Drug and Alcohol Crimes Up 16% at County Schools

Crimes involving drugs and alcohol on Ventura County campuses jumped 15.9% last school year, topping the statewide average for the third straight year, a report released Thursday shows.

Education leaders say the trend is a disturbing one to which all administrators, teachers and parents should pay attention.

“It’s just totally unacceptable that we have numbers above state averages, and now the numbers are even growing from previous years,” said Charles Weis, Ventura County superintendent of schools. “I would call for a communitywide effort to look at this issue and come up with new solutions, because obviously the old programs are not getting the desired results.”

According to the annual California Safe Schools Assessment, for every 1,000 students in Ventura County last year, 4.96 were arrested for drug or alcohol offenses, compared with 4.30 per 1,000 students statewide.

That means local students were more likely to be caught drinking alcohol and using or selling illegal drugs last year than their counterparts across California, which saw a 7% rate increase in drug and alcohol offenses last year.

Battery Arrests Increase 17%

The number of student arrests for battery also increased countywide, by about 17%, from 268 in 1999-2000 to 314 last year. That trend also was mirrored statewide. The rate of crimes against people, including battery, assault and sexual offenses, jumped 16% from the previous year across California. Battery was the most commonly reported incident in that category, rising by 18% to 4.58 per 1,000 students.

“The highest rate by far occurs during the middle school years when peer pressure, bullying and other social conflicts can result in the disengagement of our students,” Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement.

One district that saw a sharp increase was Oxnard Elementary, where battery arrests went up from 25 in 1999-2000 to 36 last year.

Supt. Richard Duarte said violence on the district’s elementary and middle school campuses is something teachers and principals are working on daily.

“Unfortunately it’s indicative of what’s going on in society in general,” Duarte said. “Children are exposed at a much earlier age to incidents of violence and settling problems physically. That shows in these numbers.”

Offenses in other categories--including assault, sex offenses and property crimes--were well below state averages, and in many Ventura County districts the numbers went down from the previous year.

But Weis said the drug and alcohol figures are nonetheless disheartening in a county where students regularly perform better academically than their peers throughout the state.

“Teaching kids math and science, and how to be outstanding speakers and writers, is great, but if they ruin their lives by using alcohol and drugs, it’s all for naught,” he said.

During the school year that ended last June, 694 students out of 139,808 countywide were arrested for possession, sale or use of alcohol or illegal drugs, up from 599 the previous year.

The increase is more than double the hike that local schools saw between 1999-2000 and 1998-1999, when arrests went up about 6.5%. Since the state began collecting campus crime data in 1995, the rate of drug and alcohol crimes has gone down in the county, from 5.01 offenses per 1,000 students.

However, since 1997, arrests have climbed because the overall number of students has grown.The data, compiled by the state Department of Education, show the highest rates of drug and alcohol crimes in Ventura County occurred on Oxnard and Santa Paula high school campuses.

Many other districts also showed increases in drug and alcohol offenses from the previous year.

In the Simi Valley Unified School District, drug and alcohol arrests rose from 72 in 1999-2000 to 92 this year, up nearly 28%.

Some Districts Turn to Prevention Programs

Bob Rizzardi, director of secondary education, said he hopes two new research-based prevention programs--one for middle schools and one for high schools--will help combat the problem.

“We know there are drugs and alcohol on our campuses, and our goal is to eradicate it ultimately,” he said. “Even if we were moving in the right direction it is not good enough. Until the numbers are zero we will continue to make an effort.

“We’re talking about kids’ lives here.”

State crime rates are based on reports from 1,043 school districts and county offices serving more than 6 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Many local education officials attributed the increases to better reporting rather than an actual rise in crime on their campuses.

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Times staff writer Erika Hayasaki also contributed to this story.