Heights Schools Show Decreases in Violence Report

Numbers continue to decline in the areas of vandalism and violence from year to year in Hasbrouck Heights schools according to the state Violence and Vandalism Report released last week for the 2011-2012 school year.

The results of the state Department of survey for school districts across New Jersey showed statewide, the total number of reported incidents is up about 50% from 17,386 in 2010-11 to 26,139 in 2011-12, the report said. The state attributed the increase to better reporting mechanisms, as 2011-12 was the .

The chart below shows how incidents the areas of violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse continue to decrease over the past few years. It also reflects the 46 HIB incidents which Hasbrouck Heights has previously reported for the 2011-2012 school year.

The second chart below shows how Hasbrouck Heights district compares to area districts when it comes to  violence, vandalism and HIB incidents. For example, Garfield has higher numbers than Hasbrouck Heights across the board including 68 HIB incidents and Wood-Ridge has substantially less incidents reported.

According to the release from the DOE Hasbrouck Heights is right in line with statewide trends that show that the reported numbers of assaults, fights and criminal threats decreased from the 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 school years.

Statewide vandalism has declined by approximately 14.4 percent over a three-year period, according to the DOE.

Statewide in the weapons category, reported firearms incidents (handguns and rifles) increased from five incidents reported in 2009-10 to nine in 2011-12. Weapons incidents in Hasbrouck Heights have been reported as either 1 or 0 over the past four years.

According to the state in the substance category statewide, the number of incidents of possession of substances increased by 149, or approximately 15 percent from 9995 in 2009-10 to 1,144 in 2011-12. Marijuana accounts for the majority (67.9 percent) of the total number of substance incidents reported in 2011-12, and the number of incidents involving marijuana decreased from 2,543 in 2010-11 to 2472 in 2011-12, or a decrease of approximately 2.8 percent.

Hasbrouck Heights had no more than 2 incidents under the substance category over the past four years.

See the complete set of data here.