CRIME IN THE SCHOOLS: Do the Numbers Tell the Story? : The differences in how schools report incidents on campus raise questions about the accuracy and value of a statewide report.

The state Department of Education recently released crime statistics for the 1988-89 school year that are intended to help communities assess crime on campus, but South Bay school officials say the Standard School Crime Reporting Program is anything but standard.

Local officials say that, at least in the category of assaults, the program tells more about differences in crime reporting and discipline from school to school than it does about which schools have the most crime.

How else can it be explained, they ask, that three high schools in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach reported 22 times more assaults in 1988-89 than did Banning and Carson high schools, which have a total of 1,400 more students?

And why would a Hermosa Beach school have 28 assaults, while comparable schools in Manhattan Beach, with three times as many students, had only one?

“That’s pretty amazing,” Peter E. Kneedler, the consultant who prepared the report for the state, said when told about the comparisons. “I agree, that doesn’t sound right to me.”

Paul Sittel, supervisor of child welfare and attendance for the Torrance Unified School District, said the explanation is simple: “Everybody is reporting differently.”

In an effort to improve accuracy, the state Legislature last year passed a bill that would send auditors to schools at random to confirm that crime statistics are being tabulated properly. But the auditing teams have not yet been established because lawmakers did not approve any funding for the law.

School districts that fail to file crime reports or file false reports can be penalized the equivalent of half of their superintendents’ salaries, but in four years that penalty has never been assessed, Kneedler said.

Kneedler conceded that socioeconomic variations and divergent reporting methods sometimes make comparisons between schools inaccurate. He said the statistics are more useful for comparing the record of an individual campus or school district from one year to the next, rather than comparing one district to another.

The problem with basing comparisons on the state’s school crime statistics is exemplified in the South Bay schools by the category titled “assault/attack/menace.” Under this heading, schools are supposed to report not only unprovoked attacks but fights that lead to student suspensions or expulsions, Kneedler said.

The South Bay Union High School District--which includes Redondo Union High School, Mira Costa High School and Pacific Shores alternative school--followed those guidelines and reported 89 assaults on students during 1988-89.

Carson High School, on the other hand, left the crime reporting in the hands of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department, which records only criminal assaults reported to police, said Principal Don Groth. Consequently, Carson did not report a single assault on a student during 1988-89.

Other Los Angeles schools also reported only those assaults on students that led to the filing of formal police reports: Banning High School in Wilmington recorded four such attacks, Gardena High School five and Narbonne High School in Lomita just one.

L’Cena Rice, an assistant superintendent in the Redondo Union High School District, said she would be “flabbergasted” if the district’s schools actually had more assaults than Carson and Banning high schools. “I’ve substituted in both those schools,” Rice said, “so I know.”

But Wesley Mitchell, chief of police for Los Angeles schools, said officials at many schools in high-crime areas have succeeded in isolating campuses from their environments.

“It is possible to have an inner-city school that is in a higher crime area and make it safer than a suburban school,” Mitchell said. “This is the whole theory behind creating islands of safety in the community.”

But Mitchell also conceded that the numbers have been skewed by how the statistics are compiled. He said suburban districts that report every fistfight as an assault needlessly inflate the crime statistics.

“The way it is being reported right now, in my opinion, does not really give their community or the police departments something that they can really work with,” Mitchell said.

“The reports are misleading the parents as to the safety of the schools they are putting their children in.”

State officials will try to correct that problem for the current school year by creating a new report category for “fighting,” to be distinguished from assault.

But comparisons can be problematical for other reasons.

For example, Hermosa Valley School in Hermosa Beach has a policy of mandatory suspension for any child who fights. As a result, the school reported 28 assaults among its 715 students in kindergarten through eighth grade last year.

“Any time a student is suspended for a fight on campus, we are required by the state to report that (as an assault), and we do,” said Supt. Shalee Cunningham. “We just go by the rules.”

In contrast, the 2,200-student Manhattan Beach City School District reported only one assault for all of 1988-89. That district rarely suspends students for fighting and, thus, hardly ever reports the incidents to the state, said Linda Jones, an administrator with the district.

“This district tends to be kind of unique,” said Jones, “in that we will try to give kids detention or Saturday school rather than suspending them.”

The South Bay districts reporting the highest numbers of crimes in 1988-89 showed increases in the number of assaults over previous years, and in one of the districts, the number of weapons confiscated also increased.

Inglewood high schools, with a total enrollment of 3,630 students, reported 134 students assaulted in 1988-89, compared to 73 two years before. There were 90 students assaulted during the year in the 6,076-student Centinela Valley Union High School District, compared to 75 the year before.

Officials in both districts said that increased reporting, rather than a rise in violence, is probably responsible for much of the increases.

Inglewood high schools reported confiscating one gun and 11 knives in 1988-89, while in 1986-87 they confiscated one gun and 12 knives.

Centinela’s take of weapons, on the other hand, increased. Officials there reported finding six guns and 10 knives on campus last year, compared to one gun and five knives the year before.

CRIME REPORTED IN SOUTH BAY SCHOOL DISTRICTS 1988-’89

TYPE OF Centinela El Segundo Hawthorne Hermosa Inglewood CRIME Valley Beach ASSAULTS Against students 90 0 7 27 367 Against employees 5 0 3 1 9 Against others 6 0 0 0 1 ASSAULTS W/WEAPONS Against students 6 0 2 0 6 Against employees 0 0 0 0 1 Against others 0 0 0 0 2 HOMICIDE 0 0 0 0 0 SEX OFFENSES 0 0 3 0 6 ROBBERY 1 0 2 0 0 EXTORTION 0 0 0 0 2 SUBSTANCE ABUSE 7 0 0 3 10 POSSESSION OF WEAPONS Gun 6 0 0 0 2 Knife 10 0 6 2 29 Explosives 2 0 3 1 7 Other 2 0 1 0 7 PROPERTY CRIMES Arson 5 0 1 0 8 Burglary 1 0 9 0 69 Theft 15 2 7 9 48 Vandalism 59 18 33 6 98

CRIME REPORTED IN SOUTH BAY SCHOOL DISTRICTS 1988-’89

TYPE OF Lawndale Lennox Los Angeles Los Angeles CRIME Elementary Elementary H.S.* Jr.High** ASSAULTS Against students 1 218 26 27 Against employees 1 1 16 14 Against others 0 0 1 1 ASSAULTS W/WEAPONS Against students 0 0 14 9 Against employees 0 0 3 1 Against others 0 0 3 1 HOMICIDE 0 0 0 0 SEX OFFENSES 0 1 5 8 ROBBERY 0 1 5 4 EXTORTION 0 0 1 0 SUBSTANCE ABUSE 3 10 21 7 POSSESSION OF WEAPONS Gun 1 4 14 14 Knife 2 5 13 23 Explosives 0 21 2 1 Other 1 2 10 12 PROPERTY CRIMES Arson 1 1 2 3 Burglary 5 4 26 45 Theft 12 7 49 43 Vandalism 60 12 106 91

TYPE OF Manhattan CRIME Beach ASSAULTS Against students 1 Against employees 0 Against others 0 ASSAULTS W/WEAPONS Against students 0 Against employees 0 Against others 0 HOMICIDE 0 SEX OFFENSES 0 ROBBERY 0 EXTORTION 0 SUBSTANCE ABUSE 0 POSSESSION OF WEAPONS Gun 0 Knife 1 Explosives 0 Other 1 PROPERTY CRIMES Arson 1 Burglary 0 Theft 2 Vandalism 91

* Includes Banning, Carson, Cooper, Gardena, Narbonne, San Pedro, Westchester high schools

** Includes Carnegie, Clay, Curtiss, Dana (in San Pedro), Dodson, Fleming, Peary, White, Wilmington junior high schools

CRIME REPORTED IN SOUTH BAY SCHOOL DISTRICTS 1988-’89

TYPE OF P.V. Redondo South Bay Torrance Wiseburn CRIME Peninsula Beach Union High Elementary ASSAULTS Against students 15 31 89 75 0 Against employees 4 0 10 1 0 Against others 0 0 2 0 0 ASSAULTS W/WEAPONS Against students 0 0 7 5 0 Against employees 0 0 0 0 0 Against others 0 0 0 0 0 HOMICIDE 0 0 0 0 0 SEX OFFENSES 1 1 4 7 0 ROBBERY 0 0 1 1 0 EXTORTION 0 0 0 1 0 SUBSTANCE ABUSE 30 0 23 23 0 POSSESSION OF WEAPONS Gun 1 0 1 0 0 Knife 1 6 1 8 0 Explosives 2 0 3 3 0 Other 0 1 2 2 0 PROPERTY CRIMES Arson 2 1 4 2 1 Burglary 14 1 23 14 3 Theft 75 2 164 34 0 Vandalism 124 22 122 225 9

Source: California Department of Education