Pubdate: Tue, 15 Aug 2006
Source: Monitor, The (McAllen, TX)
Copyright: 2006 The Monitor
Contact:  http://www.themonitor.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1250
Author: Kaitlin Bell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

THREE VALLEY SCHOOLS ON LIST OF MOST DANGEROUS

McALLEN - Almost 5,000 Rio Grande Valley high  schoolers will begin 
the new school year at campuses  rated "persistently dangerous" by 
the state education  agency.

Jimmy Carter High School in the La Joya school district  and Todd 
Ninth Grade campus and Donna High School in  the Donna district 
received the "dangerous" designation  this year from the Texas 
Education Association.

The three campuses are among just five statewide to be  rated as 
such. This is Todd's second year on the TEA  list.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires states to  develop 
criteria that measure safety in schools. The  law allows students at 
those campuses rated  persistently dangerous to transfer.

In Texas, a school receives the dangerous rating if,  for three years 
running, it has reported expelling  three or more students per 1,000 
for any of the  following: felony-level drug or alcohol offenses; 
possession or use of a firearm, club or weapons; murder  or attempted 
murder, arson, aggravated kidnapping or  assault; sexual assault or 
aggravated sexual assault.

Donna and La Joya school district officials said their  schools' 
ratings disappointed them but maintained they  believe students at 
the three campuses are  fundamentally safe. They also criticized the 
criteria  involved in the rankings.

The districts were unable to provide on short notice  documents 
detailing the number and type of incidents  reported to the state but 
said felony-level drug and  alcohol violations accounted for the vast 
majority of  reported offenses.

Donna Superintendent Joe D. Gonzalez said the rating  used outdated 
information -- the latest is from the  '04-'05 school year -- that 
doesn't reflect the  results of stepped-up security efforts. During 
the  '05-'06 school year neither campus had more than two  incidents 
that would qualify it as dangerous, he said.

"It's an inherent problem with them because you're  dealing with 
things that happened three, four years  ago," he said. "But I've 
corrected all of that. I know  that that's going to be history for Donna."

La Joya school district police chief Raul Gonzalez  called Carter 
High School's placement on the list  largely a result of vigilance in 
monitoring campuses  for drugs.

Random drug dog searches and placing three police  officers and five 
security officers at Carter has  resulted in a high number of 
arrests, Gonzalez said.  But, viewed in a more positive light, the 
arrests can be seen as inhibiting other crimes associated with 
drug  use, he said. The district reported no other incidents  such as 
aggravated assault, he said.

"We haven't been designated as a dangerous or a  persistently 
dangerous school because of guns and  knives and violence. It's 
because of the drugs,"  Gonzalez said.

"The staff was a little disappointed," he added. "They  saw it as a 
double-edged sword. You're doing your job,  you're trying to keep 
your school clean from drugs and  at the same time you're being 
punished" with the  rating.

La Joya's two other high schools did not receive the  rating. 
Gonzalez, whom the district designated as its  spokesman on the 
issue, said La Joya must now develop  examine how and why Carter had 
more felony-level drug  arrests than Juarez-Lincoln High School or 
the senior  high school.

The district also plans to step up anti-drug education  campaigns at 
the middle and elementary school level, he  said.

Carter High School Principal Mary Ann Contreras  declined to comment.

Statewide, the two other schools that received the  dangerous 
designation included a high school in the  Cypress-Fairbanks district 
outside Houston and one in  the United school district in Laredo.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman