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Mostly Cloudy D.A. Singas to state:
Upgrade school violence reporting
Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas is calling on the State Board of Regents to revamp New York’s school violence tracking system so gang attacks, discrimination and bullying are reported faster.
According to Singas, it can take up to two years for incidents to appear on New York’s Violent and Disruptive Incident Reporting System. The state recently reworked the system, but Singas said the changes did not go far enough, arguing that they failed “to provide a framework that will facilitate timely, consistent and comprehensive reporting of school violence.
“In 2016, we should not settle for a system that provides parents and policymakers with sparse, inconsistent, two-year-old data,” she said. “Our kids deserve safe schools in which to learn, and we all deserve accurate and timely information about violent and disruptive incidents.”
Singas offered six recommendations to the Board of Regents, including:
1. Under the current system, reports of school violence are collected once a year, at the end of the school year. They become public in spread sheets two years later. Singas said the state should provide real-time reporting of violence.
3. Discrimination, harassment or bullying because of race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation or gender should be reported in its own category.
4. Violence against students because of their gender identity or gender expression should be reported in its own category.
5. With the heroin epidemic raging across New York, particularly on Long Island, drug-related incidents should be reported in greater detail. The types of drugs involved should be included in the reporting.
6. All incidents of discrimination, harassment and bullying should be reported. Under the new system, only verified incidents are to be listed.
“There is literally nothing more important than protecting our children," said Jeanne Beattie, a State Board of Regents spokeswoman. "It’s impossible for a child to focus on learning if she goes to school in fear each day."
Proposed changes in the reporting system, Beattie said, "are intended to make the process of reporting violent and disruptive acts less complicated and to place a greater emphasis on violent offenses. The [Education] Department will carefully review and consider all of the public comments received.”
Hewlett-Woodmere and Lawrence public school officials said that they already follow the existing requirements in reporting violent incidents and contact the police when necessary.
“While we applaud Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas’s concern for the safety and well-being of out students, we believe school systems are best equipped to monitor and address issues related to student behavior,” said Hewlett-Woodmere Deputy Superintendent Mark Secaur. “As educational institutions, schools view poor behavior as a learning opportunity.”
Secaur said that the district has a written code of conduct that is reviewed and distributed every school year. He added that every incident is different and is carefully evaluated before punishment is meted out.
“The district will contact the police when they believe a law has been broken and/or a situation has risen to a level that needs outside support,” Secaur said. “That said, the vast majority of student related incidents are managed by our highly trained staff and the students’ parents.”
Dr. Ann Pedersen, Lawrence’s deputy superintendent who will become superintendent on July 1, said that not only does the district record incidents of disruptive behavior or violence, but also it has multiple levels of punishment to address infractions of its code of conduct. “Violence is not tolerated in the schools,” she said.
Saying that the newly restored Nassau County Problem Oriented Policing unit is always available to the schools, Pedersen said that money would help more than gathering information.
“If the state would like to support districts in addressing the social and emotional growth of learners, then providing funding for proactive strategies in teaching to the social emotional competencies would have more impact than collecting data,” she said.
Have an opinion about tracking disruptive behavior or violence in schools? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.
