LRHSD reports a drop in violence, vandalism and bullying during second half of 2013–14 school year

The Lenape Regional High School District has put bullying and violence awareness at the forefront with anti-bullying programs. Its efforts have not only resulted in all four schools being designated as No Place for Hate, but have also helped reduce bullying, violence and vandalism incidents.

According to the district’s semi-annual violence and vandalism report, the district had 63 combined incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse from Jan. 1 through June 30. This is a decrease of five incidents from the same period in 2013.

Jim Kehoe, the district’s security and emergency management coordinator, said a significant drop in incidents of violence and bullying led to an overall decrease in incidents.

“We’ve had a decrease in incidents in the bullying, violence, vandalism and weapons categories,” he said.

Last year, the district had a significant decrease in the number of bullying incidents.

“We had no HIB incidents during the (January through June) reporting period,” Kehoe said.

For the entire 2013–14 school year, there was only one confirmed HIB incident, a large decrease from the seven reported in 2012–13.

The Lenape district credited the reduction in incidents to its focus on anti-bullying programs. Superintendent Carol Birnbohm said the district had a number of HIB presentations and assemblies during School Violence Awareness Week in October. In addition, all four schools received a No Place For Hate designation from the Anti-Defamation League for the second consecutive year.

The district also had a large decrease in fights as well as criminal offenses. There were only two criminal offenses across the district last year, compared to eight in 2012–13.

The one area where there was an increase in numbers was in substance abuse. There were 51 confirmed cases last school year. This included 29 confirmed cases of drug and alcohol use, 20 cases of possession and two cases of distribution.

Kehoe said incidents across all three categories increased from the 2012–13 school year.

The district has put a focus on reducing substance abuse in all four schools. Birnbohm said one of the main themes of School Violence Awareness Week was drug awareness. Outside speakers, teachers and students spoke in assemblies centered around substance abuse awareness at all four schools.

Kehoe also put an emphasis on theft. He said most of the vandalism cases involved theft from students’ lockers.

“Fourteen of the 20 incidents were theft,” he said. “We’re required to report any theft over $10.”

Out of the 14 cases, seven of them ended in an arrest, the stolen item was returned in six cases, and one case had the item returned damaged.

The district did not have any bomb threats and had only one incident of weapons use for the entire school year. Kehoe said there were no reports of firearms or knives being brought into schools.

“The weapon report was for possession of a pipe that led to an assault,” he said.