see why school officials would be less than motivated to report crime. Not only do you run the risk of being labeled unsafe under No Child Left Behind, the data is widely available. Many parents simply will not send their kids to a school they think is unsafe.
A major concern with incident reporting is consistency from school to school. Fights in the cafeteria…Students threatening teachers…a punch in the face on the school bus… How much is getting reported, and how easy is it to look the other way? Another concern is in-house police departments vs. the local police. Sometimes it’s hard to get information on a crime when we don’t know what agency handled it.
Parents, what do you want in terms of school safety reports? Teachers and students, do you think crime is less of a problem than parents think it is?
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Comments
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By raceman94
August 26, 2005 04:44 PM | Link to this
Hey, it doesn’t suprise me. I’m sure that all school systems are just as bad. This school system was just unlucky enought o get busted.
By LISA
August 29, 2005 09:44 AM | Link to this
I need to say Atlanta Public School need to put a system in place for security for the kids at South Atlanta High School.it’s awful to know 10 young people can just walk into this school and start fighting kids,the principal and her staff should be look upon in this matter.No child should fear someone walking into a school and attacking anyone, leadership must look at there school as there home they must protect there school like there home.The leadership must look at the kids as there kids for the 8hours they have them, THE PARENTS MUST HOLD PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABLE!!! NO EXCEPTION!!.Parents now is the time to stand up and not allow madness in Atlanta Public School continue.The incident that happen at South Atlanta is not the first time at that school and want be the last and Dr.Hall know it and the principal Mrs Creecy the principal.
By Dr. Craig Spinks
August 29, 2005 11:46 AM | Link to this
What criteria did the federal auditor use in determining that mandated underreportings in several Georgia school systems were unintentional?
Thirty-plus years in public schooling have revealed to me that the “unintentional” excuse is one quickly embraced by those educrats who don’t want to make their schools or systems look bad by reporting accurate data on weapons, drugs and sexual misconduct. But these same educrats don’t want to face criminal penalties for intentionally failing to make mandated reports.
Voila! A solution: These educrats plead that they did not make the mandated reports because nobody told me about the requirement, our county policy about reporting was ambiguous, our personnel director told me I didn’t have to make a report, I was out sick when the incident happened, and so on(“excuses” limited only by the creativity/duplicity of the educrats involved). They continue to investigators that,”You know I wouldn’t intentionally break the law.” How they can lie and/or misrepresnt with straight faces is a “skill” that(I’m glad to say.)my parents neglected to teach me.
Safe schools are an integral part of the foundation of the American civilization. Anything which impairs the ability of our civilization to identify and assess the safety of our schools undermines the future of our civilization. Inasmuch as faulty reportings of disorderly and other criminal behaviors in our schools impairs that ability, such reportings- without excuse- must be made to designated law enforcement authorities under penalty of law and/or professional sanction.
By don rodgers
August 29, 2005 04:12 PM | Link to this
I taught at South Atlanta High School four years ago and would be there now if not for an injury. While it is easy to blame the staff and administration for what happened, it would surely be unfair. The faculty and staff work very long and hard hours in maintaining a safety net for students before, doing, and after school. To patrol the fencing surrounding the school would require the services of a security agency. I am willing to bet that due to the rapid response of the South Atlanta teachers and staff, the situation did not fully escalate into something far more horrible.
By Pookie
August 30, 2005 09:58 AM | Link to this
I THINK THIS IS CRAP!!!!!! Go Get A Life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Dan
August 30, 2005 10:58 AM | Link to this
Lisa How about holding the kids who started fighting responsible they should be charged with assault then parents of those kids with aiding and abetting. Along with kicking those kids out of school I am sure there are plenty of poor administrators and they bear some responsibility if the problem is persistent in there school but the primary responsibility lies with the young adults responsible and their parents
By Lies, lies, lies...
August 30, 2005 03:54 PM | Link to this
APS…A Public Scandal…Atlanta Public Schools have seven records for drug and weapons cases missing during the federal audit on student crime? Didn’t they already use that excuse ( …the dog ate my homework…) in the Erate scandal? APS continues to show us they will lie, cheat or steal to cover up anything corrupt in their system. Someone needs to run an audit on the APS test taking tactics where they fudge the numbers to meet the goals of the system. I am sure lost records that inflated test scores so the Superintendent receives her big bonus check would prove to be true, too.
By Lee
August 30, 2005 07:05 PM | Link to this
Playing games with the reports is only the tip of the iceberg. The bigger problem is that school administrators ignore or downplay violent incidents because they don’t want to report them. For example, your child is attacked at school. Your child has two choices, try or defend themselves or get the crap beat out of them. If they defend themselves, they will be suspended as well as the attacker for “fighting.”
What the school should have done is to call the police and have the attacker charged with assault and/or battery. But no. If they do that, then it may make the school classified as a “persistently dangerous” school. Much better for the principal if they just sweep it under the rug.