GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Principal William Jusino of Progress High School at the NYCLU press conference. (GothamSchools)

Many city schools rely on metal detectors, security guards, and zero-tolerance policies to keep discipline under control. They don’t have to, according to a new report about alternate strategies to keep schools safe.

The report, produced by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, highlights six city high schools that stop problems before they start, help students resolve their own disputes, and keep police out of all but the most serious incidents. The schools range in size and how students are admitted, but they all post higher-than-average graduation rates, the report says.

“There is no cookie-cutter solution” to replicating the gentler approach to discipline, said NYCLU policy director Udi Ofer at a press conference today. But he said getting rid of metal detectors, currently in place at about 130 city schools, is a good place to start. (more…)

Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Education have been very on-message about whether schools are getting safer under their watch (yes), but there is one kind of crime that hasn’t been dropping over the years: grand larceny, or the theft of objects valued at over $1,000. 

The New York Post noted a jump in 2007, and now, we see this tucked into a newsletter that went out to teachers union leaders last Friday:

Grand larceny thefts (over $1,000) have increased 173 percent over last year, and the theft of laptops is up 191 percent. Forty-one percent of the property stolen belonged to UFT members.

The easy math says that means 59% of stolen property was owned by students and schools. Stolen laptop computers may be driving this trend.

I still have to hear from NYPD to see if their figures jive.

A DOE spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, said she could not confirm the figures. But she said, “Crime in general is down in schools.”