NB THE BATTAL Ration HE BATTALION 1A Schools safe, threats remain no re heli By Ben Feller THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Only 52 the nation’s 91,000 public drools are labeled persistently angerous by their states, findings hat allow students in those few hools to transfer to safer places ut deny a similar option for tens f millions of other children. Feeling unsafe While violent crimes at schools are decreasing overall, students say they don’t feel secure as weapons use and threats increase. Students grade nine through 12 who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property I The lack of a label does not Lean a school is without crime, but rather that there is not YEAR 2001 PERCENT 8.9 Lough to merit the designation. 1999 7.7 [There were nearly 700,000 vio 1997 7.4 lent crimes in America’s schools 1995 8.4 in 2000, the last year for which government numbers were 1993 7.3 Huy Nguyin • KRT CAM? i: reshmon Jen Morhoos f> stressed freshmen. then must get up fori reading, plus there: one big sleepover. >ple are coming in : needed to do motet ress. said Linda Sau of education at ik ia at Los Angeles. Sa iurvey of freshmen - students from aboutJf students' sense of ero ined through the M :d to pay more attenw >gical well-being ami :>t to turn to the campus They tend not to use ■s. They turn totlieir hose friends can some- gat ive.” isement the United States, a sharp attack, he said :nt months Democratic o once supported Bush d company “not 'resident, but with tk behind the war enter ic of that shift, the dif- stween the two mies are now starkei ye been in at least : Democrats, he sai dieve we are even! icrefore do not belie* be fighting one in thf e. ... Even if wo ge that every presid y forces the party r ideological bases 'eurocrat leaders rossed a line and no# ice their hostile, b :me.” 50-$1000/mo quirements: ’ hours/wk., PC, ice-Mail, E-mail fl clint®hotmail.com (A L STUFF NTED! t® is a new retail Stort 1 sells gently used, braid nd young adult apparfl| ies! We’re stocking uf store in College Station Square. We’re lookinj :d, brand name clothing ies and more. Sell t# aching, outwear, shoeii es and get paid on thf all items acceptefl rls size 14 to Junior si# size 14 to 38 waist st be in good conditio 11 tyle. >w Buying! ntment necessary. AT®S CLOSET A Harvey Rd. ration, TX 77840 >) 694-8440 available. The new school year marks the first time that states must define and identify their most dangerous schools and let all students at those schools enroll elsewhere in their district. Most states have responded by declar ing they have no schools fitting that description. Forty-four states and the District of Columbia reported not a single unsafe schools. The exceptions were Pennsylvania (28), Nevada (eight). New Jersey (seven), Texas (six). New York (two) and Oregon (one). The numbers may change after final state reviews or appeals. At a time when campuses use a range of tools to halt crime, from metal detectors to full-time police officer, 99.9 percent of schools got passing safety grades, based on self-reported data. I don’t think most parents would be surprised to find out that schools aren’t persistently danger ous because they believe their schools are safe,” said Jo Loss, mother of two public-school chil dren in Castro Valley, Calif., and a leader of the state’s PTA. The order to designate unsafe schools is part of federal law designed to hold schools accountable and give students | choices. But to some school ; advocates, the small number identified is so implausible it renders the ordered assessment meaningless. “The states are sending a false sense of security to par ents, and it creates a laxity among educators in terms of school safety,” said Kenneth Trump, a national school safety consultant who has worked with officials in more than 35 states. “It’s like a government Grade A stamp of approval saying every thing is safe and fine.” To get the label in Washington state, for example, a 1,000-student school would have to expel three students per year for gun violations and 10 additional students per year for other violent offenses — and Number of violent crimes against students age 12 to 18 at school or on their way to and from school 1.5 minion SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics AP that would have to happen for three straight years. Washington’s policy was purposely set high because of the “significant consequences of being defined as persistently dangerous,” said Martin Mueller of the state’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Connecticut gives schools three years to fix problems. “If they do not improve, then they can be named, but we are not automatically condemning a school,” said Thomas Murphy of the state’s Education Department. Most states have determined that to merit the dangerous label, schools must meet at least one threshold, such as student gun violations or expulsions based on violent behavior. Typically, states tied the mini mum number of incidents to enrollment — requiring a higher number at larger schools — and they only count schools that show trouble over two years or three years. The states also based their definitions on the most serious crimes: murder, arson, robbery, kidnapping. A dangerous envi ronment, not just unacceptable behavior, is the target, said Bill Modzeleski, school safety direc tor for the Education Department. Teen shot by officers intended suicide By Nicholas K. Geranos THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ; SPOKANE, Wash. — A troubled teenager who was critically wounded by officers after he fired a gun at school was trying to commit suicide, police said Tuesday. Sean Fitzpatrick, 16, left a page-and-a-half sui cide note at home before Monday’s shooting, say ing he wanted to be shot by police, police Chief Roger Bragdon said. He also made suicidal state ments during the 20 minutes he talked with a police negotiator, Bragdon said. “There is no doubt in my mind that the young man intended to commit suicide by having us do it,” Bragdon said. Bragdon declined to reveal the contents of the note, saying only the teen was explicit about his emotional pain and depression. Bragdon could not say why the student chose his high school for the showdown. Fitzpatrick was shot three times by SWAT team officers who fired almost simultaneously when the student raised a 9mm semiautomatic handgun toward them, Bragdon said. Fitzpatrick was shot in the jaw, stomach and arm and was in critical con dition Tuesday at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Bragdon said the suicide note was clear Fitzpatrick did not intend to harm others. Fitzpatrick’s parents, Angel Fitzpatrick and Linda Schearing of Fairfield, a town 30 miles south of Spokane, were brought to the school but had not spoken to their son, officials said. The parents apologized to the community Tuesday in a statement released by family attorney Carl Hueber. The boy had no previous criminal problems, and his parents were cooperating with police, Hueber said in the statement. “He was apparently suffering from severe men tal problems which had not been recognized by his family, friends or teachers,” the statement said. Bragdon said Fitzpatrick entered a science classroom shortly after 11 a.m. Monday, ordered a student teacher and several students to leave and fired once into a wall. He took no hostages. The boy also sprayed the room with retardant from fire extinguishers. Officers could see the boy because he had propped open a door, and they talked with him, Bragdon said. However, Fitzpatrick suddenly stopped talking, put on his jacket, and drew the pistol from a pants pocket, Bragdon said. “They knew it couldn’t be stopped,” Bragdon said of the shooting. Authorities said it is too early to say if Fitzpatrick will face criminal charges if he recovers. School Superintendent Brian Benzel cited privacy laws in refusing to release any informa tion about Fitzpatrick’s school performance and activities. biiitni L r- Thursday, September 25, 2003 # “When you see what Congress said in the legislation, then clearly there probably aren’t as many persistently dan gerous schools as the public may believe,” he said. Marsha Smith, a physical education teacher in Rockville, Md., and a consultant on teenage health and school safe ty, added, “The public may believe that schools are danger ous, but it’s quite the opposite. Schools are the safest place for students to be.” Government numbers show that students age 12 to 18 are facing fewer violent crimes at school — 699,800 in 2000, down 51 percent since 1993. Yet an increasing number of high school students, almost one in 10, reported being threatened or injured with a weapon at school in 2001. The law allows students who are victims of a violent crime at school to transfer, regardless of whether their school is persist ently dangerous. California, whose 8,000-plus schools are more than in other state, listed none as unsafe. Neither did Colorado, where two young gunmen in 1999 killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 others before killing themselves at Columbine High School outside Denver. In Philadelphia, school offi cials say they are paying a price for aggressively disciplining misbehaving students. The city had 27 of the state’s 28 persist ently dangerous schools, which unfairly gave them all a “big black eye,” said Paul Valias, the chief executive for the school district. Valias has asked the state for a one-year exemption from having to offer transfers to students. William Craigo cannot think of a single violent crime, let alone a pattern of dangerous behavior, during his eight years as principal at Terrace Hills Middle School in El Paso. Yet the school is one of six campus es out of 7,734 in Texas deemed persistently dangerous. Craigo blames faulty school data, including rock-throwing incidents counted as serious weapons violations. El Paso school district leaders, in disbe lief that four of their schools got tagged as unsafe, have appealed to the state. “It’s a shame people didn’t take a look around before they put such a heavy-duty label on us,” Craigo said. “You look at the inner cities — much bigger cities than El Paso that didn’t get named — and it kind of makes you wonder: What’s going on here?” I - London Paris Madrid Rome Prague Restrictions apply. Taxes not included. Fares are based on round-trip and subject to change. Railpasses and Budget Tours also available now! Call for details. n J (rpm $294 Athens $499 $347 Tel Aviv $686 $405 Tokyo $692 $432 Seoul $703 $491 ^TRAVELCUTS See the world your way Toll Free 1-800-592-CUTS (2887) usareservations@travelcuts.com IN THE AFTERNOON! 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