Larcenies Also Up
Violence in Schools Going Wrong Way

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The city released a report Feb. 14 showing school violence was on the rise, reinforcing data collected separately by the United Federation of Teachers.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Cause for alarm.

The Mayor's Preliminary Management Report showed a 21-percent increase in felony crimes committed in the city's schools between July and October 2006 compared with the same period the previous year.

Union: Assaults Up

The UFT said it was aware that there had been a spike in violence. Its new on-line reporting system calculated 704 assaults between the first day of school Sept. 5, 2006 and Feb. 9, 2007, and 511 of them were against Teachers.

The city statistics also showed an increase in lesser crimes and in other safety-related incidents. Bloomberg administration officials attributed the rise to an additional five days of school in the 2006 period and an increase in grand larceny.

"The snapshot of crime captured in this report shows an increase, driven by an uptick in the number of grand larcenies," said John Feinblatt, the city's Criminal Justice Coordinator. "We are concerned about the rise in grand larcenies, and we are taking a number of steps to stem this problem. The good news is that these crimes do not create disorder in the classroom or in the hallways of city schools."

Major crimes rose from 287 to 348, other criminal reports increased from 820 to 983, and additional safety incidents climbed from 1,614 to 1,926, according to the Mayor's report.

Officials said that the increase in larceny involved portable and valuable items, such as laptops, and that 44 percent were committed against Teachers and staff. The number of assaults stayed steady at 52 for both periods and robberies decreased from 62 to 44, the Mayor's report said. There were no murders and one rape in each of the reporting periods.

The UFT began its on-line reporting system in September, believing that there was significant under-reporting of violence. Previously, the UFT had encouraged Teachers to report safety incidents, but they had to be submitted to chapter leaders or local offices on paper forms.

Numbers Double

Using the paper system last year, Teachers reported 1,893 verified incidents between September and February. This year the number of verified reports was 4,537. This year's numbers also includes 1,206 incidents in categories that weren't on last year's reporting form.

"We can't say how much is the result of underreporting and how much reflects an increase in incidents," said UFT President Randi Weingarten, "but the [Department of Education's] own numbers show an increase."

Ms. Weingarten said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein deserves credit for encouraging Principals to report all incidents, but that some of the priorities of years past may have contributed to the increase.

Reacting to Pressure

"The Chancellor may say you must do this," she said, "but if your ratings are dependent upon your test scores, you're going to put more money into preparing for the tests and less into guidance counselors and programs that can stop the small incidents from escalating."

The UFT's on-line reports showed increases in every category when compared with last year's paper-form reporting. Assaults rose from 321 to 704, larcenies increased from 78 to 117, robberies jumped from 6 to 44, sex offenses from 24 to 46, menacing from 50 to 99, verbal harassment from 361 to 861, physical harassment from 398 to 668 and reckless endangerment increased from 485 to 536.

In an effort to stress the positive, city officials noted that there had been improvement among participants in the Impact School initiative, which provides crime prevention resources to a small number of schools that account for a disproportionate amount of crime. Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx and Norman Thomas High in Manhattan were removed from the Impact program after crime dropped 54 percent at the two schools between Sept. 5, 2006 and Jan. 7, 2007.

Two Others Deteriorate

Two Queens schools, however, joined the list of Impact schools. Jamaica High School experienced a 50-percent increase in violent crime, ranking it third-highest among Impact schools for violence. Total crime at Campus Magnet High School grew by 47 percent, placing it second among the Impact schools.

The Mayor's report also showed only a nominal decline in class size between July and October of 2006 and the same period in 2007. The average decrease in kindergarten through 8th grade classes was 0.1 students. Class sizes from kindergarten to 3rd grade averaged about 21 students. Grades 4 through 8 averaged about 26 students per class.