GREENSBORO, N.C. — Multiple fights at multiple schools, it's an ongoing issue in Guilford County Schools. Some fights are on campus, others are at football games.
In at least one case, a group of adults is accused of egging on the violence.
Guilford County School leaders said enough is enough. They're taking steps to address the uptick in violent incidents.
It was a major topic of discussion at Tuesday night's school board meeting. Leaders shared a key number, that school violence jumped 18 percent in the first two months of this school year, compared to the same time period in 2019, before the pandemic started.
The district said finding solutions starts with conversations.
If you remember, GCS started the year by adding security scanners in schools, clear bag policies for events, more safe entry points at schools, anonymous reporting systems, mental health support for students and staff, and upkeep cameras in school buildings and buses.
While these are helping in some ways, recent violence trends have school officials said more needs to be done.
"We just want to eliminate school violence to the extent possible, to zero. That'd be our goal," said Deena Hayes, Guilford County Schools Board Chair.
Guilford County Schools said there are more school violence referrals, which include assaults on staff or students, fighting, or aggressive behavior.
When you compare this school to the last non-covid-year, high schools and middle schools saw a dramatic increase.
Violence is up 66 percent in high schools and up 30 percent in middle schools.
Also, while in school suspensions are down, out of school suspensions increased 58 percent.
This data is why the district said they're adding more safety strategies.
"This year, we've seen some trends, we've know that Eastern, and Southern, and Central, and Page, and Dudley, we know where presence is needed," Dr. Whitney Oakley, Guilford County Schools Superintendent.
More of a presence is just one of four new safety strategies being added to the mix.
GCS is expanding the school safety office adding four new positions. The positions are already posted on their job listings site. The district wants four people who will be responsible for implementing the district’s safety strategies, emergency management, and developing school safety plans in collaboration with school leadership.
The expanded school safety office will include Richey, who will serve as assistant superintendent, a director and five school safety specialists. The school safety specialists are in addition to the school resource officer positions managed by local law enforcement agencies.
The second strategy is increasing student engagement by talking with students about the recent trends. Dr. Oakley is hosting a school safety summit on Thursday, Nov. 17, with more than 100 students from across the district to gather input on school safety initiatives.
The third strategy is adding staffing incentives to supervise athletic events. Oakley said many teachers will go to these events and so now they will be paid to supervise.
The fourth strategy is adding anti-bullying training for staff.
There are also plans to add a new security program for cameras.
"We will have the opportunity from our security and safety office to be able to pull up any camera, at any school, at any time, so that we can help provide information very quickly to those first responders and partners that needs that information," said Mike Richey, Guilford County Schools Safety Assistant Superintendent.
This is now the whole comprehensive list of what Guilford County Schools is doing to work to end violence in schools.
Guilford County Schools said they will continue to look at the data and discuss where they go from here.
One important thing the school mentioned was, while they are looking to make changes in their schools, they are working with the community because it takes more than just the schools to make changes.