Officials tackling violence on campus

By Daniel Wolowicz
danielw@theacorn.com

Although recent media attention suggests otherwise, violence on school campuses has hit a 10-year low, experts say. For the most part, local students are safe when they go to class in the morning, but the fighting, bullying and sexual assaults on campus remain hot-button topics for parents and school administrators.

To be sure, Las Virgenes and Conejo Valley Unified school districts have had their share of problem students.

One local expert says the key to solving school violence may rest with the students themselves.

Currently, the Las Virgenes Unified School District faces a sexual assault lawsuit alleging that administration officials failed to protect a special education student who had been sexually abused by another student for over 14 months. The incident took place at Agoura High School

The lawsuit comes on the heels of the district's $25,000 settlement last year with former Agoura high student Alison Goller, who claimed school officials did little to punish the students who had bullied and harassed her in 2000.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District has been hit with litigation, too. Parents of a student with Down Syndrome are suing the district after a school bus driver was convicted for sexually assaulting their daughter in 2004.

To help curb the inappropriate campus-related behavior, Las Virgenes officials have created two new dean of students positions at A.C. Stelle and Lindero Canyon middle schools. Las Virgenes and other school districts also have formed task forces to look at the bullying problem.

But according to Ron Avi Astor, a professor of education and social work at USC and author of the new book "School Violence in Context: Culture, Neighborhood, Family, School and Gender," many school administrators aren't using one of the most effective tools available in curbing school violence.

Astor, a Calabasas resident, said schools would benefit greatly by using comprehensive surveys to poll students about the types of violence they've witnessed in their school. The survey results should be put into the hands of the parents and surrounding community members, Astor said.

"Students, teachers, parents, even the local government needs to know what's going on in schools, Astor said. "Then we can start effectively treating the problem."

International approach

Between 1998 and 2003, Astor and co-author Rami Benbenishty collected data on school violence from schools throughout Israel. The two surveyed over 51,000 people regarding weapons in schools, risky behaviors and school violence in general.

The two then compared their findings to similar data collected in the U.S., including schools throughout Southern California. The study confirmed that Israeli schools reported nearly twice the violence as schools in California, but Astor also noted that, "when all forms of victimization- verbal-social, threats and physical violence- are rank-ordered, overall patterns are extremely similar across gender, ethnicity, culture, age and within and between countries."

He said the pattern proves that the social climate within a school- no matter what country it is in- is the single most important factor in determining school violence.

Astor said school violence programs in the U.S. single out the bullies, but don't address the rest of the student body, which has a moral obligation to help stop school violence.

In addition, the survey showed that districts dealing with school violence at the elementary school level had lower instances of violence in the middle and high schools.

As a general rule, school violence decreases with age. But acts of violence in high schools are said to be more dangerous and more lethal.

Ventura Unified School District, for example, is currently deciding what to do with five members of the Ventura High School football team who allegedly beat up a Buena High School student, breaking his nose and eye socket. The fight took place earlier this month.

Comprehensive survey

Astor said a comprehensive, campus-wide survey is an invaluable tool in assessing a school's social climate. It allows administrators to predict the propensity for violence. This information helps administrators understand the specific types of violence that students must deal with at their particular school site. It also gives school officials the chance to track trends in campus violence and decide whether anti-violence campaigns are really making a difference at their school.

Astor acknowledges that all California schools administer the Healthy Kids Survey as part of the nationwide No Child Left Behind legislation. But he says the Healthy Kids Survey, which covers drugs, violence, crime and both physical and mental health issues, is inadequate because it only asks a handful questions about school violence.

Astor said students need to answer questionnaires like the one developed by Mike Furlong, a professor and program leader in the counseling, clinical, and school psychology program at UC-Santa Barbara. Furlong's questionnaire, the California School Climate and Safety Survey, is an extensive list of questions geared to find out what's happening on campuses across California.

A similar version of Furlong's survey was used by Astor for his research in Israel.

Furlong said he does not know of any schools in Ventura County that take his survey.

Astor believes the survey should also include a map of the school. A map would allow students to write down where and when they witnessed school violence on the campus.

Astor blamed school administrators for sometimes keeping the results of surveys on violence hidden from public view. They do this, Astor believes, to protect the school's image.

Dangers of misinterpretation

Administrators at various schools in the Conejo Valley say they would be more than willing to have their students participate in comprehensive surveys about school violence. They are also open to sharing their results with the parents. But administrators say the information they share must contain high-quality data. Laurel Ford, principal at Medea Creek Middle School, said she and her staff conduct student surveys about school violence, but said the data can come back skewed because of the way students interpret the questions.

"Sixth graders read questions differently than seventh or eighth-grade students," Ford said. "It changed the information we were getting back, which, in turn, made it of little value to send out to parents. We didn't want to send out bad data."

Erin Powell, the new assistant principal for A.C. Stelle middle school, said misinterpreted answers can make a survey ineffective.

"There was a survey that asked kids if they had seen a gun on campus," Powell said.

"And an overwhelming number of them responded 'yes.' When we went back to ask where they had seen a gun, they said they saw an armed police officer or security guard on campus with one. Obviously, that totally changed the context of the information we were getting back."

Ford said all of her surveys, whether written by the school's administration or by the state, continually show that her students feel safe on the Oak Park campus.

"But you can always be better," said Ford, whose school offers a seventh- and eighth-grade peer assistance class and continues to work on strategies with her counselors to improve school safety.

Sharing information

Lynn McCormack, principal at Oak Park High School, advocates the sharing of information. McCormack includes the results from the Healthy Kids Survey in her school's newsletter which goes out to parents, staff and students.

"This is not something we can do alone," McCormack said.

"But a problem you run into with [surveys] is the subject matter is so dark that some of these issues just don't come out."

As part of her school's anti-violence program, McCormack said she personally goes to each classroom with her counselors and assistant principals to discuss the various programs the high school makes available to help students deal with violence.

Longtime Calabasas High School Principal Jay Guidetti said it's imperative to be open with parents about problems on campus.

"I don't try to bury anything," Guidetti said. "If we have an issue on campus, I want people to know about it so we can come together and deal with it."

Guidetti said he supports a quality survey that would help his staff better understand issues on his campus, but he feels it needs to be the district that drives the issue.

"This cannot happen on a school-to-school basis," Guidetti said. "This is something that needs to become part of the action plan for the district in the next five years."

Possible solution

Astor, who is part of the task force investigating school violence within Los Angeles Unified School District, knows the answer to school violence will not come overnight.

He does hope, however, that his book will encourage more administrators to consider using the comprehensive surveys to understand school violence on their campuses. Astor said he is open to meeting with local administrators to share with them some of the surveys that he has found to be successful.

For more information about Ron Astor's book visit the Oxford University Press website at www.oup.com.