Mental health providers, counselors and school resource officers are given as the reason why criminal acts in Macon County Schools are staying low by more than half compared to pre-pandemic years.
While the 15 criminal acts reported in 2021-22 shows an increase from the three reported in 2020-21, they are down from 2019-20 (34) and 2018-19 (28), according to data from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
Superintendent Chris Baldwin said according to the statewide data, there was a 16% increase in crime, a 60% increase in weapon violations, a 30% increase in firearms and 14% increase in controlled substances in the last year.
MCS Curriculum Director Josh Lynch gave the report at the March Board of Education meeting with data he had compiled from the state. “The figure was quite alarming,” he said, adding that led to him drilling into MCS data, going from the 2018-19 school year through 2021-22, four calendar years.
As Lynch noted, the state rate of reported acts of crime in school per 1,000 students was lower than Macon County’s rate of 6.29 compared to 6.41 in 2018-19. Then in 2019-20, MCS jumped up to 7.71 while the state went down to 4.69. However, Lynch said the NCDPI noted that some law enforcement agencies either didn’t report at all or report in a comparative manner due to the pandemic when schools were closed in March 2020.
In 2020-21, the year of social distancing, MCS was down to 0.71 acts of crime per 1,000 students while the state had slightly more at 1.04. Then in 2021-22, the numbers for MCS increased to 3.46 while the state rate shot up to 7.51.
According to a breakdown of the data, there were 15 total criminal acts committed in 2021-22: one assault resulting in serious injury (Macon Middle), three assaults on school personnel (one at each of Iotla Valley, South Macon and Union Academy), one possession of an alcoholic beverage (Union Academy), five possession of controlled substance violations (two each at FHS and MMS and one at Union), three possession of a weapon acts (two at MMS and one at Cartoogechaye), one sexual assault (FHS) and one sexual offense (MMS).
In 2019-20, there were 34 total criminal acts in MCS; however, schools were closed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Most of those, 25, were possession of a firearm. Of those, 10 were at MMS, nine at Union, four at FHS and two at Mountain View Intermediate. There were also seven assaults on school personnel, four at Iotla Valley, two at south Macon and one at MVI. The two possession of a weapon acts that year were at East Franklin and Union.
Speaking to the school board on March 27 about the figures, Lynch said the COVID-19 pandemic money helped show a solution to decreasing the number of incidents.
“We had an opportunity with ESSER funds to have mental health individuals and providers within each of our schools that our students had access to,” Lynch told the board. “And they were able to have more of a pro-active stance in terms of mitigating and supporting our students and being more aware of instances that could cause criminal acts of violence.”
ESSER funding, distributed during the pandemic as an emergency relief fund for school systems, runs out in December 2024.
“We have definitely reduced those risk factors from 2020 through 2022 and I feel that possibly the installation of our mental health providers at each of our schools and the intense work they are doing along with our social workers and our school counselors have really helped control and mitigate these instances,” Lynch said. “I will be anxious to see what the data looks like for our 2022-23 school year…if that trajectory is still along those lines.”
Baldwin also credited the school resource officers for the reduction in reportable events.
Lynch said it appears MCS has a network they can be proud of, where people are working to be pro-active to meet the needs of the students.