| 114th Year, 15th Issue | Thursday, November 21, 2002 | Sparta, North Carolina |
School crimes and violent incidents increased sharply both statewide and in Alleghany County.
According to a Nov. 6 release from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, a total of 10,951 acts were reported for the 2001-02 school year. The state's report added three new categories for 2001-02 not included in earlier reports: bomb threats, possession of alcoholic beverages and burning of school buildings. Yet even excluding the 1,289 incidents in the new categories, the number of reportable offenses increased by 2,099, or 28 percent, over 2000-01. The state release said it was the first significant increase in the numbers in four years.
Statewide, the number of acts per 1,000 pupils was 9.482, compared to 6.083 in 2000-01 and 6.343 five years ago.
In Alleghany the total number of occurrences increased from five to 13. Excluding the three acts in the new categories, the number of incidents still doubled here.
The number of acts in Alleghany per 1,000 pupils was 9.413 in 2001-02 (slightly below the state average), up from 3.526 in 2000-01 and 2.821 the year before.
The statistics include only those incidents in which the offenders were pupils. Of the offenders statewide in 2001-02, 8,083 were regular pupils, while 2,659 were exceptional pupils.
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