Police records obtained by Talk of the Sound show that New Rochelle school officials have significantly under-reported the level of serious violent incidents at New Rochelle High School. For the 2007-2008 school year, the most recent year on record, the district reported a School Violence Index of 0.07 to the New York State Department of Education when police records indicate a School Violence Index more than double that figure. The actual figure is likely far higher because many crimes often go unreported to the police for a variety of reasons ranging from not realizing a crime has occurred at school (e.g. theft from a backpack not discovered until later), fear of retaliation, embarrassment at being a victim and so forth.
Based on police incident reports, the district in 2007-2008 failed to report more than a half-dozen “serious” violent incidents to New York State as required under the No Child Left Behind Act including a reported sex offense, a robbery and numerous assaults which resulted in physical injury. Less serious offenses such as Burglary, Larceny and Criminal Mischief were also not reported. There were three hit-and-run incidents at the high school reported to police that year which may or may not have been required to be counted in the VADIR report depending on the nature of the incidents.
NOTE: Click to enlarge the image. Discrepencies between the NYSED VADIR Report and NRPD/NRFD data has been highlighted (orange where VADIR report is lower than NRPD/NRFD data; green where it is higher)
According to a report on Student Victimization in U.S. Schools (based on the National Crime Victimization Survey) four percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported that they were victims of any crime at school and 3 percent reported being victims of theft in the six month period prior to the survey. One percent of students reported being victims of violent crime at school (i.e., rape, sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated or simple assault). Based on the national average, a school with a student population of 3,400 students would have about 3 dozen serious violent incidents and about 135 overall with most of those being thefts of some kind. Given the urban-suburban mix of demographics of New Rochelle it might be expected that the level of crime at New Rochelle High School would be higher than the national average but, according to school officials, the number of serious violent incidents in New Rochelle is less than one-third of the national average.
Last month, New Rochelle police officials disputed a claim by New Rochelle High School Principal Donald Conetta that the school immediately notified police of an incident in which a student suffered a broken jaw as the result of a fight in the school gym. Police made no arrests after determining the assailant acted in self-defense.
In a rare public display of NRPD frustration with school officials the Journal News reported:
Principal Donald Conetta has said the school notified the police youth officer within minutes. But Hearle stands by the department’s statement that the incident was not reported officially to police until the mother of the injured teen reported an assault a day after the incident.
Current and former school officials, police officials and security guards currently working for the school district paint a picture of a school system willing to go to any lengths to mask the level of violence at the high school – falsifying data, not reporting VADIR-qualifying incidents, not reporting weapons violations and drug and alcohol violations. Perhaps the most serious allegations are claims including by some members of law-enforcement that the high school maintains two sets of books on violent and disruptive incidents. Much in the same way the district provides contradictory data to NYSED and the NRFD (a higher figure to get more state aid and a lower figure for fire code occupancy levels), the district is said to keep one set of records on violent and disruptive incident to generate the paperwork for suspending and expelling students and another set to be submitted to New York State as part of the VADIR reports required under No Child Left Behind.
Those interviewed suggest a paranoia about New Rochelle schools being placed on the list of “persistently dangerous schools” by NYSED and a determined effort to convince potential home buyers that the schools are safe when they are not. One source said he believed that in some categories only one in ten incidents makes its way into the VADIR reports filed by the district.
A formula used by the state to determine whether or not a school is classified as “persistently dangerous”. In recent years the state added a lesser “watch list” category as well. The formula in New York State is a school is considered “persistently dangerous” IF for two consecutive school years, a school has EITHER: (1) An SVI of 1.5 or greater; or (2) An SVI of 0.5 or greater AND a total of 60 or more serious incidents. The SVI is calculated using a weighted scale; multiply the number of incidents in a particular category by their “weight” then add them all together. Only the most serious incident types on the VADIR report are used to calculate SVI.
School Violence Index Incident Categories (Weighted by seriousness; all of these incident categories are classified as “Serious”)
Homicide 100
Forcible Sex Offenses 60
Other Sex Offenses 45
Robbery 40
Assault with Serious Physical Injury 40
Arson 30
Kidnapping 30
Assault with Physical Injury 30
Reckless Endangerment 25
All Other Incident Categories Involving the Use of a Weapon 25
Weapons Possession 15
New Rochelle High School reported the following in their 2007-2008 VADIR Report (the most recent report available)
0 Homicide 100 = 0
0 Forcible Sex Offenses 60 = 0
0 Other Sex Offenses 45 = 0
0 Robbery 40 = 0
0 Assault with Serious Physical Injury 40 = 0
0 Arson 30 = 0
0 Kidnapping 30 = 0
4 Assault with Physical Injury 30 = 120
1 Reckless Endangerment 25 = 25
0 All Other Incident Categories Involving the Use of a Weapon 25 = 0
6 Weapons Possession 15 = 90
The total is 11 serious incidents with a weighted score of 235.
School Violence Index for New Rochelle High School for 2007-08 = 235/3400 = 0.07 (as reported to NYSED)
The New Rochelle Police Department has incident reports indicating that there were more serious incidents at the high school in the 2007-2008 then was reported by Don Conetta (and certified by Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak) including 1 sex offense (NRHS reported zero), 1 robbery (NRHS reported zero), 9 assaults with physical injury (NRHS reported 4). The list of incident reports does not indicate if weapons were involved in these or other incidents; that would require a more extensive FOIL request that is beyond the scope of this article. Safe to say that some of the incidents involved a weapon of some type but we will treat NRPD as showing zero weapons violations for now.
0 Homicide 100 = 0
0 Forcible Sex Offenses 60 = 0
1 Other Sex Offenses 45 = 45
1 Robbery 40 = 40
0 Assault with Serious Physical Injury 40 = 0
0 Arson 30 = 0
0 Kidnapping 30 = 0
9 Assault with Physical Injury 30 = 270
1 Reckless Endangerment 25 = 25
0 All Other Incident Categories Involving the Use of a Weapon 25 = 0
6 Weapons Possession 15 = 90
The total is 18 serious incidents with a weighted score of 470
School Violence Index for New Rochelle High School for 2007-08 = 470/3400 = .14 (based on NRPD incident reports)
If you based the SVI Index on data reported by the school district to the New Rochelle Fire Department the SVI is even higher. As we reported last year, during the 2007-2008 school year the school district filed a “School Fire Safety Non-Comformance Reporting Sheet” with the New Rochelle Fire Department which includes the question “”Number of students in this facility”. New Rochelle High School Principal Don Conetta reported to NRFD that there were 2,983 students at the school in April 2008.
Using the figure the school provided to the fire department, the equation changes to 235/2,983 = 0.8 and 470/2,983 = .16.
Even the police figures dramatically understate the level of violence at New Rochelle High School where gang violence, stick-up robberies and assaults are routine, sources say. According to Principal Conetta, official policy is not to report violent incidents to the police based on “privacy” concerns. Police officials have repeatedly expressed frustration at the lack of cooperation from school officials when investigating criminal complains by victims or the parents of victims. One long-time security guard at the high school said that in a typical week there is at least one major brawl involving several students. He said the incidents require the intervention of multiple security guards.
Asked about the data contained in the 2007-2008 VADIR report filed by the district for New Rochelle High School which showed just a handful of incidents, one district employee laughed out loud as he said “six weapons violations…there are drawers full of confiscated weapons at the high school.”
It appears likely that if New Rochelle High School reported the data in the NRPD incident reports plus the actual number of weapons violations and melees at the school, the district would have well more than 60 “serious incidents” a year, an SVI of 0.5 or greater and ought to have long ago been classified as a “persistently dangerous school”.
The district’s actions belie the low incident numbers. The district stations 40 to 50 security guards at the high school in a building with somewhere around 3,000 students. By comparison, the New Rochelle Police Department which has less than 50 police officers patrolling the entire City of New Rochelle during the school day with a population of about 77,000 people.
No Really – NOWWW have you had enough ?
More lies from Mr O (Garrison) and his little hand puppet (Mr Hat) Quinn ? Could it really be true ? As a parent of a high school kid what would be more important , knowing how safe your childs environment is or having your district lie to you to make you believe the kids are safe ? I’ll say it again what other school district posts cops around the school everyday ? There’s trouble there everyday . Just because you want to hide it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist . Time to take back the schools and ensure your kid’s safety . No more incumbants and hold the rest of the pack’s feet to the fire . Hastie , have you done a single thing since you drove your head up Polows – well you get the point ? You made a lot of promises (lies) when you were running . Has the board made you impotent ? Apparently so . You’ll think different if the violence at the school involves someone you know .