Schools see slight increase in crime

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT-MESA -- The school district experienced a slight increase in

crime for the 2000-01 school year, according to a report released

Thursday by the California Department of Education.

The largest increase on Newport-Mesa Unified School District campuses

-- as in districts statewide -- was for battery. Newport-Mesa reported

3.19 incidents per 1,000 students, as compared with 1.54 incidents the

previous year.

The only decrease was in property crimes, which dropped from 4.26

incidents per 1,000 students to 2.95 incidents.

Supt. Rob Barbot said he was not dismayed by the increases, saying the

district has intensified its efforts to identify and report intimidating

and criminal behavior.

“When we put more assistant principals, more resource counselors and

trained our staff more intensively, we expected that we would identify

more [crimes],” Barbot said. “I’m surprised it wasn’t higher.”

Barbot said the district took painstaking efforts to fill in the gaps

in making schools safer after a student was choked at Corona del Mar High

School in May 2000.

The shortcomings, he explained, were attacked on many fronts: more

training of administrators, more counselors and assistant principals

brought in, school resource officers from the Newport Beach and Costa

Mesa police departments deployed on high school campuses, an

anti-bullying policy adopted last fall and character education

highlighted in the curriculum to emphasize positive behavior choices.

And the efforts are paying off, Barbot said

“The one thing that tells me that it’s working really well is we’ve

seen a drop in our property abuse and vandalism, so people know they’re

being watched,” he said.

District officials will now analyze the data -- looking beyond the

numbers to the specific crimes themselves and what schools they occurred

at. A gang task force composed of officials from both district cities

will also be examining the data.

Barbot said one of the major district safety goals is to increase

attention to students’ behavior and drug use and make sure they’re not

ignored.

“We want to make sure that no one is looking past an issue,” Barbot

said.