Assault & Weapon Suspensions Higher Than Last Year

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Story Published: Jul 8, 2009 at 5:22 PM PST

By Sade Malloy

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Yakima -- The Yakima School District insists safety at school is a top priority. We wanted to know how safe your children really are so we pulled the numbers and found out there's a huge discrepancy in the data. For example, assaults are higher at one elementary than at the high schools.

Action News asks,"Would you agree there was a lot of bullying going on?"
"Yeah there was a lot but you manage to get used to it," says student, Aaron Protsman.

For Protsman bullying is more than a statistic, it's an everyday occurrence. He's just one of the students we talked to who says he's witnessed assaults at school. In fact, the Yakima School District recorded more than a thousand suspensions for bullying, assaults and weapon incidents last year. But these numbers don't add up.

"An elementary principal reports a push as an assault but a high school principal wouldn't report it as an assault," says Lee Maras, Director Of Safety and Security for the Yakima School District.

For example Barge-Lincoln Elementary School suspended 78 students for assault while Davis High School only suspended 6 students. School officials admit, despite guidelines for misconduct, reporting it is subjective.

"I've actually seen someone hit each other, I had some problems once," says Nyssa Leon, student.

"It first started in the locker room when I got pushed around and nobody noticed," says Protsman.

Nearly half of the suspensions for bullying are from Lewis & Clark and Washington Middle Schools. Kids and neighbors aren't surprised.

"We used to play, stay out there 10 o'clock, now you can't do that," says former student, Liz Carter.

Times have changed, violence is on the rise in many schools. But the Yakima School District contends this doesn't mean your student is less safe. Instead, school officials are just cracking down.

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