NC’s latest crime and suspension numbers are out. How safe is your child’s school?

The latest crime and student suspension figures are now out for every North Carolina public school.

Data released by the State Board of Education showed an 18% increase in acts of school crime and acts of violence between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. There was also a 14% increase in the number of short-term suspensions during that time period.

School crime and suspensions are way above pre-pandemic levels.

Guns and suspensions up in Wake County

Wake County reported a 9% increase in school crime. This included a 56% increase in sexual assaults and a 13% increase in possession of a controlled substance offenses.

Drug offenses account for 52% of Wake’s school crimes, mirroring statewide rates.

Incidents of possession of a firearm more than doubled from eight in the 2021-22 school year to 18 last school year. The discovery of a single firearm can result in multiple acts being reported if more than one student is charged.

Last school year saw a gun being fired in a Cary High School restroom and in a Fuquay-Varina Middle School classroom. No one was physically injured in either incident.

Wake also issued 13,193 short-term suspensions — a 16% increase from the prior school year. Short-term suspensions put students out of school for up to 10 days.

Triangle school districts

The other Triangle school districts largely mirrored the state trends on crime and suspensions in the 2022-23 school year.

▪ Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools was an outlier. The district saw a 4% drop in school crime and a 31% drop in short-term suspensions.

▪ Chatham County saw a 37% increase in school crime that was largely fueled by a 57% increase in cases of possession of a controlled substance. The district also had a 9% increase in short-term suspensions.

▪ Durham Public Schools saw a 19% increase in school crime, including a 32% increase in possession of a weapon that wasn’t a firearm and a 63% increase in assaults on school personnel.

Durham also saw a 23% increase in short-term suspensions.

▪ Johnston County saw a 7% increase in school crime and a 14% increase in short-term suspensions.

▪ Orange County saw a 22% drop in crime. The change was largely due to how the number of assaults on school personnel dropped from 22 cases to just one incident last school year.

How did my child’s school do?

Click on https://www.dpi.nc.gov/documents/consolidated-reports/tablec9-psu-level-crime-counts-and-rates-2023/open to download a spreadsheet with the crime totals for every school district.

Click on https://www.dpi.nc.gov/documents/consolidated-reports/tablec10-school-level-crime-counts-and-rates-2023/open to download a spreadsheet with the crime totals for public school.

Click on https://www.dpi.nc.gov/documents/consolidated-reports/tables9-short-term-suspension-stats-schools-2023/open to download a spreadsheet the short-term suspension totals for every school district and individual public school.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/36auuyjb to view other school crime and discipline reports dating back to the 2007-08 school year.