The WW-P school district reported 72 incidents of harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) during the 2011-’12 school year, according to statistics released by the state Department of Education on October 2.
In accordance with the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act signed into law by Governor Chris Christie in 2010, 2011-’12 was the first school year in which HIB cases were recorded in addition to incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse. HIB incidents made up the majority of the 115 total incidents, which also included 10 acts of violence, nine cases of vandalism, two weapons issues, and 22 substance-related problems.
Incidents were concentrated at the middle and high school levels. Of 39 total cases of violence or HIB at the middle school level, 25 were at Grover and 14 were at Community. High School North, with 23 incidents, had roughly twice as many with High School South, with 11. Among the elementary schools, Dutch Neck and Millstone each reported two incidents, Village had five.
All vandalism, substance, and weapons cases took place at the high school level. High School North had eight vandalism cases and 12 substance cases; South had one vandalism case, two weapons cases, and 10 substance cases.
In both reporting periods for the 2011-’12 year, there were more offenders than victims, implying that the same students were victimized multiple times or by multiple people. From September through December, 2011, there were 63 offenders and 40 victims; from January through June, 2012, there were 69 offenders and 31 victims.
The most commons punishments were detentions and suspensions. District-wide, 41 detentions were given. In the middle schools, Grover issued eight in-school suspensions and Community issued five. High School North had 33 out-of-school suspensions while South had seven.
With 115 incidents and a total enrollment of 9,797 students, WW-P had fewer incidents per student than the neighboring Princeton Regional district, which had 73 incidents among its 3,294 students. The Robbinsville district had a lower rate yet, with 25 incidents among 2,853 students.
