Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 18, 2009 FLOW Area Regional district issues annual school violence report by Frank J. McMahon A report on violence and vandalism in the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District during the Cheerleaders host clinic The Ramapo High School Varsity Cheerleaders will be holding a cheerleading clinic for all girls who are interested in cheerleading. The clinic will be three hours in length. The girls will learn a cheer and will perform for an audience at the end. The program is open to all girls in grades K-8. The event will be held at Ramapo High School’s lower gym on Saturday, Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. to noon for grades K-3, and from 1 to 4 p.m. for grades 4-8. The cost is $50. Make checks payable to the Ramapo Booster Association. Contact Diane Russo, 388 Dartmouth Avenue, Wyckoff, NJ 07481 (201) 612-9029 for a registration form and liability waiver. Helpful Hints Helpful Hints from 2008-09 school year was recently presented to the board of education. Superintendent Lauren Schoen, who presented the report, advised there were 30 incidents of violence during the past school year, including simple assaults, in which a person attempts to cause bodily injury to another, and fights, or the mutual engagement in a physical confrontation that results in bodily injury to either party. These incidents do not include verbal confrontations or a minor confrontation such as a shoving match. Schoen also reported there were six incidents of vandalism, including four thefts and two involving damage to property, one weapons offense, and 20 substance abuse offenses. As a result of these acts of violence, vandalism, and substance abuse cases, there were 71 instances of out-of-school suspensions and two in-school suspensions. The last state report on the enrollment in the regional high school district indicated there were 1,290 students attending Ramapo High School, which is located in Franklin Lakes, and 993 attending Indian Hills High School, which is located Oakland, for a total enrollment of 2,283 students. During the Violence and Vandalism Awareness Week in October, there were activities scheduled at both high schools to address and mitigate the incidence of violence and vandalism in the schools. At Ramapo, teachers were asked to build the following topics into their lesson plans, and students were encouraged to wear clothing that corresponded to a specific character trait to promote that behavior. For instance, on various days, students were asked to wear yellow to represent respect, red to represent caring, blue to represent trustworthiness, orange to represent fairness, green to represent responsibility, and purple to represent citizenship. At Indian Hills, “Code Yellow” team training was held to better educate the selected staff members on how to intervene in student conflicts without the use of force. In addition, School Principal Al Evangelista read a prepared text to students during that week in which he addressed the need to avoid violence and prevent vandalism in the school. All members of the staff were encouraged to continually reinforce with students the proper way to handle conflicts through the school’s administration, student assistance counselor, and staff members. The district’s report on violence and vandalism is required under the 1982 Public School Safety Law which was enacted the New Jersey Legislature in response to the problem of violence and vandalism in the state’s public schools. 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