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Fighting was the top safety problem in Luzerne County public schools in the 2015-16 school year, according to the latest state School Safety report, with 211 reported fighting incidents in the county’s 11 school districts, three career and technology centers and single brick-and-mortar charter school.
Disorderly conduct was a close second, with 198 reported incidents, while possession, use or sale of tobacco was a more distant third with 138 incidents.
The annual reports come with the same caveat each year: The data is self-reported, and one school’s fight may be another’s disorderly conduct, though the state has dramatically tightened up the definitions of the 35 types of incidents listed in the report.
Along with fighting, disorderly conduct and tobacco offenses, four other incident types were reported more than 80 times countywide: other harassment/intimidation (103), possession/use of a controlled substance (100), minor altercation (88), and theft (86).
Among those top seven categories, Hazleton Area School District had the highest reported incidents in all but one case — hardly surprising for the county’s largest district, with more than 10,000 students. The one exception: Greater Nanticoke Area had the highest number of tobacco offenses at 44, followed by Lake-Lehman School District with 24 and Hazleton Area at 15.
Looking at the number of incidents in relation to total enrollment dramatically changes the rankings:
• West Side Career and Technology Center had the highest rate of fighting reported, seven incidents among 511 student, or 1.4 percent of total enrollment.
• Hanover Area School District had the highest rate of disorderly conduct, 28 incidents among 2,022 students for a rate of 1.4 percent.
• While Greater Nanticoke Area has the highest tobacco offenses both by raw numbers and by percent of total enrollment, the district also topped the chart in minor altercations, with 21 incidents among 2,278 students for a rate of 0.9 percent.
• West Side CTC also had the highest rate of possession/use of controlled substances, 10 incidents among 511 students for a rate of almost 2 percent.
• Hazleton Area Career Center had the highest rate for other harassment, four reports among 738 students for a rate of 0.5 percent, and the highest rate for theft, 6 incidents for a rate of 0.8 percent.
There were no reports of handguns or rifles, but there were 68 weapons incidents: 37 reports of knives, five of BB/pellet guns, three of cutting instruments and 23 “other weapons.”
The individual school reporting the most incidents overall: Hazleton Area High School, with 173. There were 18 schools reporting zero incidents — 17 elementary schools and one middle school (Dallas).