
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995                   TAG: 9510250043
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OFFICIALS: SCHOOLS SAFER THAN MOST PEOPLE THINK

Schools are much safer than generally perceived and perhaps the safest places young people can go outside of their homes, Roanoke Valley school superintendents said Tuesday.

"Most schools are far safer than the communities that surround them," said Deanna Gordon, superintendent of Roanoke County schools. "I'm not trying to imply that violence is not a problem in schools. I deal with it on a daily basis."

Gordon and superintendents of Roanoke, Salem and Botetourt County school systems gathered in the Jefferson Center atrium Tuesday for a panel discussion on "The Violence of Children: A Dialogue on Safe Schools." The discussion was part of the Mental Health Association of Roanoke Valley's 44th annual "Parent-Child Seminar."

Wayne Harris, superintendent of Roanoke schools, blamed part of the misperception that schools are not safe on the media linking violent acts committed by young people to the schools they attend.

"The media has got to stop attaching the act that's committed by someone under 18 to the school they attend when in fact that incident occurred not in the school but somewhere else," Harris said.

Gordon agreed. "Too often, when we read about teen murders or drive-by shootings involving teen-agers, the school affiliation of that teen is cited, and so it will lead to the implication that this involved the school," she said.

Public educators must understand that they perpetuate a myth that schools are violent "when we are not careful what we say," Harris said.

"Whenever we talk about violence, we tend to attach it to low-income, urban, single families, latchkey," he said. "We have to be careful of the descriptors we use. Language is very powerful."

Schools can do little to keep society's problems from creeping into schools via children, the superintendents said, but schools can counter with efforts to make schools safer.

"Many people are working hard to do something about violence" in the schools, said Wayne Tripp, superintendent of Salem schools. "School boards, professionals, parents all have recognized that safety is a primary responsibility when it is associated with public schools."

Some examples:

The Virginia Crime Prevention Association conducted a school safety study for Salem schools last year. The school system implemented some of the study's recommendations, such as limiting unlocked exits and entrances during the school day and equipping school administrators with radios.

In Botetourt County, a student caught once with drugs is suspended for 10 days. A second time "and you're out for the rest of the year," said Clarence McClure, superintendent of Botetourt County schools.

State law requires parents to cooperate in managing their children's behavior while in school, on a school bus or at a school-sponsored activity. By signing a pledge, parents acknowledge that they have read the school system's student code of conduct and have reviewed it with their children.

by CNB