Superintendent
Wilfredo Laboy Refutes Chief Romeros
Claim of Increased Arrests at LHS
July 29, 2008 Following Police
Chief John Romeros issuing of the
School Resource Officer (SRO) report
detailing an increase in arrests in the
District, Superintendent Wilfredo T.
Laboy has issued a statement disputing
the data in the report:
The Lawrence Public Schools constantly
monitors data pertaining to police
reports, incident reports and other
discipline data to identify areas of
concern regarding the provision of a safe
school environment.
Included in these data is a tabulation of
the police reports provided by the School
Resource Officers on school-related
police matters. Using the data provided
by the Police Department throughout the
year, there were only 238 total incidents
reported in the District. Although these
data do not include information from the
last two weeks of school, it is still a
vast difference20% lessthan
what has been presented in the School
Resource Officer Unit Report issued by
the Police Department.
The SRO Unit made only a partial copy of
the report available to the District
prior to sharing it with the public, and
did not bring the matter directly to the
attention of the Superintendent as
requested. Had the Superintendent been
given the opportunity to review the data
prior to publication, the two offices may
have been able to collaboratively address
the issues and priorities for school
safety.
The Superintendent has asked for a
meeting with the Police Chief to review
their data, as it is not aligned to the
data provided to the school system over
the past two years. The District wishes
to maintain a collaborative working
relationship with the Lawrence Police
Department, as having safe school
environments is essential for students to
learn.
Said Dr. Laboy, "I am concerned
about the report released by the Lawrence
Police Department, as it does not
correlate with the data that we have been
compiling from the police reports
provided to us at different intervals
throughout the school year. We need
to understand how these numbers were
compiled in order to address any
discrepancies in the data with the police
department. In order to address
this issue, we have requested a meeting
with Chief Romero to review the data they
have in comparison to the data that we
have in the school system."
It is also important to remember that the
increased security at the new LHS Campus
has allowed for improved ability to
monitor activities and report incidents
such as theft or physical altercations,
and to quickly and provide police with
security camera footage to determine the
appropriate course of action. An
increased number of incidents reported
does not necessarily equate to an
increased number of incidents occurring.
With greater monitoring throughout the
High School campus, the School Resource
Officer can more effectively address
incidents; whereas the School Resource
Officers may not have been able to gather
evidence on these types of incidents in
the old high school.
This may account for the reported
increase in arrests and summons (4
additional arrests and 11 additional
summons over 2006-2007 according to the
calculations provided by the School
Resource Officer Unit).
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