State Study Finds Area Schools Safer

By KATE FOLMAR

Feb. 25, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

For the third year running, Ventura County campuses have proven themselves safer places for children and teachers than schools elsewhere in California, according to a report released Wednesday.

In the 1997-98 school year, Ventura County students committed fewer crimes against individuals--such as battery, assault and sex offenses--than in the past two years.

But students were somewhat more likely to bring a gun or knife to school than in the previous year.

Ventura County officials also spent less last year to scour away the traces of property crime and vandalism, according to the state Department of Education’s California Safe Schools Assessment.

“Everything seems to be getting better,” county schools Supt. Charles Weis said. “We have fewer Ventura County students committing crimes against people and vandalism, but we aren’t making any headway with drug and alcohol offenses.

“The other thing for the public to be aware of is that it’s really only about 1% or less of our kids engaging in any of these negative activities.”

According to the report, 479 of Ventura County’s 130,954 schoolchildren were arrested for drug and alcohol use in the last school year, 129 for weapons possession, 172 for battery and 15 for assault with a deadly weapon.

Some 483 property crimes--including graffiti and vandalism--cost local schools $213,327 to mend last year.

Statewide, school districts lost $16.8 million in property from 25,640 incidents.

Among area schoolchildren, use and possession of drugs and alcohol remained educators’ worst quandary--with 3.61 arrests for every 1,000 schoolchildren, compared to 3.56 per 1,000 statewide.

But arrests for drug and alcohol offenses did drop off slightly from the 1996-97 school year.

The annual report tracks seven types of crimes--drug and alcohol offenses, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery or extortion, sex offenses, possession of a weapon and property crimes. School districts report the safety statistics to state officials, who verify and compile them.

Reflecting state and national trends, criminal activity on Ventura County campuses dropped in most categories.

Both the state and county saw a slight jump in the number of weapons confiscated on campuses.

Supt. William Brand of the Santa Paula Union High School District said many of the weapons offenses, in his district at least, had to do with strict enforcement of the zero-tolerance policy.

No guns were among the weapons confiscated, he said.

“We’ve had three expulsions this year, all for the same thing: kids making inappropriate decisions and having a knife on them,” Brand said. “One student had a little pocketknife fall out of his pocket when he grabbed for his pencil. They say, ‘I forgot I had it’ or ‘I would never use it,’ but there’s no give on this topic. You bring a weapon to school, you’re expelled for a year. No exceptions.”

William Studt, superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District, said a three-year trend of high alcohol and drug offenses is spurring concern in his district.

About 20 of every 1,000 high schoolers in Oxnard and Camarillo were arrested for a drug or alcohol offense last year.

Studt will convene principals and counselors to consider new ways of addressing alcohol problems on the front-end, rather than reacting to an existing problem once students are caught.

District schools already offer student assistance teams, counselors and psychologists to help those with substance-abuse trouble.

“We have a serious problem in the drug and alcohol area,” he said. “Some people want to say that we’re a high school district [with older students] or that we take a stronger stance on it than other districts.

“Maybe. But that doesn’t relieve the fact that the number is too high.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Campus Crime

The thrid year of a state crime study on school saftey shows that Ventura County schools are safer than campuses statewide and registered fewer crimes than a year earlier.

Crime Rates per 1,000 students

Drug / Alcohol Offences

Ventura County

95-96: 5.01

97-98: 3.61

California

95-96: 3.77

97-98: 3.56

Battery

Ventura County

95-96: 6.98

97-98: 1.31