VIOLENT CRIME DOWN, DRUG USE UP IN GUILFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS

Drug use among Guilford County Schools students increased nearly 50 percent
during the 2001-02, according to an annual district crime report.

Violent crimes decreased during the same period, however, continuing a
trend toward safer schools.

School crime declined or stayed roughly the same in every category except
possession of a controlled substance, which jumped from 93 incidents in
2000-01 to 138 incidents last year. Bob Bateman, the district's director of
school safety, said in almost every case, a student was caught with a small
amount of marijuana.

"It looks like marijuana is back strong," Bateman said.

Overall, the district's crime rate climbed 23 percent, from 286 incidents
in 2000-01 to 353 incidents in 2001-02.

The rise in school crime reverses a recent trend of falling crime rates.
School crime fell 7 percent in 00-01, 8 percent in 1999-2000 and 24 percent
in 1998-99.

But this year's increase is somewhat misleading because the state added
three new categories to the school crime report: bomb threats, possession
of alcohol and burning a school building. Those incidents had not been
counted on previous years' reports and when those categories are excluded,
the district's crime rate rose 8 percent.

In the three new categories, the district reported 24 bomb threats, 19
incidents of possession of alcohol, and two cases of setting fire to school
buildings.

Violent crime categories like assault on school staff, possession of
weapons and robbery continue to decline. Bateman credited the district's 27
school resource officers -- uniformed police officers and sheriff's
deputies stationed on middle and high school campuses -- for much of the
progress.

Last month, the Guilford County Board of Education rejected a proposal by
Superintendent Terry Grier to cut five school resource officer positions.
Grier's proposal, which would have saved the district $324,000, was part of
a package of job cuts designed to balance the district's budget.

But board members said the school resource officers were too valuable to
lose and said parents want them in the schools.

Statistics support the claim that the officers have curbed school crime.
Since 1994-95, the first year officers were placed in the schools, the
total number of incidents has dropped from 702 to 353.

Violent crime categories have dropped even more dramatically. In 1994-95,
the district had 101 unarmed robberies, 43 sexual offenses and 26 cases of
students bringing guns to school. The district reported two incidents in
each category last year.

Bateman said schools have gotten tougher on crime in the past decade.
Incidents that once would have been treated as school rules violations and
handled by principals now are considered crimes and turned over to law
enforcement officers, he said.

"You have to treat crime as crime," Bateman said. "Schools should be the
safest place a child ever goes."

The 1993 Safe Schools Act required North Carolina's school systems to start
collecting crime data. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
will compile reports from all 117 school systems into a statewide school
crime report, which will be released later this year.