Safety in Schools is a Numbers Game

By Josephine E. Lewis

The Board of Trustees ought to look to the research published by the National Center for Education Statistics to determine the potential for disciplinary problems and crime in a school the size of a small college. For example, big schools (generally defined as those schools educating over nine hundred students) have 885% more violent crime; 1,074% more physical fights; and 31,600% more robberies. Despite the anecdotes offered by members of the Board of Trustees which describe a safe, academically exemplary school, these numbers are scary. Is it worth the risk to our children to experiment with size when we own land on which we can build another high school? Even if the Board of Trustees is willing to play with fire, teachers and parents may not be so inclined.

Just as parents may choose to educate their children at smaller schools for safety reasons, Carlsbad's teachers may not want to teach at a huge high school either. Statistics show that teachers in large schools are five times more likely to be victims of violent crime perpetrated by students. Teachers must also find ways to protect themselves and other students from those students under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Research shows that a much higher percentage of students in large high schools engage in substance abuse.

I have heard from at least one member of the Board of Trustees that these are not necessarily problems meant to be tackled by our schools; they are more appropriately addressed by parents, faith-based organizations and other community organizations. That is a sad (and unrealistic) expectation. It is, frankly speaking, a cop out. In the ideal world we would all be the perfect parents, and our children would be fully supported by our churches and synagogues as well as our tight community that truly believes that "it takes a village" to raise a child. I am sure that some of us believe we are creating a world as close to that described above as possible. But what about the kids who don't live in this world? What about the kids whose only adult interaction is with the teachers at school? What about the socio-economically disadvantaged kids who can't play club sports, afford tutoring, or that are solely responsible for their younger siblings after school? Statistics show that the children described above perform significantly worse in large schools than they would in small schools.

The Board of Trustees must rely on research to determine how to manage the growing population of high school students in Carlsbad. It overwhelmingly points to a district which should educate its high school students in at least two separate facilities.