Schools
Cranford Logs in 10 Incidents of Violence, Vandalism in 2010-2011 Academic Year
Nine cases resulted in police intervention with most incidents happening at Cranford High School.
In the past academic year, the Cranford School District had 10 incidents of violence, substance possession and vandalism, with police intervention in nine cases, according to a report given to the Board of Education Monday night.
The district logged one more incident than last year, which is still a low number compared to other towns, said Business Administrator Robert Carfagno.
Of the 10 incidents, four were classified as violence, two were classified as vandalism, one was a weapon charge and three was for substance possession.
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Two of the violence cases were fights and two were classified as assaults.
“We don’t have a lot of fist fights,” said Superintendent of Schools Gayle Carrick. “The students just aren’t fighters.”
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Four of the incidents had formal complaints filed. None of the incidents had any cost to the district, Carfagno said.
“This report is for the incidents that were reported,” he said. “There might have been scuffles that were handled internally, but in general there were not too many altercations.”
Five incidents happened at the high school, one at Brookside Place School, one at Bloomingdale Avenue School and three complaints from Orange Avenue School.
Of the 10 cases, eight of them were caused by student offenders, and three cases identified student victims.
The data is submitted to the Department of Education, which keeps a record of violence, bullying and vandalism in each district, over the Internet using the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System since the 1999-2000 school year.
The department analyzes the data and produces the annual Report to the Legislature on Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse so that the Commissioner of Education can monitor the safety of the state’s public schools.
New Jersey public schools are required by law to use the EVVRS to report incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse involving all students, as well as to report suspensions of students with disabilities for offenses other than violence, vandalism, weapons and substance, according to the department's website.
