What’s really happening in our schools? Part 2: Violence

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) -Scenes of students brawling in the hallways of local schools appearing on social media or newscasts are a major cause of increased concern. Parents rightly worry about their kids’ safety and ability to learn in the environment they depict, but lacking context they may not tell the whole story.

That’s why we went to the source, the raw data, examining a list of all arrests for violent behavior by Washoe County School Police at high schools and middle schools in the last year and a half.

It’s alarming seeing it listed line after line, page by page.

ARRESTS FOR VIOLENCE IN LOCAL SCHOOLS AUG 2021 TO FEB 2023

BATTERY-MISDEMEANOR 301

BATTERY- FELONY 13

ASSAULT-MISDEMEANOR 9

ASSAULT-FELONY 10

RIOT 9

ROUT 11

AFFRAY 7

FIGHT OR CHALLENGE 12

ROBBERY 4

BOMB THREAT 3

SEXUAL ASSAULT 2

ARSON 3

DRAWING WEAPON AS THREAT 2

EXTORTION BY THREAT 1

POISONING FOOD/WATER 1

There are some serious crimes here: felony assaults, robberies, and sexual assault. But by far the most common arrests, more than three quarters, were for misdemeanor batteries, fights. These figures do not include, by the way, even more minor infractions like unruly behavior or disturbing the peace.

And those more serious crimes? They make up 14 percent of the total.

That, of course, is 14 percent too many, but if we’re honest there’s nothing on that list that we and our kids don’t see or hear about in the world beyond the school grounds every day. The world. Its mass and social media has become more violent.

“The school’s not like a magic barrier that’s going to keep out the problems of the community, “ said WCSD Police Chef Jason Trevino. “The problems the kids are facing out in the community, the problems they’re facing at home, they don’t leave those things at the front door. They bring all those things with them.”

Individual incidents can have specific flash points. For instance, it’s widely believed that the root cause of these fights that began the school year at Hug High School was new zoning that put rival youth gangs in the same school for the first time.

That may be true, but the chief says mixing new groups of kids together is volatile in any case.

“All of a sudden they’ve been split up and now some kids are going here, some kids are going there. Their friends have been split up. Maybe some of their friends are staying at the school they used to be at, whereas other portions of a group are going to a new school. So yeah, of course it’s going to cause disruption.”

The same factors seem to fuel a rise in vandalism. We’ll examine that issue Thursday.

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