THREE VALLEY SCHOOLS ON LIST OF MOST DANGEROUS

McALLEN - Almost 5,000 Rio Grande Valley high schoolers will begin
the new school year at campuses rated "persistently dangerous" by
the state education agency.

Jimmy Carter High School in the La Joya school district and Todd
Ninth Grade campus and Donna High School in the Donna district
received the "dangerous" designation this year from the Texas
Education Association.

The three campuses are among just five statewide to be rated as
such. This is Todd's second year on the TEA list.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires states to develop
criteria that measure safety in schools. The law allows students at
those campuses rated persistently dangerous to transfer.

In Texas, a school receives the dangerous rating if, for three years
running, it has reported expelling three or more students per 1,000
for any of the following: felony-level drug or alcohol offenses;
possession or use of a firearm, club or weapons; murder or attempted
murder, arson, aggravated kidnapping or assault; sexual assault or
aggravated sexual assault.

Donna and La Joya school district officials said their schools'
ratings disappointed them but maintained they believe students at
the three campuses are fundamentally safe. They also criticized the
criteria involved in the rankings.

The districts were unable to provide on short notice documents
detailing the number and type of incidents reported to the state but
said felony-level drug and alcohol violations accounted for the vast
majority of reported offenses.

Donna Superintendent Joe D. Gonzalez said the rating used outdated
information -- the latest is from the '04-'05 school year -- that
doesn't reflect the results of stepped-up security efforts. During
the '05-'06 school year neither campus had more than two incidents
that would qualify it as dangerous, he said.

"It's an inherent problem with them because you're dealing with
things that happened three, four years ago," he said. "But I've
corrected all of that. I know that that's going to be history for Donna."

La Joya school district police chief Raul Gonzalez called Carter
High School's placement on the list largely a result of vigilance in
monitoring campuses for drugs.

Random drug dog searches and placing three police officers and five
security officers at Carter has resulted in a high number of
arrests, Gonzalez said. But, viewed in a more positive light, the
arrests can be seen as inhibiting other crimes associated with
drug use, he said. The district reported no other incidents such as
aggravated assault, he said.

"We haven't been designated as a dangerous or a persistently
dangerous school because of guns and knives and violence. It's
because of the drugs," Gonzalez said.

"The staff was a little disappointed," he added. "They saw it as a
double-edged sword. You're doing your job, you're trying to keep
your school clean from drugs and at the same time you're being
punished" with the rating.

La Joya's two other high schools did not receive the rating.
Gonzalez, whom the district designated as its spokesman on the
issue, said La Joya must now develop examine how and why Carter had
more felony-level drug arrests than Juarez-Lincoln High School or
the senior high school.

The district also plans to step up anti-drug education campaigns at
the middle and elementary school level, he said.

Carter High School Principal Mary Ann Contreras declined to comment.

Statewide, the two other schools that received the dangerous
designation included a high school in the Cypress-Fairbanks district
outside Houston and one in the United school district in Laredo.