Little safety or true safe passage inside or near most inner city schools, as CPS pushed school closings and controversial privatization schemes such as 'Safe Passage'... Police reports show...400 percent Increase in attacks on CPS Staff, 2013 over 2012
In a long awaited opportunity for Substance News to analyze official reported Crime Statistics, preliminary calculations show that Attacks on Chicago Public School staff have increased 400% in the month of August 2013 compared to August 2012. The raw statistics are from the School Incident Reporting System (SIRS) collected by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). The data is reported and available to the public at the following web address < http://webapps.isbe.net/sirs/webreports.aspx > on ISBE�s website.
One of the many changes at CPS was the selection of Jadine Chou, above speaking at the December 2012 Board of Education meeting, to head CPS security. Chou's reorganization of the security systems at CPS was widely criticized among security professionals, as was her qualification for the job. Like many of the appointments by Rahm Emanuel's Board, Chou has a masters from the University of Chicago, but no experience or training in law enforcement. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The there was an 85.71 % Increase in incidents involving drugs inside the Chicago Public Schools in the same periods in the month of August. Comparing the reported statistics from 2012 to 2013 there was a 187.5% Increase in in the Attacks on School personnel in the month of September. It should be noted that the statics being used in this report are only those that have been officially uploaded and reported by school principals into the Instructional Management Program and Academic Communications Tool (IMPACT). It is estimated by some CPS sources and retired safety experts that only 10% of actual school incidents are reported officially.
The Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) mandate that certain types of crimes in and around schools are reported to law enforcement. Substance News has been covering violence and crime within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for nearly forty years now. In addition to qualitative analysis and reporting, Substance has years of qualitative data from on-the-ground first-hand accounts of criminal activity and cover-ups in the CPS.
�Bloody days increase in Chicago�s general high schools,� documented the increase in violence back in December 2006 the direct correlation of the increase of violence in Chicago schools to the policies of the Chicago Board of Education to unilaterally close and privatize schools < http://www.substancenews.net/assets/pdfs/issues/2006_12.pdf > It is now at least 6 years since rank-and-file activists started to demand accountability for the increase of violence inside schools as reported in �Schools close, violence spikes� in the Sun-Times (March 2006).
Through a series of FOIA requests and appeals to the Illinois State Attorney General�s Office, the Chicago Public Schools were forced to start reporting crime statistics to the proper reporting agencies. CPS failed to report crime properly to the State Board of Education until last year. This the first year that there are some official statistics from Chicago that can be compared from year to year since the State began accepting data back in March 2006.
According to ISBE:
In order to satisfy the reporting of incidents to the ISP requirement, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), in conjunction with the ISP, have created the School Incident Reporting System (SIRS). The SIRS is a web-based application used by schools to report incidents electronically. This does not satisfy the requirement to report incidents to local law enforcement authorities.
What type of incidents are mandated by the State of Illinois to be reported?
105 ILCS 5/10-27.1B.
Reporting drug-related incidents in schools.
�....Upon receipt of any written, electronic, or verbal report from any school personnel regarding a verified incident involving drugs in a school or on school owned or leased property,....the superintendent or his or her designee, or appropriate administrative officer for a private school, shall report all such drug-related incidents occurring in a school or school property to the local law enforcement authorities immediately and to the Department of State Police in a form, manner, and frequency prescribed by the Department of State
Police.�....
105 ILCS 5/27.1A.
Firearms in schools.
�....Upon receipt of any written, electronic, or verbal report from any school personnel regarding a verified incident involving a firearm in a school or on school owned or leased property, ....the superintendent or his or her designee shall report all such firearm-related incidents occurring in a school or on school property to the local law enforcement authorities immediately and to the Department of State Police in a form, manner, and frequency as prescribed by the Department of State Police.�....
105 ILCS 5/34-8.05.
Reporting firearms in schools.
�....Upon receipt of any written, electronic, or verbal report from any school personnel regarding a verified incident involving a firearm in a school or on school owned or leased property, ....the superintendent or his or her designee shall report all such firearm-related incidents occurring in a school or on school property to the local law enforcement authorities no later than 24 hours after the occurrence of the incident and to the Department of State Police in a form, manner, and frequency as prescribed by the Department of State Police.�....
105 ILCS 5/10-21.7.
Attacks on school personnel.
�....Upon receipt of a written complaint from any school personnel, the superintendent, or other appropriate administrative officer for a private school, shall report all incidents of battery committed against teachers, teacher personnel, administrative personnel or educational support personnel to the local law enforcement authorities immediately after the occurrence of the attack and to the Department of State Police�s Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting Program no later than 3 days after the occurrence of the attack.�....
The numbers reported on the ISBE website are as follows:
Attacks Against School Personnel
Aug 2013 - 8
Aug 2012 � 2
400% Increase
Incidents Involving Drugs
Aug 2013 - 14
Aug 2012 � 12
85.71 % Increase
Incidents Involving Weapons
Aug 2013 - 9
Aug 2012 � 26
34.62% Decrease
Attacks Against School Personnel
Sept 2013 - 15
Sept 2012 � 8
187.5% Increase
Incidents Involving Drugs
Sept 2013 - 40
Sept 2012 � 90
44.4 % Decrease
Incidents Involving Weapons
Sept 2013 - 19
Sept 2012 � 46
41.3 % Decrease
Source: http://webapps.isbe.net/sirs/webreports.aspx
Source: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/research/pdfs/UsersGuideV1.pdf
