Des Moines school officials blame rise in fights on COVID stress, not lack of officers on campus

Leaders of Des Moines Public Schools said Tuesday night the reasons for a rise in the number of fights between students at schools this fall are complex, but that there are not more fights because of a decision to remove school resource officers from district buildings last year.

According to data presented to the school board Tuesday, while calls to police from the district's high schools has fallen by almost 43% this fall, fights have made up a greater share of the calls being made, rising from nine in 2019 to 13 so far this semester. Meanwhile, only half of the more than 12,000 middle and high school students surveyed by the district this fall said they feel safe at school.

Parents have expressed concerns in response, and at least one — Lindsay LaGrange, who spoke to the board on Tuesday night — blamed the rise to the lack of police officers patrolling the district's school buildings.

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District staff, current and former students and community members told the board, however, that bringing resource officers back into district buildings would not reduce violence and would only bring back problems that removing the officers was intended to address — disproportionate contact between the officers and students of color and the criminalization of student behaviors.

The district decided in February to end its use of school resource officers. Police officers had not had a presence in Des Moines schools since April 2020, when schools shut down because of the pandemic. Instead, the district set out a plan for replacing the officers with new staff and realigning or adding duties for existing staff.

Jake Troja, the district's director of school climate transformation — who has overseen the district's transition away from using school resource officers — acknowledged the increase in the number of fights this fall, but attributed the trend to pandemic-related stress and staffing shortages.

Des Moines Superintendent Tom Ahart said students returned to school this year without having had much contact with their peers over the past two years, but also brought with them the stressors and trauma their families have endured since the start of the pandemic.

"Everyone's closer to the edge," Ahart said.

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Troja presented the board with data Tuesday night on the number of instances of students being referred to an administrator or other school staff and calls from staff to police for various misbehaviors — comparing referrals in the school year to date, and calls to police between Aug. 9 and Oct. 11, to similar timeframes in 2019.

Ahart called the comparisons more accurate than using 2020 data because of the number of students who were learning virtually last year.

Troja said referrals to staff for serious misbehaviors involving assault, firearms, threats with a weapon, arson, physical aggression and "major physical contact" have increased among seventh graders and all high school grades compared to 2019. Among Des Moines' high school seniors, the number of referrals has nearly doubled, from 35 to 64.

The total number of calls to police at the district's high schools has fallen by almost 43% this fall, compared to 2019, but calls about fights have made up a greater share of the calls being made.

Calls from the district's middle schools, meanwhile, have fallen by more than 56%.

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The number of calls to police at the district's high schools for assault, sexual assault, narcotics, fights and gunshots has also decreased compared to 2019 — from 42 to 20 — but the number of calls for fights alone have increased — from nine in the fall of 2019 to 13 so far this semester.

Troja did not have a breakdown of referral data by race. In terms of calls to police, he said school resource officer engagements with students would have counted as calls in the past. He did not have updated arrest data from the Des Moines Police Department.

Troja said the district still works regularly with the police department and has not completely eliminated law enforcement's role and has had no problems in coordinating responses when laws are broken.

He said, however, that if officers were in schools, they wouldn't simply break up fights. Instead, they would arrest students for disorderly conduct, which he said led to the disproportionate arrest numbers the district saw in the past.

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Survey shows only half of Des Moines' students feel safe at school

Only half of the more than 12,000 middle and high school students the district surveyed this fall had a positive perception of school safety, and students' responses reflected their sense that physical fights and disrespect have gotten worse inside the district's buildings.

Amber Ferriss told the school board Tuesday that, as a parent and coach, she's heard students say they don't want to go to school, adding she wants the board to do something.

Troja said he couldn't offer a "robust response" to a question from board member Jackie Norris about actions the community and district could take to combat the rise in fights.

People want to see immediate action, Norris said.

Troja added that "the problem is not simple; it’s complex." He said there needs to be support for students as they enter buildings, because fights aren't always about issues at school.

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Ahart said that, prior to Christmas, there will be a "reset" to clarify with families, students and staff what the expectations are of what's acceptable behavior at school.

He also said each building will spend a significant amount of time the first week back after winter break talking about what those expectations are and what the consequences will be if they're not met.

He added that "reset" is something he would do differently if he could start the school year over again.

Michael Vukovich, the district’s director of high schools, said the district also needs to increase its use of support for students making the transition from middle to high school.

"We need some more transformational thinking," Vukovich said. He said students need to feel connected with their administrators and school community, and there have been student town halls and feedback gathered from students and leadership teams in schools on how to make learning environments places that students want to be in.

Phillip Sitter covers education for the Ames Tribune, including Iowa State University and PreK-12 schools in Ames and elsewhere in Story County. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines schools say COVID stress is behind rise in student fights