FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A Forsyth County Parkland High School student faces charges. This comes after a video surfaced showing a student repeatedly punching a teacher.
The video, which started circulating on social media, shows the student approaching the teacher, cursing, shouting and slapping him twice in the face.
On Tuesday, the Juvenile Justice Department issued a safe custody order on one count of communicating threats and two counts of misdemeanor assault. Students are not identified by age or other factors.
Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. said in a statement: “All of us should be outraged if the people who educate us could be assaulted.” “We should have the utmost respect for those who teach and educate our children.”
To see if cases like this are common in North Carolina, we looked at the following information: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Report presented to the North Carolina General Assembly for the 2022-2023 school year. This report provides data on crime and violent incidents in schools.
Of North Carolina's 2,726 public schools, 1,640, or about 60%, reported at least one criminal incident during the 2022-2023 school year. These actions can include assault, sexual offenses, bomb threats, possession of drugs, alcohol, weapons, and more. Of these 1,640 schools, approximately 61% reported her one to five criminal acts, and approximately 40% reported her six or more criminal acts.
One school, which NCPDI did not specify, reported 96 incidents of criminal activity within the school year.
Schools that reported at least one criminal offense had an average incidence rate of 0.59 to 1,200 incidents per 1,000 enrolled students. On average, these schools were found to have just under nine incidents of criminal activity per 1,000 students.
Assaults against school personnel were the third most commonly reported form of crime and violence in North Carolina public schools, behind possession of controlled substances and possession of weapons. Statewide, there were 1,482 student assaults against public school employees during the 2022-2023 school year.
Historically, that total goes back to 2013-2014, excluding the pandemic years of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, when many schools switched to remote learning and incidents dropped significantly. It ranged from about 1,250 cases to about 1,500 cases per year.
The state breaks down its data by grade level, and finds that more than a third of assaults on teachers and staff occur in elementary schools, while about a quarter each occur in middle schools and high schools. It is shown.
Approximately 38% of the cases, or 561, were students in preschool through fifth grade.
The number of incidents involving students in grades 9 to 12, including junior and senior high schools, was 390, accounting for approximately 26.3% of the total. There were 5 fewer cases in grades 6-8, including elementary and junior high schools, for a total of 286 cases, about 26.0% of the total.
The state identified only 145 cases, or 9.8%, as “other.”
The total number of assaults in North Carolina public schools is about the same as before the pandemic, but wall street journal reports that violence against teachers has increased nationwide since in-person learning resumed in 2021. However, data on this issue is limited because many states do not specifically track violence against teachers or do not use the same methodology.
A survey conducted by an educational corporation targeting school employees nationwide. American Psychological Association survey It was found that between July 2020 and June 2021, 14% of teachers reported physical violence from students. The numbers were even higher for administrators (15%), school psychologists and social workers (18%), and staff (22%).
According to APA, violence against educators is a public health problem. The association says both educators and students need further mental health and wellbeing support. Schools can also benefit by involving educators in decision-making processes and ensuring schools have sufficient resources, capacity, and qualified staff.