Schools

Mahwah Schools Report Violence, Vandalism, Weapons and Substance Abuse

Compare district's report to past year's and those of nearby districts

The Violence and Vandalism Report for the 2011-2012 school year shows Mahwah has a relatively low number of incidents, “considering the size of the district,” interim Superintendent Dr. Karen Lake said when commenting on the school district’s reported number of incidents at the last Board of Education meeting.

The State Department of Education released the results of the survey for school districts across New Jersey Tuesday afternoon. The results showed statewide, the total number of reported incidents is up about 50% from 17,386 in 2010-11 to 26,139 in 2011-12, the report said.

The state attributed the increase to better reporting mechanisms, as 2011-12 was the .

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According to the state data, Mahwah recorded the following numbers of incidents over the past four school years:

School Year

Find out what's happening in Mahwahwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Incidents of Violence

Incidents of Vandalism

Incidents of Weapons

Incidents of Substance Abuse

Incidents of HIB

2011-12

21

53

1

10

13

2010-11

36

43

0

10

Not tracked

2009-10

25

48

2

5

Not tracked

2008-09

30

85

2

4

Not tracked

The release from the DOE highlights the following statewide trends:

  •  The reported numbers of assaults, fights and criminal threats decreased from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 
  • In the vandalism category, the reported number of total incidents declined by approximately 14.4 percent over the three-year period
  • In the weapons category, reported firearms incidents (handguns and rifles) increased from five incidents reported in 2009-10 to nine in 2011-12.  In addition, incidents in the “other weapons” category increased by 55 during the same three-year period.
  • In the substance category, the number of incidents of possession of substances increased by 149, or approximately 15 percent from 995 in 2009-10 to 1,144 in 2011-12. Marijuana accounts for the majority (67.9 percent) of the total number of substance incidents reported in 2011-12, and the number of incidents involving marijuana decreased from 2,543 in 2010-11 to 2472 in 2011-12, or a decrease of approximately 2.8 percent.

Mahwah’s 2011-12 data compared to reported numbers from surrounding districts as follows:

School District

Incidents of Violence

Incidents of Vandalism

Incidents of Weapons

Incidents of Substance Abuse

Incidents of HIB

Total Enrollment

Mahwah

21

53

1

10

13

3258

Ramsey

0

9

1

12

12

3017

Fair Lawn

35

7

4

2

22

4570

Paramus

11

6

2

8

31

4032

Ridgewood

9

9

0

8

12

5702

 

See the complete set of data here.

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