Handling disruptions inside the classroom this school year

Reporter: Nicole Lauren
Published: Updated:

Less than 2 weeks until students return to the classroom and when they do head back they will face thousands of disruptions that could affect their performance.

School threats like the one back in February that got a Fort Myers student arrested usually get all the headlines, but those incidents are rare compared to the thousands of conduct problems that get kids removed from class.

According to a report, disruptive behavior and disrespect topped the K-12 suspension chart with more than 1,000 incidents for each. Following that came peer conflict, fighting and safety violations.

According to School Environmental Safety Incident Reporting, bullying, fighting, harassment, and sexual harassment are not required to be reported to law enforcement, despite these being incidents that people feel no child should experience.

“I think anything that affects the kids well-being is horrible, school should be a safe place for kids to go, they shouldn’t have to worry about being bullied or harassed or beat up or raped or any of those things or killed it’s just ridiculous, when I was a kid in school never crossed my mind,” Cape Coral resident Steve Hooton said.

Incidents that are required to be reported to law enforcement include alcohol use, sexual assault, arson and kidnapping. An new to this year is that school threat assessment teams will have more discretion in the consequences for student crimes.

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