School crime rate drops overall

By Emily Richmond

Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

Clark County School District's police officers issued 635 criminal citations during the 2003-04 academic year, a drop of 34 percent from the prior year, a new report shows.

School police reported fewer batteries and robberies, as well as a decline in incidents involving knives in the annual count of school police responses in the previous academic year. But the number of incidents in which guns were confiscated rose to 59, up from 54 in the prior year. There were also increases in assaults, burglaries and people cited for possession of controlled substances.

The district added more than 12,637 students and 12 new campuses between the 2002-03 and the 2003-04 school years. During that same period the size of the School Police force grew by eight officers, to 146.

"We've had aggressive coverage with a very limited staff," School Police Chief Elliot Phelps said. "Given the growth that we're seeing and what goes on in the community, I would say the past year went very well."

A challenge for school police officers is responding to -- and controlling -- outside influences that spill onto campuses, Phelps said.

"A fight at a party on Saturday might have some lingering effects when students show up for school on Monday," Phelps said. "There isn't much we can do to control that."

Each year school police release a summary of reports taken on district property. This may be the last time that all of the incidents -- including those involving employees, students and adults not affiliated with the district -- are lumped together, Phelps said.

"We need to start breaking out our statistics," Phelps said. "When we arrest a transient at an elementary school over the weekend and the guy has drugs and a .22 (-caliber handgun) in his pocket, that goes down as a weapon recovered at a school. But that's clearly not the whole story."

An increase in crime statistics could be viewed as a positive factor, said Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

"It may be that we're catching more people, not that there's necessarily more crime going on," Garcia said. "When I look at the statistics, I see a school police force that's doing what needs to be done."

The annual roundup of police activity comes as the district is in the midst of a major overhaul of its approach to ensuring school safety. Beginning this year some of the duties of school police officers are being filled by specially trained campus security monitors.

Unlike school police, who go through the same academy training as the Henderson and North Las Vegas police forces, security monitors are not sworn peace officers and do not carry guns. They are also not allowed to investigate criminal activity or make arrests.

In prior years the duties of campus monitors were limited to directing student traffic between classes and reporting student infractions to administrators. The new position of "campus security monitors" calls for individuals who are physically strong enough to break up fights between students and are prepared to handle large -- and potentially hostile -- crowds.

The pay scale for the job has increased along with the responsibilities. Starting pay for security monitors is $13.64 per hour, compared with $9.93 for campus monitors.

The district typically tries to place two police officers at each high school and would like to have one police officer for each of the middle schools, Phelps said. Given the small pool of available school cops, security monitors are currently filling the void at most middle schools, Phelps said.

With 278 security monitors hired to handle duties such as operating metal detector wands at the entrances to sporting events, school police have more time to conduct patrols and visit campuses that don't have a permanent officer assigned, Phelps said.

"We want to branch out to having more of a presence around our elementary schools and do more patrols of neighborhoods and parks adjacent to our campuses," Phelps said. "I would like to free up my officers to be mobile, not standing flatfooted inside a school."

District officials also expect the security monitors to help reduce costs associated with police overtime, which last year topped $1 million, primarily for duties related to athletics events.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school districts must identify schools that are "persistently dangerous," with each state allowed to devise its own definition.

For a school to meet the threshold in Nevada, the number of violent offenses must exceed 2 percent of the population at campuses with less than 750 students, 1.75 percent of the population at campuses with between 750 and 1,500 students and 1.5 percent of the population at the state's largest schools. If the allowable percentage is exceeded for two consecutive years, the school is designated as "persistently dangerous." Districts must then provide parents with the option of having their children transferred to safer campuses.

Garside Junior High School in the district's southwest region is the only campus in the state that appears to have exceeded the allowable amount of violent offenses for the first year. Based on that information the state has identified Garside as a "greatest need school," said Michael Fitzgerald, school improvement consultant for the Nevada Department of Education.

"We've offered our full support and assistance to the district and the school," Fitzgerald said.

Allen Coles, superintendent of the district's southwest region, said he has appealed Garside's designation based on extenuating circumstances. A new principal took over the school last year and adopted a policy of zero tolerance, resulting in a higher number of citations being handed out, Coles said.

"The principal's actions were part of an overall school improvement plan that I would say has been highly successful," Coles said. "The school could have sat back and done nothing and had absolutely no citations. Instead they took a strong stance and I commend them for that."