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Hernando Today

Most violent schools?

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By JEFF SCHMUCKER | Hernando Today

Published: January 28, 2010

Updated: 01/28/2010 06:50 pm

BROOKSVILLE - State statistics show that Hernando High School, West Hernando Middle School and Fox Chapel Middle School top the list of having the most recorded violent incidents in either fighting, battery or sexual battery categories in the 2008-09 school year.

However, some school officials and state representatives worry school administrators aren't properly recording violent incidents — inflating numbers that could make schools seem more violent then they are.

According to school violence reports submitted to the state, Hernando High School recorded 47 fights, more than double in comparison to other schools in the district.
In the category of battery, West Hernando led the way with 18 incidents while Fox Chapel recorded the most sexual batteries at 9 incidents.

According to state definitions, fights are considered "mutual combat" between two or more students while battery is described as one student beating/hitting another who isn't fighting back. Sexual battery is the attempted or actual forced sexual act upon another student.
Ken Pritz, principal of Hernando High, said he believes school fighting numbers have increased due to administrators cracking down on the practice.

Prior to his transfer and the transfers of assistant principals Brent Gaustad and Jill Renihan, he said sometimes students were scuffling, but weren't caught by school officials. Following the transfers, he said cameras were installed while administrators implemented a zero tolerance policy to crack down on school fights.

Gaustad added since the change, school disciplines decreased by 56 percent from 509 issued the first semester of 2007-08 school year to 259 by the first semester of the 2008-09 school year.
"We've been very diligent in showing that fighting won't be tolerated and that if you do fight on this campus, you will get caught and get 10 days out-of-school suspension," Pritz said. "Most of the
incidents involved ninth graders or new students who weren't aware of how we react to things."

Renihan and Gaustad agreed another reason for the high number is that cameras and increased staff supervision has helped to identify all students who are sometimes involved in fighting.
That means state numbers reflect the number of students who fight rather than the number of fights per year.

That's not the correct way to report to the state said Cheryl Etters, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education. Instead, she said school violence numbers should reflect instances, not the number of students involved.

The same goes for sexual batteries. Jim Knight, director of Student Services for the district, said he's concerned about the high recording of sexual batteries for Fox Chapel.
During the 2007-08 school year, the school recorded 13 sexual batteries, an increase of eight compared to the five reported in the 2006-07 school year.

"Something's wrong with that number," Knight said. "That's a lot compared to the number of schools we have recording none."
He added he would be contacting administrators at the school to discover whether there is an error in reporting.

Despite messages left at the school for Margaret Schoelles, principal of Fox Chapel, she could not be reached for comment by press deadline.
After looking at fighting and sexual battery stats, Etters said she's concerned that administrators could be skewing state statistics by incorrectly gathering violence statistics at other schools in Hernando County as well. She said state officials might have to contact school administrators to ensure they're knowledgeable about how the data is supposed to be collected.

"Those numbers are used for a lot of different things and legislators take a look at those numbers too," Etters said. "It's important that they get reported accurately — in this case because it reflects badly on the schools."

State officials have changed how they report and show school violence — particularly in the past three years.

Prior to the 2007-08 school year, school officials didn't separate most of the incidents. In years following, Etters said state officials began requiring more information concerning bullying along with breaking out the separate kinds of instances that occur on school grounds.
Knight said those efforts are continuing as district officials are again expected to redefine school bullying along with ways to combat it at the school level.

Reporter Jeff Schmucker can be reached at 352-544-5271 or jschmucker@hernandotoday.com.

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