Gun, knife use down on campus

Friday, Aug. 6, 1999 | 11:31 a.m.

Crime in Clark County schools is up, but fewer students have been found using guns and knives to commit offenses.

The crime statistics for the 1998-99 school year, released Thursday by the Clark County School District, show that there were 21 fewer gun incidents and 10 fewer knife incidents over the 1997-98 school year.

"These are very encouraging statistics," said Clark County School District Police Sgt. Ken Young. "We are encouraged because students are walking up to officers, telling them that a student has a gun and are walking away. That's something we had not anticipated would happen."

School police officials attribute the decrease in gun and knife incidents to the district's safety measures and prevention programs, including a 24-hour anonymous crime tip line, additional security cameras, a school police gang advisory team and police anti-drug campaigns like DARE.

"Our goal has always been to work with students, staff and the community to keep our campuses safe and prevent crime before it happens," Clark County School District Police Chief Dan Reyes said in a news release. "We would like to assure parents we are actively watching out for their children's safety."

However, the crime statistics were not all encouraging. There were 80 more burglaries and 56 more instances of possession of controlled substances this past year.

Young said the key items that are being taken during burglaries are computers from classrooms and tools and building supplies from school construction sites. Yet, Young said, students who steal such items are not necessarily selling them to get money to buy drugs.

"Our investigations have led us to homes where we have found the school computers being used by students," Young said. "They want the technology."

Young termed the rise in drug possession incidents "disturbing."

The biggest crime numbers were in the catchall category of miscellaneous crime, which showed there were 921 more incidents last school year than the year before.

Miscellaneous crime, including false alarms, lewdness, vandalism, traffic violations, truancy and trespassing, pushed the total 1998-99 crime numbers up by 953 incidents over the previous year.

One of the more encouraging statistics for school officials was that the student population cracked the 200,000 plateau and was 12,957 higher in the 1998 school year than in the 1997 stanza. Yet, during the same period, the school police force was increased by just three officers.

While student arrests were down by 88, the issuance of criminal citations rose by 368 and parking/traffic citations climbed by 184 during the last school year. Young said school police have been issuing more citations for lesser crimes that in previous years required arrests.

In the 1998-99 school session, 58 guns were confiscated by school police, but 33 of them were of the BB or pellet variety. Forty of them were confiscated on campus and 19 of them were carried by non-students, the school district said.

Some crime statistics have remained virtually unchanged over the years, including assaults, which numbered 61 in 1991-92 and 58 this past school year, and robberies, which numbered 29 in 1991-92 and 32 this past school year.

A news release from the school district said the crime report indicates that "local schools are relatively safe."