Students generally feel safe at school

By Barbara Brown
Most North Branch students in all grade levels feel safe at school, according to a new surveys released last week.
The surveys were conducted earlier in the 2002-2003 school year with some 3rd, 4th, 5th graders and high school students.
More than half the elementary students ñ 68 percent ñ said they feel safe at school. Seventy-three percent of parents said they feel safe, according to the survey conducted as part of an administration project.
Dr. Michael Trok, principal of North Branch High School and Sara Svir, principal of the Main Street School and the Intermediate Site, submitted the results of their surveys to the school board at the July 10 meeting.
Most elementary students did not see anyone at school with a weapon in the past year, according to the survey. Seventy-two percent of students said they had not.
Another 28 percent of elementary students said they had seen people at school with weapons, and most claimed they had seen a pocketknife of some kind.
Svir said she only knew of three or four students who had been reprimanded for carrying a pocket knife at school.
Those same knives, however, may have been shown to several students before they were found by staff.
Svir said physical violence is low at the elementary schools. She said most of the problems arise during lunch and bathroom breaks when students wait in long lines.
ìThereís a lot of pushing, touching, poking. But, most of that is just kids being kids,î she told the board last week.
ìThe biggest problems at the elementary level, that the kids tell us, are swearing, punching and pushing.î
Trok said his top concern from results of the high school survey was the 64 percent of staff members and 44 percent of students who answered there is a ìsmall problemî with sexual harassment at the school.
He said the school has developed a student concerns committee at the high school to assess personal interaction with teachers and students.
He said that group, staff and the administration will continue to research the cause of the problem and develop a plan to stop it.
Most altercations that arose during the school year for NBHS were stopped quickly, students and staff said.
Most students do feel safe in the school and on the school property, Trok said.
He said a lack of tolerance and respect seemed to be the highest return when survey takers were asked the biggest problems in the school.
He said the survey results were not specific enough to divine whether the people who said respect was suffering thought the problem started at home or was the schoolís responsibility.
ìThere is nothing here that weíre going through that is going to go away,î Trok said.
He asked the board to consider devoting a work session to more in-depth discussion of safety at the schools and to investigate the concerns raised over physical contact and sexual harassment.
However, Trok said the high school students are, overall, a good group.
ìThere is a lot of pushing and shoving in the halls,î Trok said. ìBut that hallway was built for 600 students and there are 1,000 students and another 1,100 staff in that building on any given day.
ìYou canít walk through there without making contact with other people.
ìOverall, these are great kids and this is a great staff,î he said.

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