Guess those student warning cards aren’t working out too well to stop bad behaviors.
Heckuva job mayor!
Despite claims by Mayor Bill de Blasio that public schools have gotten safer, the number of violent incidents in schools soared by nearly 23 percent last year to reach the highest level in at least a decade, according to a report from the NY Post.
There were 15,934 incidents at public schools that fell into 11 categories designated as “violent” by the state Education Department — including assaults, sex offenses and weapons possession — up from 12,978 in 2014, the data shows. Those included a stunning 40.4 percent increase in the number of assaults with physical injury and a 48.4 percent increase in assaults with serious physical injury.
Additionally, the number of forcible sex offenses nearly doubled from 10 to 19, other sex offenses rose by 4 percent — from 2,151 to 2,239 — and incidents with weapons increased by nearly 15 percent.
“We cannot allow a world where New York City [government] is able to mislead New Yorkers by saying that safety in our schools is getting better when in fact it’s getting much, much worse,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of Families for Excellent Schools, the pro-charter group that analyzed the state data.
De Blasio has been touting improvements in school safety for months, saying as recently as Nov. 18 that “our schools are a lot safer than they used to be.”
He has also been boasting of a 29 percent decrease in “crime” in schools between 2012 and 2015, which refers to only the fraction of overall incidents that result in arrest.
The Department of Education reported just 6,875 crimes and other incidents in 2015 — even though the tally is supposed to include nonviolent acts such as trespassing, harassment and disorderly conduct. That’s 9,059 fewer incidents than the state data shows — the highest gap in at least a decade between the two systems, according to the analysis.
DOE officials said the city data only includes incidents where the NYPD’s school safety agents get involved, while the state gets its data from a mandated online reporting system for school administrators. Asked whether they dispute the state’s figures, DOE officials questioned the state’s definition of “assault” relative to the penal code and argued that the designation of which incidents are violent was too broad.
The state’s 11 categories of violent incidents are: homicide, forcible sex offenses, other sex offenses, robbery, assault with physical injury, assault with serious physical injury, arson, kidnapping, reckless endangerment, weapon possession and other incidents with weapons.
“I want to know why the administration isn’t being up front with parents about how unsafe our schools really are,” Samantha Silva, whose son was bullied and assaulted at PS 140 in Manhattan, said at a City Hall press conference announcing the findings. “These incidents are real. They deserve real action from the administration.”
DCG
