Study Finds County Campuses Safer Than Those Statewide

Despite occasional acts of violence, Ventura County schools remain safer than public schools statewide, according to a study released Wednesday.

The second annual statewide accounting of campus crime concluded that students in the county’s 21 school systems experienced fewer assaults--such as an attack Wednesday on a busload of Buena High School students--robberies and property crimes than their peers across California.

Ventura County students also suffered fewer sexual assaults and carried fewer guns and knives than their counterparts throughout the state, the study found.

However, local students continued to be more likely than their peers statewide to be busted for drug or alcohol offenses.

And although Ventura County campuses remained relatively safe, county schools spent more money per student last school year, compared with the year before, patching up and painting over graffiti and vandalism.

“Our schools are not yet 100% safe for our children, but we are moving closer each year,” said county schools Supt. Charles Weis about the California Department of Education’s safe-school assessment.

“Although our schools are relatively safe, we must work together to make them even safer,” he said. “I, like all parents in Ventura County, do not want my children going to school in fear.”

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Mirroring statewide trends, crimes dropped in all categories for Ventura County schools except assault with a deadly weapon.

Of the 127,000 students in the county, 479 were arrested for drug or alcohol offenses, 103 for weapons possession and 20 for assault with a deadly weapon.

County schools also experienced 491 property crimes last school year, costing $208,251 in repairs.

Although school officials lauded the results of the statewide study, they cautioned that the numbers might not tell the whole story.

In the Conejo Valley Unified School District, for example, assault with a deadly weapon rose 60% last school year compared to the 1995-96 school year. But there were only three such assaults last year. And though each attack is important, district officials said the percentage increase does not reflect a surge in criminal activity.

“They don’t mean a terrible lot,” said Rich Simpson, assistant superintendent for the Conejo Valley district. “If you see a huge percentage increase and say, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ What you might really be seeing is that a crime went from zero to three.”

When analyzing the pages and pages of numbers, Simpson said he homes in on a few figures. He compares Conejo Valley to other districts in the county, to other urban unified school districts and to the state as a whole.

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On those three levels, the Conejo district is a safe place for students to go to school.

“Sometimes I wonder about the value of all of this,” Simpson said. “But the numbers can be a useful tool.”

In Simi Valley, school officials are also wary of the numbers.

Last year, for example, the Simi Valley district misreported battery crimes, accidentally including in that category a number of first-graders involved in shoving matches.

“The numbers are informative and interesting if everybody reports in the same way,” said Dennis Carter, in charge of expulsions for the Simi Valley school district.

But he wondered whether the numbers were in any way statistically significant.

“Do these numbers really matter out of 19,000 kids?” he said.

In the Oxnard Elementary School District, crime was down in several categories, including drug and alcohol offenses, sexual assaults and weapons possession.

Assistant Supt. Sandra Herrera said that reflects a decline that is continuing this year.

“It’s really the result of a lot of effort,” Herrera said. “There’s a lot of intervention going on in the schools and I think that’s showing. We have spent a lot of staff time and in-service time on how to work with students, and I think that is bearing fruit.”

State officials said that even though the report shows much work is needed to make schools safer, they are pleased with what the numbers revealed.

Compared to the 1995-96 school year, crime was down in all but two reporting categories--assault with a deadly weapon and sex offenses. The largest decreases, in terms of percentages, were for weapons possession and for robbery and extortion.

“We’re still not where we want to be,” said Doug Stone, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. “We want to issue a report where there are no property crimes, drug or alcohol offenses and crimes against individuals. But what the report shows by and large is that our schools tend to be safe havens for our children and in some areas they’re probably the safest place in the community.”

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Correspondent Regina Hong also contributed to this story.

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Campus Crimes

The second year of a state study on school safety shows that Ventura County schools overall are safer than schools statewide and registered fewer crimes per student than a year earlier. The study calculated crime rates per 1,000 students.

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VENTURA COUNTY CALIFORNIA CRIMES 95-96 96-97 95-96 96-97 Drug/alcohol offense 5.01 3.76 3.77 3.54 Battery 6.98 1.33 3.31 3.09 Assault with deadly weapon .10 .16 .35 .41 Homicide .00 .00 .00 .00 Robbery/ extortion .09 .06 .27 .23 Sex offenses .27 .11 .16 .18 Possession of weapon 1.29 .78 1.22 1.10 Property crimes 4.7 3.85 4.96 4.58

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Source: State Department of Education