City schools show decline in incidents

Hartselle City Schools showed a big decrease in the number of misbehavior incidents reported in fiscal 2009-10, according to state mandated accountability reports that track financial student achievement, school safety and discipline.
The accountability report shows that all five schools combined had 339 incidents last school year, or 120 fewer than the 459 that were reported in the prior year.
Hartselle Junior High School reported 51 fewer incidents than it did in the prior years but still had the most of any other school, with 186 as compared to 237 in 2009-10.
Hartselle High School showed the most improvement. It reported 103 incidents, or 68 fewer than the 171 it reported in the prior year.
The city’s three elementary schools reported a total of 50 incidents.
Of that number, Crestline had 34, or three fewer than the 37 it had in the prior year. F.E. Burleson had 14, or one more than the 13 it reported in 2009-10 and Barkley Bridge reported two incidents, one more than the number it had in 2009-10.
Of the incidents reported, 97 were for persistent or willful disobedience, 84 for harassment, 56 for defiance of authority and 32 for profanity or vulgarity.
Twenty-one of the incidents involved fighting, nine for unauthorized truancy, seven for both disorderly conduct and larceny/theft, and three each for drugs possession, knife possession, and assault.
Disciplinary measures resulting from the incidents included nine corporal punishments, 296 in-school suspensions, 14 alternate school and 72 out-of-school suspensions.
The state’s Accountability Law requires that copies of the annual report be made available to the public.