TeacherTalk NV raised this issue on March 19, 2007. Do you feel safe? Are Nevada’s schools and districts doing enough to protect students and teachers? There are policies and then there are realities, which vary from site to site. Read below and let us know.
Criminalizing Student Threats
By The Associated Press
Nashua, New Hampshire
Dorothy Morin, a teacher at Nashua High School North, says that when students threaten her or other teachers, they don't face much in the way of consequences.
"I think it's gotten worse over the years. It's escalated because nothing has been done. There's no deterrent," Morin said. "Our lives are in danger every day as teachers."
Testimony by Morin and others persuaded members of a state Senate committee to recommend a bill that would add criminal threatening to the list of offenses covered by the state's Safe School Zones law, which increases penalties for certain crimes committed on school grounds, including the sale or possession of illegal drugs.
Rep. Maureen Mooney, R-Merrimack, is the prime sponsor of the bill, which would let school districts take more action against students who threaten violence against other students or staff. She said she was motivated by recent incidents of school violence.
"I just think it's of the utmost importance to do everything within our power to ensure that safe school zones are exactly that: safe school zones," she said. The House has already passed the bill.
Claire Ebel, director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, objected to the inclusion of threatening, however. She said that while the other offenses covered by the Safe School Zones law involve actual violence or wrongdoing, a threat could be simply an act of stupidity.
"This seems like a very broad sweep for the state to take," she said.
The bill, which originally would have required expulsion for criminal threatening, was amended to give school districts more leeway. Sarah Browning, of the state Education Department, said schools already have broad authority to suspend or expel students who threaten others.
"I don't think passing this bill changes that, except that it's now more explicit," she said. "I think it makes clear what authority school districts have."
The bill also requires reporting, she said. Any witness to an offense covered by the Safe School Zones law must report it to a supervisor, who must notify police and note the incident in the student's permanent record.
According to a 2005 survey, nearly 9 percent of New Hampshire high school pupils reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once during the previous year. Boys were three times as likely as girls to be threatened or injured, according to the 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
A survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found fewer threats against teachers in 2003 than a decade earlier: a drop from 12 percent to 7 percent. However, it also found that teachers in bigger cities were much more likely to face threats.
