Making schools a safe place for students comes down to developing school climate. This was the resounding message of Michael D’Ascenzo, the Moorestown Township School District’s coordinator for HIB, who kicked off the district’s annual Student Safety Data System report at last Tuesday night’s board of education meeting.
School districts are required by the state to report incidents of violence/vandalism, substance abuse, weapons offenses, incidents that lead to removal from the classroom, alleged and confirmed harassment, intimidation and bullying cases, and HIB training/programs. Moorestown High School and William Allen Middle School saw the two highest number of incidents to report from the September 2018 to June 2019 school year.
Cheri Caravano, assistant principal at WAMS, explained that WAMS saw 106 incidents during the 2018-2019 school year. Of those incidents, it saw a decrease in verbal and technology-related events, while it saw a rise in physical incidents.
She said, last October, they established a discipline committee at WAMS, which, in turn, broke down these 106 incidents to try to identify trends. They looked at gender, ethnicity, location, time of day and other facets of these incidents as they studied the data.
Caravano said the committee wanted to look further into a social probation system that would be based on points, and that system has gone into effect this school year. The points-based system also involves follow-up conferences, peer mediation and other deescalation modules.
“We’re really trying to encourage students to talk through their issues before escalating to verbal or physical [incidents],” Caravano said.
She said they’ve also established a climate and culture committee to try to make more of an effort to highlight some of the positive things students are doing.
At MHS, 40 incidents were reported for grades nine through 12. Assistant Principal Don Williams said these included six substantiated HIB cases, four unsubstantiated HIB cases, 30 incidents leading to removal from an educational setting and 2 dangerous substance violations. He explained an issue involving theft from the cafeteria serving lines led to 17 students being suspended last October. In turn, the district reconfigured the lunch lines, and students are no longer allowed to bring their backpacks in line.
Fellow assistant principal at MHS, Robert McGough, said they try to lead with a student-centered approach. He said each year they have a “Blackout for Bullying” campaign to help create awareness about bullying, they hold a week of respect, and the annual Martin Luther King Day assembly emphasizes themes of kindness. He said, each day, they try to set the tone by greeting students as they walk in the door and letting them know school is a warm and welcoming place to be.
Williams said they also have future plans in the works. He said one of the remediations he assigned to students in violation of HIB was to create a student-led anti-bullying campaign. He said, a few weeks from now, they’ll present the program, and he’s hoping it will involve public service announcements using video department. He said they’re also looking to expand their mentoring program.
“We are trying to work on making sure [students] understand they have support,” Williams said.
D’Ascenzo said for a district of Moorestown’s size, its number of overall incidents proved fairly small.
“I think our district should be really proud of our data because we’re really making positive strides over the years,” D’Ascenzo said.
The next meeting of the Moorestown Board of Education will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in William Allen Middle School. To view the district’s full SSDS report, visit www.mtps.com.
