By: Tiffany Razzano
South Side High School was unexpectedly ranked 14th out of 56 school districts in Nassau County in violent offenses per 1,000 students, with 25 incidents. The school may be well behind Hempstead, which is the district champion, with 127 violent offenses per 1,000 students, but with 29 schools registering zero or single-digit numbers, 25 is an alarming number.
Dr. William Johnson, superintendent of the Rockville Centre School District, insists not only that the schools are extremely safe, but that the numbers on the state report are uninterpretable and likely misleading. "We report [incidents] as we interpret them, and that's the problem," Johnson said. "There are no clear definitions. I don't know if there is any agreement among any of the school districts or people in the state."
According to Dr. Carol Burris, principal of South Side High, the school reports every incident that results in disciplinary action, even lateness and horseplay. Schools with lower figures might not do so quite as zealously, she explained. "We were very meticulous about what we reported," Burris said. "Other schools might have looked at the categories a different way."
"A school that tolerates violence could very well be one where there is a very small number of incidents reported," Johnson said. "They could be more violent places, but because they're not reported, [you don't know that]."
Burris said that the report from the state might give the false impression that Rockville Centre schools are unsafe. She said that very minor incidents are categorized in such as a way that they sound much worse than they are. "For example, categories such as criminal harassment, intimidation and mischief sound serious, but what they essentially are used for is to report other incidents that disrupt the educational process and result in removal from the classroom by a teacher, out-of-school suspension or other disciplinary action," she said. "This means if a child, for example, is excessively chatting in class and we give them detention for it, that would fall under one of those categories."
Burris said that South Side has reported none of the more serious, violent incidents such as homicide, sexual offenses, kidnapping or assault with serious physical injury. She added, "I personally don't think [the report] gives a layperson a really accurate impression of the school, which really is very safe."
Johnson believes it is the state's job to step up and clarify the definitions of offenses. The categories currently used in the report were compiled by law enforcement officials "who have no concept of what it means to work in a school," Johnson said. He added that the state education commissioner is planning to put together a task force that would include people from a variety of school districts to help him come up with a better set of definitions, something, Johnson said, that should have been done three years ago.
Johnson stressed that Rockville Centre schools are some of the safest on Long Island, and he welcomed anyone to visit any of the schools at any time to see for themselves. "We don't tolerate violence, and when there is any incident, we act on it very quickly," he said. "Teachers and kids know this, and they feel safe in our classrooms. Our first goal is to make sure we have a safe environment at school. Kids that don't feel safe won't learn; our kids are learning."
Still, parents are concerned by the high numbers reported. Preston Holod, the father of two children, one at South Side Middle School and the other at South Side High, is alarmed by the number and feels that a Board of Education meeting dealing with the topic of safety in the schools should be held in September to see what is causing it.
"Maybe we live in a wonderful school district, but it's alarming that we're 14 out of 56," Holod said. "We're talking 42 school districts in Nassau with lower rates than us. The district likes to say we're rated 32 in the country, but I don't think we should be 14 in violent crimes in Nassau County."
Megan Capone, a Rockville Centre resident and a 1997 graduate of South Side High, said she was very surprised by the report. When she was in school, she said, she felt "it was pretty safe, and there weren't that many problems or issues," aside from kids drinking and doing drugs on campus.
"You would think everything would have gotten safer since 9/11," Capone said. "[When I attended South Side] we had pretty good security then. The school seemed under control."
One mother, who declined to be identified, has a son at St. Agnes School and a daughter who just graduated from South Side Middle School but will attend parochial high school. She said that she can't recall any violent incidents at the middle school, but has heard of incidents at the high school, including gang activity, that made her think twice about sending her daughter there.
"I think the district is good, but as a society, kids are exposed to violence all the time," she said. "We have to pay attention. We need to take a close look, as administrators and parents. How much will we permit to happen? How far can we let it go?"
Comments about this? TRazzano@liherald.com or (516) 569-400 ext. 221.
