ROANOKE, Va. – 10 News is investigating how school threats are tracked and reported within Roanoke City Public Schools. This after parents expressed concerns about communication from the school district when something happens.
10 News submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to get ahold of threat assessment reports, how the district tracks them, and look at trends.
Public schools across Virginia, including Roanoke City Public Schools, are required to track incidents of violence and crime and report that data to the Virginia Department of Education every year. Some of the offenses tracked include bullying, sexual assault, physical assault, drug use and threats.
Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Dr. Hayley Poland said that the statewide reporting system was recently overhauled.
“It really, I think, helped us as a school division and also as teachers and school staff, to really look at how do we intervene and how do we teach appropriate behavior, not just looking at that punitive consequence,” said Poland.
Now, Roanoke City has to report threats or incidents in the community, not just on school grounds. That could include incidents where a student is caught with a gun off-campus or a domestic violence situation involving a teacher at their home.
”We are still responsible for responding to that threat, completing a threat assessment, and those would also be reported in those numbers,” said Poland.
The new system means that reports from the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 school years look different than the reports from 2021-22 and 2022-23 because they include new categories and reporting requirements.
10 News evaluated the reports and identified only the offenses involving threats and found that during the 2018-19 school year, there were 99 threats reported. In 2019-20, there were 67 reported threats and from 2020-21 there were 12. Poland said those numbers are skewed due to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast-forward to the 2021-22 school year after the new reporting system was implemented, there were 144 threats reported. The most recent data from the 2022-23 school year shows a total of 234 reported threats.
“We really have difficulty with conflict resolution,” said Poland.
Poland said it’s important to note that now it’s easier to report incidents with the SpeakUp for Safety program, which can contribute to the increased numbers.
10 News also obtained a survey to school principals, which turned up concerns over the district’s safety training and response.
10 News asked Poland, “What do you have to say when principals are telling you, ‘No, we don’t think the communication is as good as it could be,’ ‘No, we don’t think the training or the response is where it should be?’”
“I think we’ve been responsive to that,” said Poland. “We’ve really done a lot of work over the past year.”
Poland said the district implemented a new safety app for staff and police to use during a crisis.
“We want to make sure that it’s not just a one-and-done professional development. That it is a continuous conversation and continuous growth when we’re talking about school safety,” said Poland.
Here’s a look at the Roanoke City Public Schools’ threat assessment reports from previous years:
2018-2019
2018-19 ROCI Threat Report by WSLS on Scribd
2019-2020
2019-20 ROCI Threat Report by WSLS on Scribd
2020-2021
2020-21 ROCI Threat Report by WSLS on Scribd
2021-2022
2021-22 ROCI Threat Report by WSLS on Scribd
2022-2023
2022-23 ROCI Threat Report by WSLS on Scribd
Roanoke School Audit Summary for 2023
Roanoke School Audit Summary 2023 by WSLS on Scribd
For more information on the reports, visit the VDOE website here.