Ohio’s school violence, absenteeism decline

A student in Cleveland shot two teachers and two
classmates last month.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Schools around Ohio are seeing less overall violence and truancy, but the number of incidents related to guns and explosives has remained steady over the past six years.

The state’s 614 school districts reported 80,000 cases of fighting and violence during the last school year, down 10 percent from the year before.

Truancy fell 21 percent to about 55,000 cases last year. Cases involving firearms and explosives have been holding steady at about 5,000 a year since 2001.

“The numbers are still unacceptable,” said Mitchell Chester, senior associate superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education.

Stopping school violence has taken on an even higher priority after a high school student in Cleveland shot and wounded two teachers and two classmates a month ago.

The shooter, 14-year-old Asa Coon, had been suspended for fighting and warned classmates of an attack, but none took him seriously, students at the school said.

In response, the state said it will give $2.5 million to Cleveland schools to add metal detectors in about 100 schools.

On Monday, the state’s Board of Education began talking about what else can be done to prevent classroom violence and how to deal with trouble if it happens.

The board’s members want the education department to come up with some detailed ideas that they could put in place with approval from the state Legislature.

Policies now in place aren’t good enough, said Mary Lou Rush, who leads the education department’s Center for Students, Families and Communities.

Ohio law requires schools to have an emergency plan, but they aren’t forced to practice it like a fire or tornado drill.

“If they don’t practice the plans, there will be chaos,” she said.

Schools also need to better deal with students who are suspended or expelled, because sending them home generally solves nothing, she said.

One board member, Stephen Millett of Columbus, suggested that schools should rely on surveillance cameras and uniformed officers and plainclothes police much like companies use.