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.”
Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District Superintendant John DeTommasso commented on Signas’ letter to the state.
“Internally we’re very diligent about [reporting incidents],” he said and explained that the district is willing to comply with the regulations and requests Singas wants to see implemented.
“We’ll report whatever they want us to report,” he said of the specific facets of incident reporting that are taken into consideration in Singas’s letter.
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.
2. Gang activity should be reported under the new system.
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.
“We’ll do exactly what they want us to do as long as we know our kids are safe,” DeTommaso said. According to him, any misconduct that occurs at Bellmore and Merrick schools is taken care of as soon as their officials know about it. He said the district is doing their part to ensure that students are safe and disciplinary action is taken against disorderly behavior.
The Board of Regents had not returned a call for comment at press time.
