Eldorado, Garside crime top school list

Teresa Hinds

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Garside Middle School and Eldorado High School have the highest reported incidence of violence in the Clark County School District.

A school district report for 1995-96, released in April, shows every middle school and high school in the Las Vegas Valley had at least one violent incident.

Elementary, middle and high schools in the rural areas reported the least incidents, with some reporting none.

Districtwide there were 341 instances of violence against school staff, 311 drug cases, 231 incidents involving weapons and 73 violent acts toward other students.

Garside had 45 reports of violence to school staff and eight instances of violence to other students. Drug sales were recorded 27 times and weapons possession 18 times at the campus near U.S. 95 and Torrey Pines Drive.

Knudson Middle School, near Sahara and Eastern avenues, had the cleanest middle school record in the report: four instances of violence toward other students, three toward school staff, one report of a weapon and three reports of drugs.

Len Paul, assistant superintendent for secondary education, said the figures are relative. He said of the 81,000 secondary students in the district, less than 1 percent were expelled for violence.

He said the reported violent actions toward school staff do not always indicate an attack. If a faculty member was accidentally struck while trying to break up a student fight, that would be reported, he said.

Connie Geldbach, head of pupil personnel services for the school district, is in charge of reporting to the state all student referrals. She said for the 1995-96 school year all reported violent acts on school faculty were the result of breaking up student fights. No faculty members were victims of an attack.

Paul reasoned the higher incidences of violence in the middle schools compared with high schools is largely due to differences in maturity.

"Middle school ages are a very active age and kids are experimenting," Paul said. "That's not to say they don't do those things in high school, but in the high school ages there are other types of potential consequences that serve as a deterrent" for violent behavior on campus.

For instance, high school students can have the privilege of participating in sports programs taken away from them for violent behavior. There were no middle school sports programs in 1995-96.

Throughout the district, there were 187 reports of violent acts toward school staff and 31 reports of violence to other students on high school campuses. Weapons possession was reported 166 times, with 219 reports of drugs.

Las Vegas High School had the most reports of violence to other students with six.

Advanced Technologies Academy, Chaparral, Cheyenne, Clark, Green Valley and VoTech each reported zero acts of violence toward other students.

Eldorado High School, near Washington Avenue east of Nellis Boulevard, had the highest number of acts of violence toward school staff with 54. Weapons possession also was the highest at Eldorado, with 29 reported incidents.

Advanced Technologies Academy and the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies and Performing Arts each reported only one incident of violence to school staff.

Cimarron-Memorial High School, the school district's largest high school, had the most reported drug sales: 34.

Again, Advanced Technologies Academy and the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies and Performing Arts had the lowest reports of drugs with two each.

Paul said the school district would review the report and work on improvement plans to monitor student safety and discipline at problem campuses.