Incidents of violence reported

HOWELL - The Board of Education presented the Howell School District's annual report of violence and vandalism at its Oct. 17 meeting. Information contained in the report indicated there were 22 incidents reported during the 2006-07 school year.

Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden said that compared to other school districts, the number of incidents reported for Howell is generally low.

During the 2006-07 school year there were 12 incidents of violence, seven acts of vandalism, two weapons incidents and one reported incident of substance abuse.

For school year 2005-06 there were 19 total incidents, seven of which were violence; eight acts of vandalism; two were weapons; and two cases of substance abuse.

Golden said the acts of violence generally occur when one student hits another student and it results in a fight.

"It is up to each principal to make the judgment as to whether the incident rose to the level where it needs to be reported," she said.

In regard to vandalism, Golden said what may have occurred is that someone broke into one of the district's 13 schools or someone took school equipment. She said many different types of incidents could fall under this category. The seven acts of vandalism in 2006-07 were damage to outside athletic equipment and playground equipment. The vandalism cost the district $1,961 to address.

In 2005-06, graffiti, one of the primary acts of vandalism, was reported to show no cost due to cleanup procedures that were conducted by district employees.

Programs implemented to prevent such behavior and eventually eliminate these incidents are the district's year round character education violence awareness programs. Golden said students are also issued a manual that discusses what is and what is not acceptable behavior in the schools.

"Polices are implemented and the entire staff of all 13 schools receives crisis manuals of different occurrences and protocols," Golden said. "We are required to report these numbers. Although children sometimes make poor judgments, we would like to see these numbers reduced to zero."

- Toynett Hall