CMS Teachers Under Assault
It’s not uncommon for school districts to reward teachers with monetary bonuses for producing positive results in the classroom. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, they might want to consider providing hazard pay.
During the most recently completed school year CMS logged a record-setting 169 reported incidents of assault on school personnel, along with myriad other types of mayhem carried out in classrooms and across campuses.
The annual school crime and violence report for the 2008-09 school year isn’t scheduled for official release from the state until later this month, but internal data compiled by CMS and obtained by PunditHouse reveals a disturbing trend: Increases in nearly every category of reportable offenses.
And while the numbers of criminal and violent acts are on the rise, the resources CMS has to deal with them are on the decline. As part of budget cuts this year, CMS laid off 60 school security associates, or nearly one-third of CMS Police Department’s force, along with other behavior-management technicians that monitor some of the district’s most violent students.
Bud Cesena, head of CMS law enforcement, said his department has dealt with the force reduction, in part, by trying to better educate teachers about safety issues and through a judicious use of overtime pay for his officers.
“CMS is a safe place, but as within any agency there are always improvements that could be made,” Cesena said. “Just like every principal would like to have more teachers; every police chief would like to have more officers. That’s not always going to be the case, so we’re learning to work smarter and do more with the resources we have.”
They have their work cut out for them. In addition to the 169 assaults on school personnel (up from 104 the previous school year), reported incidents of possession of a weapon increased from 448 to 484; possession of a controlled substance from 464 to 480; and possession of alcohol from 50 to 95.
A breakdown of the numbers by individual schools and learning communities was not immediately available. A schools spokesperson said district officials are still compiling those numbers.
Only one category of reportable offenses saw any significant decline: possession of a firearm, which fell from 17 the previous year to four during the 2008-09 school year. The decline, however, can be a double-edged sword: When the number of reported firearm cases increases, school officials take credit for recovering more guns; conversely, when the number declines, it could mean those same officials are letting more guns slip unnoticed into the classroom.
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