1997 reducing school violence implementation report

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JACKSONVILLE COMMUNITY COUNCIL INC.Atlantic Boulevard, Suite 100Jacksonville, FL 32207

396-3052 Fax (904) 398-1469

Reducing Violence in Jacksonville SchoolsFinal Implementation Report

Presented to the JCCI80ard June 20, 1997

Reducing Violence in Jacksonville Schools documents a large and complex problem.Increased violence in our school system is a reflection of a larger issue-an increasingly violentsociety. Schools do not develop violent students; rather, students bring violent aspects of oursociety and their home lives into the school environment. Therefore, the recommendationsdeveloped by the study committee address not only the school system, but also many othersegments of our community. In addition, both the initial report and our implementation effortssuggest that complex solutions need to be in place for a period of time before benefits can berealized.Although the Implementation Task Force feels optimistic about the community's current statuson a number of the study's recommendations, data that specifically show a decrease in thenumber of violent incidents in Duval County Public Schools do not exist. This can beexpected, however, due to the long-term nature of this problem and its solutions.A brief analysis of data since the 1988-89 school year depicts mixed and inconclusive results,although a basic pattern can be discerned. The data and a graphic representation of the dataare attached to this report as Appendix A. The data represent the rate of violent incidents per100 students in 14 of 22 Duval County middle schools. These schools were selected becausethey had the highest rates of violent incidents at the time of the study.Much of what the study recommended has been started, although it is too early to see theimpact of these solutions. The implementation of the Duval County School Board's currenthealth education curriculum, which begins teaching conflict resolution principles and skills inelementary school, is one key to success. The recent report of the School Board's StudentBehavior/Discipline Task Force underscores the significance of the findings andrecommendations of our study. Other encouraging community efforts include the developmentof the Comprehensive Strategy, Success by 18, and Healthy Families Jacksonville.This report summarizes the status of each of the study's 24 recommendations, which addressviolence prevention, parenting, community involvement/awareness, school discipline, andschool security.

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Implementation Analysis

One key problem that affected the implementation of many of the study issues is the thornyissue of district office leadership versus the notion of decentralized control. On many of thisstudy's issues, the district office explained that decentralization would not permit them to takethe lead as our recommendations urged them to do. However, the Implementation Task Forcemembers were not convinced that a necessary conflict exists between vision and guidelinesdeveloped by the district office and decentralized school management. Unfortunately for theImplementation Task Force, this lack of district leadership meant dealing with approximately140 principals and School Advisory Committee Chairs. This limited the ability to obtaininformation and to lobby for implementation.While the decentralization issue particularly affected recommendations 1, 8, 17,21, and 23, itslargest impact was to the first recommendation because the study committee viewed thisrecommendation as key to the implementation of the others.The financial issue is closely related to the decentralization issue because individual principalschoose where to spend certain scarce resources. This is of particular importance to theimplementation of recommendations 16 and 19 which urged in-school suspension programsand additional counselors.The following is an itemized analysis of each of the study's 24 recommendations grouped bythe level of success: nine recommendations that have not been implemented are describedbelow, eight recommendations that are partially implemented begin on page 5, and sevenrecommendations that have been fully implemented begin on page 8.

Not ImplementedAnalysis of why these recommendations were not implemented points to the common themesof the School Board's decentralized management and lack of funding.Recommendation #1The Duval County Public School administration should develop a strategic plan for reducingviolence in the schools that includes guidelines for individual schools and targets for success.In developing the plan, administrators should include input from parents, teachers, schooladministrators, and representatives of the Department of HRS, the new Department ofJuvenile Justice, the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, the State Attorney's Office, the City ofJacksonville, the Children's Services Board, the United Way, businesses, and other youthservice providers in efforts to pool resources that exist throughout the community,The key to making the prevention plan effective is implementation at the school level. Eachschool should develop a specific plan for reducing violence, based on the school system'sguidelines and targets, and implement it. The school-based plans should involve communitymembers, such as business partners, who have a stake in individual schools.

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Once plans are implemented at each of the schools, principals should be encouraged to workwith the community to review and improve their plans continuously to ensure they are effective.Principals should file with central administrators uniform quarterly evaluations of their plans.The administration, in tum, should report annually to the School Board on how the programsare working to reduce violence in the schools.The study committee felt that this recommendation was key to addressing the level ofviolence in Duval County Schools. They felt that some elements of violence prevention--discipline, physical plant safety, and monitoring of student behavior--existed, but werenot linked. However, school system officials informed the Implementation Task Forcethat a violence prevention plan at the district level was not feasible because of thedecentralization of school management.Each school principal is responsible for the development of his or her school's plan forreducing violence. This plan must comply with the statewide Blueprint 2000 Goal Vwhich mandates that schools are safe for students and school personnel. TheImplementation Task Force reviewed each middle school's Blueprint 2000 plan for GoalV, but could not find any model plans. The SAC chairs and principals were lobbied at theschool level to implement this recommendation.

Recommendation #5Each middle school should establish before-school activities between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.when school starts. These might range from offering extracurricular classes to opening thelibrary and providing programs with volunteer assistance.Funding, transportation, and the availability of qualified school personnel make theadoption of before-school activities very difficult. While the Jacksonville Children'sCommission is funding after-school programs at each middle school in Duval County, nobefore-school activities are offered.

Recommendation #8The Duval Public School administration, in conjunction with the principals and the PTAs,should develop and provide an orientation program for parents of students entering the first,sixth, and ninth grades. The orientation should focus onmaking parents aware of theirresponsibility in reducing violence in the schools. The program should at least:

provide information to parents about the new experiences to which their children willbe exposed and how parents can help their children to adjust and stay on track inschool;

explain the Code of Conduct and emphasize to parents their responsibility inhelping administrators to maintain discipline in the school; and introduce parents to volunteer opportunities within the schools and emphasize theneed for parental involvement.

School Board system officials informed the Task Force that implementation of thisrecommendation was not feasible at the district level because of the decentralization of

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school management. The School Advisory Committee (SAC) chairs were encouraged tocreate these low-cost programs in their schools. While school system personnel couldnot tell us which schools have orientation programs, anecdotal evidence suggests thatonly a few do.

Recommendation #9The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce's Partnership for Workforce Preparation should urgebusinesses to promote parental involvement in schools and provide working parents withflexible work hours or leave during the day so that they may participate in school activities. ThePartnership should also encourage businesses to provide substantive parenting and familyclasses for employees at the workplace during the work day.While the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce's Partnership for Workforce Preparationhas encouraged business commitment, volunteerism and partnership with Jacksonvilleschools, they have not promoted flexible work schedules or parenting and familyclasses.

Recommendation #15Principals should ensure that students disciplined for violent Class I! and Class II! offenses aregiven ample time to explain their side of an incident. Their explanations should be used toensure that students receive appropriate counseling and referrals that deter them fromrepeating similar offenses.Principals reported that students have ample time to explain their side of any incident.However, follow-up counseling is not common due, in part, to the lack of adequateschool counseling staff. (See recommendations #18 and #19)Recommendation #16The School Board should mandate and fund in-school suspension classes at every secondaryschool. These classes should involve appropriate counseling, rehabilitation, and parental-involvement components and ensure that students discuss and understand the reasons fortheir misconduct.In-school suspensions have not been added to every secondary school. The SAC chairswere encouraged to add in-school suspension programs in their schools. The recentreport of School Board's Student BehaviorlDiscipline Task Force identifies categoricalfunding of in-school suspension programs in all secondary schools as their number onerecommendation. In-school suspension programs available for elementary-schoolsstudents is their second recommendation.

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Recommendation #18The central Security Office should require school personnel to include in incident reports ofviolent Class II and Class III offenses the reason why an incident occurred, including theunderlying causes. The Security office should compile this information in a systematic way andmake it available to school officials so that they will better understand patterns of violence inthe schools and ensure that they are appropriately targeting their violence preventionprograms.Principals are not required to report the root causes of incidents. They reported that inschools where discipline problems are numerous, principals do not have the time to writesubjective information on forms.

Recommendation #19The School Board should move quickly to revise the school system's counseling program.Counseling duties should be divided so that one type of counselor provides guidance withcareers and higher education opportunities, and another focuses on students' emotionalproblems. The School Board should provide students with greater access to social workersand counselors who can address pressing problems and discuss ways to solve the problemsnon-violently.The number of school counselors has not increased due to a lack of funding allocatedfor this purpose.

Recommendation #22

The School Board should strive to limit the number of principal re-assignments to maintainmore continuity in the schools. Principals ideally should remain at a school for a length of timethat allows them to establish, implement, and evaluate violence programs and leadershipefforts, unless poor performance merits a removal.The school system did not want to limit flexibility in assigning principals.

Partially ImplementedRecommendation #2The School Board should mandate that a peer mediation program be established in everypublic school.Since 1994,19 schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) have developed a peermediation program. All Zero In on Prevention (ZIP) counselors have attended conflictresolution training.

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Recommendation #7Parent-Teacher Associations and businesses should work with community and schoolorganizations that provide parenting classes to encourage more parents or guardians to attendparenting classes. This strategy should involve local public access television stations in airingprograms on parenting. Parenting classes should be tailored to meet the diverse needs offamilies of the 1990s. They should specifically address non-violent resolution of family conflictssince family difficulties often lead youngsters to become disruptive in school. In addition, theSchool Board and businesses should provide scholarships for parents who can't afford to takethe courses.The Student Option for Success Program (50S) recommended by the School Board'sBehavior/Discipline Task Force requires that parents and students attend violenceintervention training sessions together. If implemented in the school system, thisprogram would impact parents and students in grades K-12.The Distance Learning Consortium of Northeast Florida developed three televisionprograms to teach parents conflict-resolution skills. These programs aired a total of 25times in February -May 1996 on cable television's education channel.Recommendation #11Each school should establish volunteer adult patrols that can assist teachers, administrators,and students during school hours and help supervise after-school events. The Duval PublicSchools' Community Involvement office should assist the schools in this effort in two ways:

recruiting patrol volunteers; and developing and implementing a training program to educate volunteers on how toprovide surveillance and deal with violent youngsters. Personnel from theJacksonville Sheriffs Office should be involved in the development of the training.An award-winning pilot program, called "Hawkeyes", assigns volunteer parents tomonitor the halls and interact with students at Mandarin Middle School. It was designedto keep a calm atmosphere on school grounds and help middle-school students focus onpositive behaviors. Parents volunteer four hours a week and are trained. Last year, 50parents participated.

Recommendation #12The local media, including newspapers, television, radio, and magazines, should promote"zero-tolerance" of violence in the schools and the community through the products theyalready have and through campaigns especially-developed to reach youth. They also shouldexamine their own policies regarding the display of violence in their products as well as featureinformation about alternatives to violence.Nationally) the media has implemented new television parental-guideline symbols that areintended to help parents make more informed decisions about the programs that theirchildren watch. These symbols appear in the top left hand corner of the TV screen for 15

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seconds at the beginning of every show, except sports programming. While they are astep in the right direction, these symbols do not tell if a program is unsuitable due to sexor violence or both. Currently, industry efforts are underway to improve the ratingssystem by differentiating between programming that is unsuitable due to language, sex,or violence.Local media reports the following as relates to their coverage of violent news:

The Florida Times-Union has reevaluated the extent to which violent crimestories appear as headline stories. They also presented special series ondomestic violence, juvenile crimes, and sexual assault. Channel 4 (JXT) and Channel 12 (TLV) reported that their news divisions havetried to become more sensitive to the way violence is presented in newscast.Channel 12 tries to showcase programs that serve as prevention guides. Channel 30 (FOX) runs 20 second Anti-Violence Service Announcements thatshowcase kids presenting alternatives to violence, and continues an anti-violence campaign in conjunction with the NFL.

Recommendation #17High school principals should work with student government to encourage student participationin the disciplinary process as well as student leadership in reducing violence on campuses.Such an effort might include: replicating the peer court program being implemented at Fletcher High Schoolwhich allows students first-hand experience with the justice system and teachesthem to participate in and respect the disciplinary process; adopting a leadership development program similar to the one now used at LeeHigh School; and instituting peer mediation programs to get students involved in helping their peerssolve problems non-violently.Peer courts and peer mediation programs have been introduced, but are not widespread.(See recommendation #2 above) Youth Leadership Jacksonville trains its programparticipants in conflict resolution; formal opportunities do not exist for programparticipants to train their peers.

Recommendation #21The School Board should establish a mandatory training program for principals and schooladministrators that addresses violence prevention efforts and techniques for handlingchronically disruptive students.Principals participated in a mandatory conflict resolution training in August 1994.However, school administrators have not been trained for violence prevention.

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Recommendation #23The school system's central security office should work to improve security on schoolcampuses in the following ways:

establish a comprehensive security plan with minimum requirements for eachschool that include items such as random weapons checks and responseprocedures for breach of security and crisis situations;

provide assistance to schools in developing individual security plans. These plansshould be present in all the schools and provide school personnel with instructionson what to do in cases of impending violence;

develop and implement a training program for security guards similar to the courserequired of School Resource Officers, that includes training in conflict resolution,and working with disruptive students; and

ensure that all schools have a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design(CPTED) survey of their campuses by the Fall of 1995. To complete all of thesurveys on a timely basis, the school system should use the resources of theJacksonville Sheriff's Office and any other resources it can find, including, possibly,training its own personnel in the technique. After surveys are completed, the centralsecurity office should ensure that principals implement the recommendations assoon as possible and that campus designs are monitored on an ongoing basis.

Random weapon checks are being performed at the middle school and the high schoollevels through the use of hand-held metal detectors. CPTED surveys have not beencompleted due to limited manpower to perform the surveys and a lack of funding toperform the recommendations of the survey. Security guards have not been trained.

Recommendation #24The Jacksonville City Council and the Florida Legislature should pass more effective handguncontrol measures to curb the access that youth have to guns. The Jacksonville Sheriffs Officeand the State Attorney's Office should strictly enforce existing laws designed to controlhandgun access.New legislation regarding handgun control has not been adopted. However a gun lockprogram administered by the Duval County Public Health Unit and a gun buy-backprograms administered by the State Attorneys Office and others are steps in the rightdirection.

Fullv ImplementedWhile the Implementation Task Force regrets that it cannot report the full implementation ofadditional recommendations, it is pleased that the recommendations listed below are far-reaching. Early violence-prevention lesson plans, community and police involvement at aschool and community level, and a new Code of Conduct all go a long way toward addressingthe root causes of violence and providing youth with positive role models.

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Recommendation #3The Health Education and Guidance Services offices of the Duval County Public Schoolsshould develop a comprehensive violence prevention curriculum for elementary grades. Thecurriculum should begin in the first grade and directly address:

the implications of violence on society, including an explanation of what happensafter a violent incident occurs, ie. dealing with the loss of a relative or friend or thestruggles involved in becoming disfigured or paralyzed after a violent incident; skills for dealing realistically with violence in mass communications and for choosingnon-violent television programming and video games; resolving conflicts non-violently, both in and out of school; understanding family problems to keep them from erupting in school; and avoiding and coping with domestic and gender violence.

The new health curriculum was adopted by the School Board in April 1996 and includeslesson plans on all the bullets listed in this recommendation. In grades K - 5, studentsare exposed to some of the preliminary lessons in violence prevention. For example, thecurriculum includes self-esteem and self-image building lessons as early askindergarten; grade 1 lesson plans deal with identifying positive vs. violent programs inthe media; and grade 2 students are taught both verbal and non-verbal communicationskills, human relations with peers and family members.Students begin conflict resolution training in6th grade. Over time, when these currentelementary students reach middle school, the statistics found in Appendix A shouldshow improvement.

Recommendation #4The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office should adopt a community policing program in high violenceareas that encourages youngsters to respect the law and refuse to tolerate violence in theirneighborhoods. Programs should allow youngsters to become friendly with police officersthrough recreation and neighborhood improvement activities. They should encourageneighbors to work together, especially with the youth, and teach residents to solve problemswithout violence.The Sheriff's Office has created a system of community policing with a neighborhoodfocus. The Implementation Task Force is impressed by the extent to which the Sheriff'SOffice is carrying out the philosophy of violence-prevention policing through a variety ofinitiatives.

Recommendation #6The City of Jacksonville's Children's Services Board should place an emphasis on funding andpooling resources of neighborhood programs that address the root causes of violence and thatattempt to prevent violent behavior before it reaches schools.

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The Jacksonville Children's Commission, in conjunction with the Duval County PublicHealth Unit and the Department of Children and Families, administers Healthy FamiliesJacksonville. This program has identified 900 new families that have been taughtparenting skills and early childhood development to, in part, decrease family violence.

Recommendation #10Religious organizations, and civic and community groups should urge members to volunteer inschool programs aimed at reducing violence in the schools. These groups should stress tomembers that they do not have to be parents to volunteer in the schools.The Task Force directed its implementation to reach as many of these groups aspossible through interviews, speeches and other publicity efforts. In addition to publicaffairs television and radio programming, they gave 18 presentations to religious, civic,and community groups to promote volunteerism. More than 700 people were reached.

Recommendation #13The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce's Partnership for Workforce Preparation and theDuval County Public Schools Community Involvement office should work cooperatively toencourage area businesses, including the Navy, to focus mentoring programs, adopt-a-schoolprograms, and partnership efforts first and foremost in those schools with the greatest numberof at-risk youth and the highest levels of violence.From the 1993-94 school year to the 1995-96 school year, the number of volunteers hasincreased from 19,590 to 22,565; the number of volunteer hours has increased from504,819 to 565,825; and the number of business partners has increased from 998 to1340. Most important, some of the schools with the highest level of violence, that had nobusiness partners, now have active partnerships.

Recommendation #14The School Board should authorize a revision of the Code of Conduct. It 'should include inputfrom parents, teachers, administrators and students. At least the following points should beconsidered: defining violations in more objective terms so that administrators classify violationsconsistently;

determining whether penalties, including corporal punishment, are appropriate; ensuring that the Code of Conduct places more emphasis on students'responsibility to promote non-violent conflict resolution and "zero-tolerance" ofviolence, and requiring parents of students who are suspended or expelled for violent Class II andClass III offenses to participate in appropriate parenting support programs.Once the Code is revised and adopted, the central Security office should train principals onhow to report Code of Conduct violations accurately and consistently.

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A new Code of conduct was passed and implemented. All bullets except for the last onewere included.

Recommendation #20

The School Board should continue to support and expand teacher in-service training on how torespond to chronically disruptive and violent students.Teacher in-service training for dealing with conflict has been added.

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Appendix A


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Rate of Violent Incidents in 14 Duval County Middle Schools1988-1996

Schooj ~88-8_s . ~8_9~9_Q '90~91 '91~92 '92-9_4 ~9_3~94 ~4-95 ~9~ -=S_E~Kirby Smith 1.88 1.85 3.93 4.23 2.73 1.52 1.99 4.72Landon 1.90 1.77 0.98 5.50 5.50 1.71 1.29 2.36Dupont 0.64 1.37 2.28 3.81 2.20 2.43 1.38 1.08Lake Shore 1.89 1.26 0.73 2.21 3.38 2.33 1.17 1.94Paxon 5.16 2.64 3.27 2.73 3.91 2.65 1.33 5.85Matthew Gilbert 1.96 3.50 3.71 3.54 4.01 2.43 1.64Eugene Butler 4.82 3.99 1.88 4.62 3.72 2.40 2.28 3.94Northwestern 1.35 1.60 2.07 3_22 2.65 1.28 3.70 4.63JEB Stuart 2.35 2.53 2.82 2.13 3.18 2.89 1.51 1.42Southside 1.42 2.06 2.57 2.99 2_53 2.06 1.53 1.96Ribault 0.95 1.56 2.13 1.78 1.00 1.47 1.66 0.64Jefferson Davis 2.94 2.74 1.72 3.10 2.08 2.63 1.70 3.31Stilwell 1.97 1.20 1.12 2.99 2.42 2.14 1.98 1.77Highlands 1.66 2.38 2.64 4.16 1.17 2.15 1.05 1.39County-Wide Middle School Rate*: 2.00 1.88 1.33 1.98Note: Violent incidents are those listed by Duval County Public Schools under the headings Assault, Battery, Rrearms, Robbery,Sex Offenses, and Weapons.* County-Wide Rate excludes alternat ive schools, and Baldwin, which has both middle and senior high.

Source: Duval County Public Schools


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1997 reducing school violence implementation report

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