Kids & Family

Violence Plummets at Cherry Hill Schools, Report Says

Changes in how harassment, intimidation and bullying reports were categorized helped fuel the drop.

Incidents of violence plummeted at Cherry Hill schools last year, following a one-year spike attributed in part to how the state characterized harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) incidents, according to statistics released this week by the state Department of Education.

Cherry Hill schools fell from 185 incidents of violence—which included 144 HIB incidents, the bulk of which were nonviolent—in 2011-2012 down to just 35 in 2012-2013, and reported HIB incidents fell to just 23.

The 35 incidents of violence represents a five-year low for the district, and a major drop-off from two years ago, when there were 62 incidents.

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Additionally, unpinning HIB incidents from the violence total gives a better picture of what's actually going on in the schools, school officials said.

“School districts throughout the state were struggling to ensure that they weren’t underreporting,” said Michael Nuzzo, the district's director of security, which led to the one-year spike both in violence and HIB incidents.

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That doesn't mean the district has become lax about HIB reporting, Nuzzo said, but merely that anti-bullying coordinators have a better grasp of what constitutes an HIB incident and that the district still takes every allegation of harassment, intimidation or bullying seriously.

Cherry Hill West saw the most incidents of violence—12 in total—through the year, with Johnson Elementary coming in second with nine incidents.

The middle schools, where school officials have previously said bullying violence is usually the biggest problem, saw just 10 incidents of violence total—six at Carusi, two at Beck and one at Rosa.

Two of Carusi's incidents of violence were listed as sex offenses, but Nuzzo said both of those involved inappropriate touching and were nonviolent.

Across the district, there were eight reports of weapons found in schools, but none of them were associated with any assaults, Nuzzo said, and all were folding knives.

In addition to the violence and weapons reports, there were also 19 reports of vandalism, which the state doesn't limit to simple property damage, such as graffiti or damaged school property—Nuzzo said this year's report also included four bomb threats and 12 thefts.

Complete statistics on Cherry Hill and other districts are available on the Department of Education's violence, vandalism and substance abuse reports.


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