District Releases First Semester Violence, Vandalism and Bullying Reports
The district had 42 incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse during its first semester; and 28 incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying.
As required by law, schools superintendent Bruce Watson presented Tuesday two reports on an array of behavioral incidents at schools across the district.
The first report -- the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS) -- disclosed incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse for each Fair Lawn school for the semester beginning in September 2011 and extending through December 2011. Since the passage of the Public School Safety Law in 1978, New Jersey school districts have had to report these incidents to the New Jersey Department of Education.
For the first semester of the 2011-2012 school year, Fair Lawn reported a total of 42 incidents, with the vast majority categorized as "Violence." Both Memorial Middle School (14 total incidents) and Thomas Jefferson Middle School (12 total incidents) had more incidents than the high school (10 total incidents), despite having far fewer students. None of the district's elementary schools had more than two incidents.
The second report, required this year for the first time under the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, provided an account of all Harasment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) incidents at each Fair Lawn school for the semester beginning in September 2011 and extending through December 2011.
Out of 67 reported HIB incidents during the first semester of the school year, anti-bullying investigations determined that 28 were warranted. Other than the high school (12 HIB incidents) and Memorial Middle School (10 HIB incidents), there were only six other HIB incidents districtwide.
The type of HIB most frequently seen across the district was race related.
EVVRS and HIB data from the second semester of the school year (January through June) will be presented at a Board of Education meeting in October.
For a breakdown of the EVVRS and HIB stats, see tables below:
Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS) for Sept. 2011 through Dec. 2011:
| School | Enrollment | Violence | Vandalism | Weapons | Substance Abuse | Total |
| Fair Lawn High School | 1,487 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| Memorial MS | 428 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
| Thomas Jefferson MS | 660 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Forrest ES | 245 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Lyncrest ES | 220 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Milnes ES | 351 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Radburn ES | 334 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Warren Point ES | 419 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Westmoreland ES | 255 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All Schools | 4,696 | 34 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 42 |
Violence breakdown:
| School | Assault | Fight | Harassment, Intimidation, Bullying | Threat | Total |
| Fair Lawn High School | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Memorial MS | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 12 |
| Thomas Jefferson MS | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| Forrest ES | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Milnes ES | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Warren Point ES | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| All Schools | 11 | 6 | 14 | 3 | 34 |
Vandalism breakdown:
| School | Arson | Total |
| Thomas Jefferson | 2 | 2 |
| All Schools | 2 | 2 |
Weapons breakdown:
| School | Possession of other weapons, not firearms | Total |
| Fair Lawn High School | 2 | 2 |
| Memorial MS | 2 | 2 |
| All Schools | 4 | 4 |
Substance Abuse breakdown:
| School | Possession and Use | Total |
| Fair Lawn High School | 2 | 2 |
| All Schools | 2 | 2 |
Anti-Bullying (HIB) Report for Sept. 2011 through Dec. 2011:
| School | Enrollment | Power and Control | Race | Religion | Gender | Sexual Orientation | Gender Identity and Expression | Other Distinguishing Characteristics | Mental, Physical or Sensory | Total |
| Fair Lawn High School | 1,487 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 12 |
| Memorial MS | 428 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Thomas Jefferson MS | 660 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Forrest ES | 245 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lyncrest ES | 220 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Milnes ES | 351 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Radburn ES | 334 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Warren Point ES | 419 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Westmoreland ES | 255 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All Schools | 4,696 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 28 |
Tommy P
1:05 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
How do these numbers compare with other towns?
Zak Koeske
1:19 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
@Thomas - I'll be doing a comparison with other towns and past years as soon as I can get my hands on the information.
Mikki
1:58 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
https://homeroom2.state.nj.us/DOE_EVVRS/jsp/login.jsp
Search under the "Districts" heading for specific year by year breakdowns.
Yearly summary of violence incidents (By school year 07-08, 08-09, 09-10, 10-11):
FAIR LAWN BORO (~4700 students) 20, 25, 41, 44
ELMWOOD PARK (~2300 students) 26, 27, 20, 45
GLEN ROCK BORO (~2500 students) 2, 0, 6, 4
PARAMUS BORO (~3400 students) 31, 32, 12, 19
The number of students is far from an exact number, but is meant to allow for comparisons between districts.
Zak Koeske
2:00 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
Thanks, Mikki!
Mikki
2:11 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
No problem Zak. Did you happen to speak with Mr. Watson after the meeting last night? If so, did he provide any information on how he plans to deal with the uptick in VVSA incidents over the past few years?
Will you be writing an article on the effects of last night's vote against the privatization of custodial services? It will be interesting to see how Mr. Watson fills that budget gap.
Mikki
2:10 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
No problem Zak. Did you happen to speak with Mr. Watson after the meeting last night? If so, did he provide any information on how he plans to deal with the uptick in VVSA incidents over the past few years?
Will you be writing an article on the effects of last night's vote against the privatization of custodial services? It will be interesting to see how Mr. Watson fills that budget gap.
Zak Koeske
12:23 pm on Sunday, April 22, 2012
@Mikki - He wasn't available for comment after the meeting, but I'm scheduled to see him this coming week. I'll be asking him about both of those issues.