Violence decreases in county schools

A total of two reportable acts of crime and violence occurred in Alleghany County Schools during the 2008-09 school year, according to information released last week by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. That number was down from seven acts reported the previous year.

During the 2008-09 school year, the local schools reported one possession of a weapon and one sexual offense. The numbers equate to a total of 1.34 acts per 1,000 students. Acts being reported on for the report include: possession of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance, possession of an alcoholic beverage, assault on school personnel, assault resulting in serious injury, sexual assault, assault involving use of a weapon, sexual offense, possession of a firearm, robbery without a dangerous weapon, robbery with a dangerous weapon and taking indecent liberties with a minor. The remaining acts are: rape, death by other than natural causes, kidnapping, bomb threat and burning of a school building.

According to information reported for the school system during the 2007-08 school year, the high school reported seven cases of possession of controlled substances, one case of possession of an alcoholic beverage and one sexual assault.

Of Alleghany's recently released numbers regarding crime and violence, Superintendent Jeff Cox remarked, "We're always pleased when we see the report indicates our incidences are going down We have good students who come from good families and we don't have a lot of disciple problems in our schools. We're always looking for ways to improve but we do feel like we have safe and orderly schools."

About the Report

The 2008-09 school year marks the second consolidated report on school crime and violence, suspensions and expulsions and annual dropout rates.

The report indicates the number of acts of crime and violence dropped slightly from 11,276, equating to 7.85 acts per 1,000 students to 11,116 and 7.59 acts per 1,000 students. Meanwhile, short-term out-of-school suspensions (10 days or less) decreased, showing a drop from 308,010 (4.7 percent) to 293,453. Long-term suspensions decreased for 5,225 to 3,592. In addition, the report showed that 116 students were expelled from school statewide,