Surf City schools are safe

Mike Sciacca

Schools in Huntington Beach are relatively safe havens for students,

according to a report released by the California Department of Education.

The California Safe Schools Assessment reports that schools in Orange

County are safer, on average, than schools statewide although there has

been a jump in the number of cases of battery, drug and alcohol offenses

and weapons offenses.

Huntington Beach schools in all three districts had low crime rates

compared to Orange County numbers.

Crimes are broken down into seven categories -- drug and alcohol

offenses, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and extortion,

sex offenses, weapons possession and property crimes.

There were no reported cases of robbery in the three districts and one

case of sexual offense in each district.

Over the past three years, crime rates have dropped or remained nearly

the same in each of the seven categories at each of the three local

school districts.

There were some numbers that were a bit too high for comfort.

In Huntington Beach Union High School District there were 94 reported

cases of drug and alcohol related offenses, which meant that it ranked

fourth highest among county school districts. However, that average is

down from last year’s report. In addition, the district reported 88 cases

of property crimes, which also ranked fourth among county districts.

John Myers, assistant superintendent of education services for

Huntington Beach Union High School District, said that although property

crimes rose within the district last year, district crime rates, overall,

continue to show improvement.

He noted that a Breathalyzer test is used at all school events and is

used as a deterrent. A student does not have to be intoxicated to be

found guilty, either, he said -- if alcohol is found on the breath, the

student is guilty of the crime.

Drug and alcohol offenses, weapons possessions and sex offenses are

always reported to the police, but cases of battery, robbery and

extortion and vandalism are reported if a school’s principal deems it

reportable.

In addition, the crime of battery does include bullying but not

fighting, and sexual harassment is not reported as a sex crime.

The California Safe Schools Assessment has been the annual crime

report for schools districts since 1995.

BOX

Below are the number of individual crimes reported in 2000-01 in the

Huntington Beach City, Huntington Beach Union High and Ocean View school

districts.

Ocean View School District: 9,916, enrollment

Huntington Beach City School District: 6,842, enrollment

Huntington Beach Union School District: 14,359, enrollment

Ocean View HB City HB Union

Drug/alcohol 9 4 94

Battery 6 38 37

Assault 0 2 5

Robbery 0 0 0

Sex offenses 1 1 1

Weapons 2 4 18

Property crimes 24 1 88