The Times and Democrat - MONDAY'S EDITORIAL

THE ISSUE: School violence

OUR OPINION: Accurate reporting is essential to solving problems from school to school

Incidents of school violence are before the country in a major way. As the killings in Pennsylvania this past week show, violence can come from without as well as within. Terror takes on many forms.

Even before incidents elsewhere, South Carolina found itself again in the middle of a debate about school violence. Incidents at a Lexington County high school, including a stabbing, grabbed headlines and prompted an exchange between the two candidates vying to head the S.C. Department of Education.

Republican Karen Floyd, a former prosecutor, sees addressing school violence as a top issue. She puts it ahead of worries about test scores and drop-out rates, stating that security in the schools is priority one.

Floyd professes to have a comprehensive plan to deter violent school behavior. It includes strengthening attendance requirements, encouraging student activities to keep them from violent or criminal behavior, gaining and retaining the best teachers, including increasing the number of males and minority teachers, focusing on reading instruction, using video cameras in classrooms, linking classroom behavior to a student’s driving privileges and placing emphasis on early intervention.

Her opponent, Democrat Jim Rex, a former college president, countered Floyd during a recent debate by saying he fears her policies of zero tolerance “can turn into zero success” for some children, primarily forcing young men who need school the most out on the street.

While also advocating zero-tolerance, Floyd said days earlier in Orangeburg that “all of the research shows” that schools are among “the safest places in America.” The problems are “a small percentage of very disruptive students” and teachers with weak classroom management skills.

“You can’t teach if you don’t have a classroom that has discipline,” he said. Schools need to have “alternative situations for children who cannot or choose not to behave in the classroom.”

Rex wants more training for teachers in classroom management to help them deal with discipline. He also thinks early intervention in elementary school is a better approach than harsh punishment in later years.

Neither candidate’s approach is revolutionary, and both are short on specifics. The cost of technology for security clearly would be an issue, and just how far teacher training can go in reducing the level of violence among some students in this day and time is unclear.

What is certain is the need for real information. Despite requirements for reporting school crime, the standards for how incidents are handled differ from school district to school district and even school to school.

Some schools have gone the route of reporting virtually every incident of violence to police, which means the institution will find itself ranked high in school violence and have everyone from parents to pupils believing something is badly wrong. Other schools attempt to report nothing, trying to deal with all incidents in-house, even to the point of prompting parental complaints about why no action was taken in certain instances. Those schools appear to have little problem with violence when in fact their problems may be among the worst, just hidden until something too major to cloak occurs.

While he offers few specifics on what he’d do about school violence, the Libertarian seeking the superintendent of education job makes a key point. It cuts to the root of the issue.

Tim Moultrie advocates “the ability to respond with truth regarding school violence, without fear of administrative backlash. Every teacher should be able to call 911 without fearing for their job or worrying about district ’appearances’ and expect that the government agencies charged with addressing crime, the police, will come to their aid.

“It is not rocket science. As a society, we should treat violent criminals like violent criminals. With three short strokes of a finger, a teacher can dial 911 and the consequences for violent behavior will be swift and sure.”

Moultrie is a long-shot candidate to win the job, but no matter whether it is Republican or Democrat succeeding Inez Tenenbaum, knowing the truth about school violence is essential. Standards for reporting incidents and dealing with them are the same. From the education establishment to parents and public, getting an accurate picture of what is taking place inside schools is a top priority.

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