v pa t r i ni dad&t obagov i ol enc epr ev ent i onacademy A Pilot Test of the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy (VPA): A Final Report Charles M. Katz, Ph.D. David E. Choate, M.A. Arizona State University Edward R. Maguire, Ph.D. Crime & Justice Analysts, Inc. Vincent J. Webb, Ph.D. Todd A. Armstrong, Ph.D. Sam Houston State University August 22, 2010 Acknowledgements The Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy training and research staff thanks the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and its Ministry of Education for their support of the Violence Prevention Academy. We also thank Mr. Steven Williams and Ms. Marlene Charles for all of their hard work and continued support for the VPA. Additionally, we would like to thank all of the schools, their administrators, teachers, and staff who participated in the VPA. Their work and dedication to the VPA is what made the differences in their schools. Finally, we would like to thank the students of Trinidad and Tobago for their participation in the Student Surveys. Their valuable contribution will help the VPA improve and be responsive to the specific needs of their respective schools. This project was funded by the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not represent the position of either Trinidad and Tobago or its Ministry of Education. Trinidad & Tobago Violence Prevention Academy For Inquiries: Charles M. Katz, Ph.D. Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety 500 N. 3rd Street, NHI-1, Suite 200 Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100 USA Phone: 602-496-1470 Fax: 602-496-1494 Web site: http://cvpcs.asu.edu © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents for and on behalf of Arizona State University and its Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety. This document may be copied and transmitted freely. No deletions, additions, or alterations of contents are permitted without the expressed written consent of the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety. Table of Contents Executive Summary i Introduction 1 Part I: Background 1 Part II: Scanning, Analysis, and Problem Identification within Schools 7 Part III: Response Development and Implementation by School 15 Part IV: VPA Assessment, Impact, & Outcomes 20 Part V: Participant Evaluation of the VPA 69 Part VI: General Conclusions Regarding the VPA 76 Appendix A: Training Schedule 81 Appendix B: VPA CPTED Report 86 Appendix C: VPA Student Survey 139 Appendix D: VPA Teacher Survey 142 Appendix E: VPA School Incident Report Form 145 Appendix F: VPA 2008-2009 Safe Schools Report 150 Appendix G: Individual School Evaluations by School 184 Page |i Executive Summary The Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) was designed to train school-based personnel to develop comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based violence prevention plans tailored to the specific needs of participating schools. Using a combination of face-to-face learning and technical assistance, the training program enhances the skills of school violence prevention specialists and the capacity of the schools where they work to implement and sustain successful violence prevention programs. The Academy is structured around four components: (1) a training program, (2) the development of a school-based violence prevention plan for each participating school, (3) the implementation of the violence prevention plans, and (4) a formal evaluation of the implementation and impact of each school’s plan. The training component consists of four sessions that familiarize participants with the violence prevention planning process. Assisted by Academy staff, following each training module, participants apply the knowledge gained to develop and carry out violence prevention plans for their own schools. Each plan is implemented with technical assistance from Academy and Ministry of Education staff. Finally, each violence prevention plan is formally evaluated for process and impact. The following report describes the experiences and outcomes for 25 Trinidad and Tobago schools that participated in the VPA’s pilot course. Major Findings The percent of students who perceived identified issues as major problems at their schools declined over the period of the VPA project. In fact, both the issues they considered most serious and violence-related issues declined substantially. Their perceptions were measured by a student survey administered at three points in time over the course of the VPA. Teacher survey results indicated changes in school organizational characteristics. Over the period of the VPA, teachers noted improvements in staff morale and an increase in organizational capacity for planning and action. Teacher survey results indicated a reduction in teacher victimization and an increased perception of school safety over the period of the VPA. In addition, teachers reported reductions in classroom disruption; spending less in-class time addressing disruptive behaviors meant more time was spent teaching. Among schools that provided complete official incident data, the VPA was associated with a 30% decrease in offending and indiscipline. Seven of those eight schools experienced significant decreases in total incidents from the pre-test period to the post-test period. Overall, participant evaluations of the VPA were highly positive. Participants generally agreed or strongly agreed that they had learned a lot in the course (92.2%), that they understood the material (98%), and that instructors were enthusiastic (96.1%) and cared about their success (86.3%). Almost 71% agreed or strongly agreed that the VPA curriculum had helped to make their school safer. Asked to evaluate the Student Incident Record Form (SIRF), 100% of the VPA participants indicated that SIRF information was useful; nearly 96% indicated that the SIRF was a useful tool for managing school problems. P a g e | ii Policy Recommendations 1) All public schools should be required to collect and deposit data on school incidents. These data should be collected weekly in a uniform, standardized manner. A report based on these data should be produced annually, and the data should be made available to schools and administrators for the purpose of school-based problem solving. 2) In the future, care should be taken to select VPA team members who will be able to serve on the team throughout the VPA process. To function at its best, each VPA team should have one or more laptop computers equipped with Excel software, and one or more team members should be competent using electronic databases and spreadsheets, especially Excel. 3) Expansion of the Trinidad and Tobago VPA should involve local academics who can work beside VPA facilitators, the goal being to train local academics and past “star” VPA participants for becoming the VPA facilitators of the future. 4) Future delivery of the VPA should be on a firm calendar schedule, with the dates of all training sessions and VPA-related activities and deadlines published before the VPA begins. 5) Consideration should be given to incorporating a stronger research design for evaluating future VPA efforts. The design used to evaluate the pilot Trinidad and Tobago VPA was a simple nonexperimental design that measured change at three points in time. A stronger quasiexperimental design that compares control schools to VPA schools should be used instead. 6) A strong and enforceable set of physical security guidelines should be developed for all public schools in Trinidad and Tobago. 7) Coordination between security officers and school principals should be improved. Policies regarding security officers’ responsibilities and actions should be reviewed and revised. Security officers need to be made more accountable to school principals. 8) The Ministry of Education should embark on a public relations campaign aimed at correcting the misconception that schools in Trinidad and Tobago are generally unsafe. Serious violence in Trinidad and Tobago schools appears to be relatively rare. The public, parents, and other government organizations in Trinidad should be informed that their schools are safer than the communities and homes from which their students come. 9) Policies, practices, and traditions that affect the level of surveillance or watchful guardianship on school campuses, such as those related to teacher absenteeism, late coming, and early leaving, should be reviewed and revised if necessary. The goal should be to institute policies and practices that maximize student supervision and campus surveillance by minimizing teacher absenteeism, late coming, and early leaving. 10) Consideration should be given to establishing a decentralized or streamlined process for the expulsion of students who commit serious and /or violent acts of indiscipline. In-school and afterschool detention should be among the important tools for addressing indiscipline. Page |1 Introduction Through an informal agreement with the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education, we administered the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy (VPA). We provided training to key staff at 25 selected schools and assessed both the implementation and effectiveness of the Academy. This report provides information to the Ministry of Education on the processes used in VPA training and administration, describes the problem-solving processes used by participating schools to identify and respond to school-based problems, and evaluates the Academy’s effectiveness. Part I of this report is a brief background of the origins of the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy; it includes a discussion of problem solving as the guiding principle of the VPA and of the planning and administration of the VPA. Part II describes the scanning, analysis, and problem-identification procedures that were used within the VPA. Specifically, we describe the methods taught to and used by participant school staff to assess the scope and nature of their schools’ respective problems. Part III provides details about each school’s planned response to its identified problem(s), and the degree to which the responses were implemented. Part IV discusses the effectiveness of the VPA, using data collected from students, teachers, and official incident reports recorded by the schools. Part V reports the participants’ views on the usefulness of the VPA and on the positive and/or negative aspects of the program. Finally, Part VI discusses our overall conclusions about the piloting of the Academy, including an assessment of its strengths and weaknesses and our recommendations for the VPA’s future. Part I: Background Over the past several years, media and academics (e.g., Deosaran, 2002; 2005) have increasingly made claims that school violence and associated crime have increased substantially in Trinidad and Tobago. These claims were substantiated through the 2006 Trinidad and Tobago Youth Survey, the results of which indicated that 35% of student respondents did not feel safe at school, 21% had been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property in the prior 12 months, and 12% had not gone to school in the prior 30 days because of feeling unsafe there. As a means of preventing school violence and associated crime, we were asked by the Ministry of Education to implement a violence reduction program, which later came to be called the Violence Prevention Academy (VPA). Page |2 The Violence Prevention Academy was designed to train school-based personnel to develop comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based violence prevention plans tailored to the specific needs of each participating school. Using a combination of face-to-face learning and technical assistance, the training program enhances the skills of school violence prevention specialists and the capacity of the schools where they work to implement and sustain successful violence prevention programs. The Academy was designed to serve the needs of the working professional. The scheduling of Academy activities is determined in conjunction with the participating schools and the Ministry of Education. The Academy is structured around four components: (1) a training program, (2) the development of a school-based violence prevention plan for each participating school, (3) the implementation of the violence prevention plans, and (4) a formal evaluation of the implementation and impact of each school’s plan. The training component consists of four sessions that familiarize participants with the violence prevention planning process. Assisted by Academy staff, following each training module, participants apply the knowledge gained to develop and carry out violence prevention plans for their own schools. Each plan is implemented with technical assistance from Academy and Ministry of Education staff. Finally, each violence prevention plan is formally evaluated for process and impact. Below we describe the guiding principles and the implementation of the VPA. Problem Solving as the Guiding Principle of the Violence Prevention Academy The goal of the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) is to use the problemsolving process to respond to specific issues confronting individual schools. This approach is based on 30 years of research and development, and is well regarded as a “best practice” by many developed nations. It has been successfully used to respond to issues such as violence, bullying, gangs, drugs, and absenteeism in well over 300 communities in the United States, Canada, England, Mexico, and Russia. School-based problem solving typically consists of the implementation of a four-stage process: (1) problem identification (or scanning), (2) analysis, (3) strategy formulation (or response), and (4) assessment (or evaluation). The first stage of school-based problem solving is problem identification, otherwise known as scanning. Scanning can be done in a number of ways. For example, over the course of the day school personnel might look for and identify possible problems in and around the school. Another strategy might be for a school official to review disciplinary records to identify potential problems. Still another scanning strategy would be to consult with the school’s teachers and students. The problems identified using this model often are not isolated incidents having no connection with one another, but rather may be problems that manifest as a collection of related incidents that share one (or more) underlying cause. Page |3 The second stage of school-based problem solving is analysis. During this stage, school personnel collect and document information about the problem selected for attention in an attempt to identify its scope, nature, and cause. This often leads school officials to focus on three characteristics (or elements) of the identified problem: actors (victims, offenders, third parties), incidents (physical setting, social context, sequence of events), and past responses (by the school, district, ministry, and others). The third stage of school-based problem solving is strategy formulation, otherwise known as the intended response. Based on the analysis of data collected during the analysis stage, a strategy for addressing the problem is developed and implemented. The response should include the use of alternative solutions and typically incorporates the assistance of teachers, counselors, administrators, students, parents, other governmental agencies, local businesses, private organizations, and/or any other person or group who might be able to help. Schoolbased problem solving emphasizes that such responses need to go beyond conventional approaches, using well-considered strategies and tactics that could have an impact on the conditions that generate the problem, rather than merely treating its symptoms. Such a strategy will put a greater number of tools on the tool belt of the school violence prevention specialist. The last stage of school-based problem solving is assessment (or evaluation). Assessment is the evaluation of the effectiveness of the response. More than mere impressions or anecdotal evidence of success, assessment must incorporate rigorous feedback in order to allow school officials to revise any response that has not been entirely successful. Such feedback gives school officials the opportunity to reexamine whether or not the problem has been identified correctly and if not, to make timely adjustments. Schools use a wide variety of responses as a consequence of the array of different problems they are required to address, and so no single type of assessment is possible. Thus, schools sometimes are required to go beyond their existing data sources, such as official school records, in order to measure changes in disciplinary problems. They collect and analyze nontraditional data such as photographs, interviews, security surveys, and other less commonly used data sources to measure a wider variety of phenomena, including physical and social disorder, fear, and victimization. Page |4 Implementation of the Trinidad and Tobago VPA An initial meeting with Ministry of Education officials resulted in the decision that a group of three to four persons from each of 22 to 25 schools would be selected for participation in the first offering of the Violence Prevention Academy (VPA). We also agreed that the VPA should be completed within approximately nine months, and that each school’s VPA team should, at a minimum, be comprised of a dean or vice principal and a school safety officer. Upon implementation of the VPA, 25 schools were selected for participation (exhibit 1). Each school’s group typically was comprised of four persons who occupied positions such as principal, vice principal, dean, school safety officer, and teacher. The Minister informed us that they had tried to select 25 schools where there had been a relatively high number of incidents related to violence and indiscipline, based on data submitted by the School Safety Officers. Exhibit 1 : TT VPA Participating Schools Aranguez North Sec. Malick Sec. Mt. Hope Sec. San Fernando West Sec. Success Laventille Sec. Arima North Sec. Marabella North Sec. Mucurapo East Sec. San Juan North Sec. Tranquility Sec. Carapachaima West Sec. Marabella South Sec. Pleasantville Sec. Siparia East Sec. Valencia Sec. Cunupia Sec. Moruga Sec. Princes Town West Sec. Siparia West Sec. Williamsville Sec. Five Rivers Sec. Morvant Laventille Sec. San Fernando East Sec. Ste. Madeleine Sec. El Dorado East Sec.* *El Dorado East Secondary School joined, but then dropped out of the VPA after the first session. Below, we describe activities occurring over the course of the Violence Prevention Academy. (For a more detailed description, see appendix A.) Session 1 (September 15-19, 2008) We conducted five days of classroom training during the first session. Participants were exposed to (1) contemporary trends in crime, delinquency, and drug use in Trinidad, (2) the role of the police and schools in school-related crime, (3) school-based violence prevention partnerships, (4) the violence prevention planning and problem-solving process, (5) the concept of evidence-based violence prevention strategies and practices, and (6) resources for identifying effective programs and practices. At the end of the session, participants learned to use (and to create, if needed) a centralized school-based incident database. (The data would Page |5 later be analyzed and used to identify and document a school-related problem to be addressed by that school’s group for the remainder of the VPA course.) Inter-session activities Official data. During session one, VPA participants were trained to use and/or create an incident-level crime and disorder database. During the inter-session, groups collected data for their respective schools and provided that data to Academy staff for analysis. (Data and analyses were used for demonstrations in session two.) Student survey. Based on the outcomes of several classroom exercises, VPA staff constructed a diagnostic student survey instrument. The survey was administered to students at each participating school. VPA staff entered survey results into each school’s database and reported the data back to participants for analysis during the second session. Teacher survey. Participants developed and VPA staff also constructed a teacher survey. The survey instrument was administered to all teachers at each participating school. VPA staff entered survey results into each school’s database and reported the data back to participants for analysis during the second session. Session 2 (November 17-21, 2008) Academy staff spent one week onsite during session two, conducting further training on the problem-solving process and giving technical assistance as groups prepared their school-based violence prevention plans. Staff helped participants conduct analyses on the scope and nature of each school’s identified problems and taught them how to identify repeat offenders, repeat victims, hot spots, targets (thefts), temporal (time of day, day of week) signatures, and top crime/disorder types. Inter-session activities By the completion of session two, each group was to have analyzed its school’s data and to have begun writing its report. The reports were to (1) present the problem selected to be addressed, (2) present examples of the problem, (3) provide quantitative findings on the problem’s frequency of occurrence, and (4) set tentative goals and objectives for the problemsolving plan. Session 3 (March 23-27, 2009) VPA staff were onsite for five days during session three. Academy staff conducted two days of classroom training, focusing on three issues. First, each participant team finalized the responses Page |6 it had developed to address its school’s problem. Second, participants learned how to assess the effectiveness of their violence prevention projects. Third, participants were introduced to CPTED concepts -- crime prevention through environmental design. For the next three days, as staff at each school reviewed the tasks required to respond to the school’s selected problem, the Academy team conducted CPTED site visits at the schools. During the site visits, they discussed security concerns related to the school’s violence and delinquency problems and completed a local CPTED review. Following the visits, the Academy team produced a summary report (appendix B) for the Ministry and each school, recapping the issues discussed during the meetings and outlining CPTED issues that the schools might beneficially address. Inter-session activities During the inter-session, VPA groups implemented the responses they had designed for their schools. During this period, each school was to (1) produce a written description of its planned response, (2) implement its response(s), and (3) document all related activities. Session 4 (April 12-13, 2010) During the fourth session, the Academy team held a two-day classroom training session, preparing participants to assess the effectiveness of their violence prevention projects. The Academy team helped evaluate the success (or failure) of the projects and taught each group how to write a case study of its project for submission to the Ministry of Education. Inter-session activities Within a month of completing session four, each school group was to complete and submit a final report that thoroughly described and evaluated its VPA project. The reports were to include details on (1) the scanning processes used to identify school-based problems, (2) analyses of data collected to further understand the scope and nature of the identified problems, (3) the responses developed to address the identified problems and the degree to which those responses had been administered, and (4) an assessment of the success (or failure) of those responses. The schools’ final reports were due to VPA staff one month after the final session (May 15, 2010). Page |7 Part II: Scanning, Analysis, and Problem Identification within Schools In the previous section, we discussed how participating schools collected several forms of data for the purpose of identifying their schools’ problems and evaluating their responses to those problems. In this section, we discuss the implementation of the first tasks of the problemsolving process -- scanning, analysis, and problem identification. During session one, the VPA team learned a great deal about the data resources available to the schools and the Ministry. In fact, schools had access to very few data resources that could inform strategic responses to school indiscipline and crime. Surveys of students and teachers had been infrequent. Incident-level data at the school and Ministry levels were decentralized, and often the data elements that would have been most useful for our purposes had not been collected. Following a series of classroom exercises, participants decided to create three problem identification and analysis resources especially for use during the VPA: a student survey, a teacher survey, and a School Incident Report Form, or SIRF. Student Survey VPA participants developed a student survey to be used for identifying school-based problems from the student perspective. They agreed that surveying all students would not be feasible and that Form 5 students could serve as an adequate proxy. The survey consisted of questions about demographics and the seriousness at their schools of 30 predetermined problems (appendix C). In order to measure potential change over the course of the VPA project, it was administered by all of the schools at three different times: after the first VPA session, after the second VPA session, and just prior to the fourth VPA session. More than 50% of students at participating schools believed that disrespect, fighting, littering, disruptive behavior, and gambling were major problems at their schools. VPA groups analyzed this data at the school level to identify the problems perceived to be most troublesome there. This information then was compared with teacher survey data, official school data, and other data collected by each school. Exhibit 2 shows an example of results derived from the student survey data across schools. Page |8 Exhibit 2: Student Diagnostic Survey: Select National Findings 70 60.7 60 53.9 55.1 52.5 50.7 48.5 49.4 50 42.9 43.3 40 30 30.4 32 36.8 37.8 34.6 35.2 20 10 0 Perceived Issue as a Major Problem Page |9 Teacher Survey Participants agreed that information from teachers also should be gathered, in order to determine the extent of school-related problems from their perspectives. The teacher survey requested information on a variety of issues related to socio-demographics, job satisfaction, classroom orderliness, resources, personal security, safety, morale, and planning and action (exhibit D). As with the student survey, the teacher survey was administered by each school at three different times: after the first VPA session, after the second VPA session, and just prior to the fourth session. During the scanning and analysis phases, VPA groups examined their respective school’s teacher survey data, finding that certain problems were more troublesome at some schools than others. Across all schools, however, teachers frequently reported having been the victim of students’ obscene remarks or gestures and having been threatened by a student in the prior month. Remarkably, more than 7% of all teachers reported having been attacked, on occasion requiring medical attention, in the prior month. Exhibit 3 presents examples of the kinds of victimization experienced and the rate at which each was reported. Exhibit 3: Teacher Victimization (all schools) 50% 45.6% 40% 30% 26.9% 20% 10% 5.8% 9.6% 5.1% 4.9% 7.3% 1.2% 1.8% 0% Teachers also identified the school locations they believed to be most unsafe (exhibit 4). This information was collected and analyzed at each school so that its VPA group could determine whether place-based interventions might be needed. Across schools, teachers identified empty classrooms and bathrooms as the least safe places. P a g e | 10 Exhibit 4: Teacher Perceptions of Safety (all schools) 4.0 3.5 3.43 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 3.39 3.29 3.14 2.76 2.37 3.23 2.69 2.42 P a g e | 11 School Incident Report Form (SIRF) The VPA team emphasized the importance of collecting official data at the school level to determine the actual scope and nature of indiscipline at each school. To facilitate this, participants developed a standardized School Incident Reporting Form (SIRF), allowing the schools to collect school-based incident data in a more standard, uniform way than they had in the past (appendix E). The data collected could then be applied locally, not only to better understand the school’s problems, but to better monitor and understand the nature and degree of the successes (or failures) experienced while implementing its violence prevention program. School administrators and teachers received training before using the data collection instrument, and then were asked to complete a SIRF every time an incident occurred. The schools were to collect data using the form from the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, continuing through March 2010. Official school incident data can be used to scan and analyze a number of issues related to school indiscipline -- issues such as the time of day that incidents most often occur, the most common types of incidents, individuals who are most often identified as offenders, and those who are most often identified as victims. While the VPA groups were collecting and analyzing school-specific data, to illustrate the benefits of their activity, the VPA team gave them a series of examples of analyses of data drawn from all participating schools. The sample analyses in exhibit 5 show graphically that most school-based assaults were occurring around 11:30 a.m. This discovery led a number of groups to develop responses that addressed the temporal patterns of such problems at their schools. The VPA team also selected school-level data to demonstrate the value of documenting how repeat offenders and repeat victims affect school indiscipline. Exhibit 6 shows that, at one school, 2% (n=18) of its students were responsible for 45% (n=47) of its incidents. Similarly, exhibit 7 shows an analysis of data from another school, where 2.7% (n=18) of its students were accounting for more than half of all victimization reports. That kind of data represented graphically made a strong, clear case for targeted intervention. P a g e | 12 Exhibit 5: Assaults by time of day Exhibit 6: Analysis of repeat offenders within one Trinidadian school Total students 875 Total incidents 104 Total students written up 69 Written up 1 time Written up 2 times 51 12 Written up 3 times Written up 4 times Written up 5 times 2 3 1 These 18 students were responsible for 47 incidents (45%). (i.e., 2% of students responsible for 45% of incidents. P a g e | 13 Exhibit 7: Analysis of repeat victimization within one Trinidad school Total students 650 Total students victimized 91 Victimized 1 time Victimized 2 times 73 10 Victimized 3 times Victimized 4 times Victimized 5 times 7 0 1 These 18 students (i.e., 2.7%) accounted for 51% of victimizations. Safe Schools Report The above analyses were reported back to each school that had provided the necessary data. In addition, for schools that had collected and provided official school data about incidents occurring during the 2008-2009 school year, the VPA team completed reports on school-based indiscipline. Participation in the data collection exercise was voluntary, but by July 31, 2009, 18 of 25 schools had returned the data needed. Of the 18 schools that did, most had successfully provided data over the entire school year. The report had two purposes. First, it provided the Ministry of Education with a summary of findings derived from this VPA exercise; we hoped this might be of use when conducting national educational policy analyses. All data collected for this exercise were provided to the Ministry and back to each school that had collected it, so that they could conduct their own analyses. Second, the report demonstrated the possible benefits if the Ministry of Education were to require standardized, uniform data collection on school indiscipline from all public schools in Trinidad and Tobago. Schools in most developed nations produce a similar report annually, and we hoped that Trinidad and Tobago would consider investing in such an effort, as well. The 2008-2009 Safe Schools Report produced by the VPA team is found in appendix F. Problem Identification by School Following the scanning and analysis phases, the VPA groups each selected one problem for its school to address. After selected their problems, the groups began developing their plans for responding to those problems. Although each school was asked to select only one problem, some felt the need to select more than one, believing that significant connections might exist P a g e | 14 among them. For example, a group might view fighting as a consequence of disrespectful behavior, in which case it might want to respond to these related issues simultaneously. The most commonly identified problem was fighting. Half of all the groups selected fighting and assault as problems for their schools to target. The second most commonly selected problem was disrespect; 29% chose this problem type. Additionally, 13% focused on gambling, and another 13% focused on disruptive behavior. A handful of schools focused on such issues as larceny, uniform infractions, and tardiness (late coming). Exhibit 8 lists the identified problem selected by each participating school. Exhibit 8: Problem identification by school School Problem Identified Aranguez North Secondary Arima North Secondary Carapichaima West Secondary School Cunupia Secondary School El Dorado East Secondary School Five Rivers Secondary No specific problem selected Did not submit final report Assaults, disrespect, disruptive behavior Fighting Dropped out of VPA after 1st session Assault, fighting, larceny, uniform infractions, disrespect to staff, late coming to school Aggressive behavior Gambling Did not submit final report Fighting Gambling Fighting Gambling Did not submit final report Fighting, disrespect to staff Fighting, disrespect Disrespectful behavior Late coming Disruptive, disrespectful behavior Fighting Did not submit final report Fighting, disrespect, disruptive behavior Did not submit final report Fighting Fighting (assaults) Malick Secondary School Marabella North Secondary School Marabella South Secondary School Moruga Secondary Morvant Laventille Secondary School Mt. Hope Secondary School Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School Pleasantville Secondary School Princes Town West Secondary School San Fernando Secondary East San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School San Juan North Secondary School Siparia Secondary East Siparia West Secondary School Ste. Madeleine Secondary Success Laventille Secondary School Tranquility Secondary School Valencia Secondary School Williamsville Secondary School P a g e | 15 Part III: Response Development and Implementation by School Based on data collected from each school’s final report, the VPA team conducted an analysis to determine the extent to which each response had been implemented. Some schools had omitted data on the degree to which their response were implemented; those omissions were noted. For schools that submitted data, the VPA team made a qualitative assessment about whether the degree of implementation could be characterized as “low,” “medium,” or “high.” Exhibit 9 shows the responses proposed to address each problem, by school, and the degree to which each response was implemented. Although 107 responses had been proposed by the schools, for about half of them, little or no information was received about whether or not the responses had been implemented; therefore, the degree of implementation of those responses were not characterized. Exhibit 9: Response development and implementation by school and response Responses Developed Aranguez North Secondary School Teacher development Code of conduct manuals distributed to parents and teachers Value training for students Time tabled supervision for teachers Increase guardianship Carapichaima West Secondary School Enhance supervision at lunch & breaks Install cameras Provide law-related education Revise disciplinary matrix Provide NGO programs to students Provide NGO programs to teachers and students Degree of implementation Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Low Data not reported High Low Low P a g e | 16 Cunupia Secondary School Families in action program Increased supervision Trim trees Install surveillance cameras Five Rivers Secondary School Increased guardianship Malick Secondary School Anger management & coping skills program for repeat offenders link to aggressive behavior Parenting program for parents of repeat offenders Parenting program for Form 1 parents Patrols Posting of security officer in hot spot Conflict & anger management program Installation of security programs Marabella North Secondary School Implement CPTED improvement plan Implement supervision plan Increase student involvement Establish school rules committee Legal education program Change school uniform Moruga Secondary School Conflict and anger management program Anti-bullying program Introduction of cadets Youth mentoring program Incentive awards program Confident parenting program Not implemented Data not reported Data not reported Not implemented High High Medium Data not reported Low Not implemented Medium Not implemented Low Data not reported Not implemented Data not reported Medium High High Not implemented Not implemented Not implemented Data not provided Not implemented P a g e | 17 Morvant Laventille Secondary School Targeted patrols Supervision of classrooms when teacher is absent Infrastructural changes Discipline management system Mt. Hope Secondary School Rules for the classrooms Counseling by deans/guidance officer Parent teacher conferences Mentoring program Peer mediation program Arts in action program Teacher latecoming/early leaving, absenteeism program Conflict resolution skills program for teachers Student visit to prison Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School Clear foliage from school Organize patrols by deans and SSOs Rapport workshops Arts program Families in action program SERVOL Princes Town West Secondary School Increase block E supervision Parental education course Teacher absentee program Fill staff positions School physical Improvement program Deliver self-esteem course to students Low Low Not implemented Not implemented Data not reported Data not reported Low Data not reported High High Data not reported Data not reported High High Data not reported High Data not reported Data not reported High Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported High P a g e | 18 San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School Program for practicing respectful behavior “from the gate to the classroom” Program for oral and written reminders on importance of respect Enforcing rules of respect for arriving and leaving class Role reversal exercise Breakfast and lunch manners exercise Professional training seminar for staff-lead by example Acceptable interaction for formal and informal moments Program on classroom respect Improve data Develop discipline matrix San Fernando East Secondary School Locking classrooms when not in use Regular patrols Burglar proof specified areas Repeat offenders restricted from identified rooms Erect perimeter fence around compound San Juan North Secondary School Inform parents of latecoming policy Give punctuality/merit awards Detention system initiative Siparia Secondary East Patrols by deans and SSOs Paint over graffiti Remove excess vegetation Gateways built Student programming Placement of safety and anti-littering signs Electronic scanning devices High High High High Pending Pending Not implemented Medium/low Not implemented In development Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Medium High Medium Data not reported Data not reported Data not provided Data not provided Data not reported Data not reported Data not provided P a g e | 19 Siparia West Secondary School Restructuring of timetable Disciplinary detention Floor supervision Stronger regulation of cafeteria hours Lunchtime supervision by SSO Install cameras Install fencing Relocation of dean’s office Success Laventille Secondary School Dean, MT, & SSO patrols during breaks and lunch time Supervision of classes when teacher is absent Seminars provided to students Dean meeting with teachers Use of CCTV Introduction of discipline matrix Valencia Secondary School Structured supervision Structured patrol s Williamsville Secondary School Counseling for repeat offenders and victims Lock classrooms during lunch Regular patrols Burglar-proof back step Repeat offenders restricted from some rooms Holes in fence mended High Low Data not provided Data not provided Data not provided Not implemented Data not provided Not implemented Data not reported Data not reported Data not provided Data not provided Five cameras requested, 2 installed Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported Data not reported P a g e | 20 Part IV: VPA Assessment, Impacts, and Outcomes VPA Impact: Student Perceptions Students attending the 25 schools participating in the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Education Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) were administered surveys to assess their perceptions of crime and delinquency problems at their schools. Form 5 students were surveyed at three different times: October 2008 (time one, n=2095), January 2009 (time two, n=2119), and February/March 2010 (time three, n=1867), for a total of 6,081 completed surveys. Nature of the Data The student survey consisted of 31 individual items related to crime and indiscipline and four classifying demographic questions. The 31 individual items addressed both serious and minor crimes, as well as behavioral and procedural concerns. Students were asked to whether each item listed was a major problem, a minor problem, or not a problem at their school. Results presented in this report are based on the percentage of respondents who perceived a given issue as a major problem. (Demographic questions asked for the form in which the respondent was currently enrolled and the respondent’s sex, race, and age.) The majority of students (n=5538, 92.8%) were enrolled in Form 5; 272 (4.6%) were in Form 4, 160 (2.7%) reported being in another form, and 111 students did not report the form in which they were enrolled. Overall, about 52% of the respondents were female. Combining results from all three surveys across schools, most respondents reported being African (42.7%), followed by East-Indian (23.9%), other (17.9%), and Afro-Indian (15.5%). Most respondents either were 16 (45%) or 17 (35.9%) years old, with about 7% younger and 12.1% older. Note that although student age and form differed significantly across respondents, this was influenced by the decision before administering the survey to select Form 5 students as proxies. The number of students providing completed surveys was very good for all three waves. Exhibit 10 presents the demographic information collected, using different sample sizes for each of the different measures due to missing data. Overall, for each of the four demographic questions, about 2% to 5% were missing. P a g e | 21 Exhibit 10: Student characteristics for all three waves of VPA Student Survey Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Total n= Form 4 Form 5 Other 2,085 0.3 99.5 0.2 2,029 2.5 97.0 0.4 1,856 11.6 80.5 7.9 5,970 4.6 92.8 2.7 n= Male Female 1,985 49.0 51.0 2,006 48.9 51.1 1,768 47.1 52.9 5,759 48.4 51.6 n= African East Indian Afro-Indian Other 2,055 45.7 23.4 15.1 15.8 2,092 40.6 24.4 16.7 18.2 1,845 41.7 23.8 14.4 20.1 5,992 42.7 23.9 15.5 17.9 n= 15 or younger 16 years 17 years 18 or older 2,083 9.5 54.0 28.9 7.6 2,024 3.3 44.0 40.6 12.2 1,853 8.1 36.0 38.6 17.2 5,960 7.0 45.0 35.9 12.1 What Form are you in? * Sex Race or Ethnicity * How old are you? * * Significant Chi-square at p < .05 Aggregate Analysis of Student Perceptions by Problem Type In the following analysis, we examined student perceptions of change in indiscipline by problem type. Exhibits 11 and 12 present our findings for indiscipline problems associated with violence, drugs, disorder, policy violations, and other violations. These represent the percent of students reporting a major problem for violent issues for waves 1, 2, and 3 of data collection. Exhibit 13 shows the percent of change between time one and time three. As the analysis indicates, students perceived that fighting, weapon possession, threats and intimidation, bullying, and sexual assault declined significantly between time one and time three. P a g e | 22 Exhibit 11: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Violent Issues, Times 1 thru 3 54.6 60 44.5 46.2 50 40 34.5 30 28.8 29.3 42.9 42.2 39.7 24.6 23.9 23.3 20 10 0 Threats and intimidation Assault Time 1 Fighting Time 2 Bullying Time 3 Exhibit 12: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Violent Issues, Times 1 thru 3 60 50 40 30 29.8 26.3 27.8 20 31.3 21.2 23.4 24.8 17.1 18.3 9.3 10 9.3 7.6 0 Robbery Sexual assault Time 1 Gun possession Time 2 Time 3 Weapon possession P a g e | 23 Exhibit 13: Percent Change in "Major Problem" in Violent Issues from Time 1 to Time 3 0.0 -1.0 -2.0 -2.0 -3.0 -3.2 -4.0 -1.7 -1.3 -2.9 -5.0 -5.2 -6.0 -7.0 -6.5 -8.0 -9.0 -8.4 -10.0 Fighting* Weapon Threats and possession* intimidation* Bullying* Sexual assault * Robbery Gun Possession Assault During time one, 26.5% of students perceived marijuana use as a major problem, 11% perceived cocaine use as a major problem, and 17% perceived drug sales as a major problem at their school (exhibit 14). Marijuana use, cocaine use, and drug sales all were reported as major problems less often in time three than in time one. In that period, student perception of marijuana use as a major problem declined from 26.5% to 19.6%; student perception of cocaine use as major problem declined from 11% to about 9%; and student perception of drug sales as a major problem declined from 17% to 13.5% (exhibit 14). The declines in the percentage of students perceiving marijuana use (6.9%) and drug sales (3.5%) as a major from time one to time three were statistically significant. Although not statistically significant, reports of cocaine use as a major problem declined 1.7% over that same period (exhibit 15). P a g e | 24 Exhibit 14: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Drug Issues, Times 1 thru 3 30 26.5 25 20 19.3 19.6 17.0 15 13.1 11.0 10.1 10 9.3 5 0 Marijuana use Cocaine use Drug sales Exhibit 15: Percent Change in "Major Problem" for Drug Issues from Time 1 to Time 3 0.0 -1.0 -2.0 -1.7 -3.0 -4.0 -3.5 -5.0 -6.0 -7.0 -8.0 -6.9 -9.0 -10.0 Marijuana use* Cocaine use * Significant at p< .05 Drug sales* 13.5 P a g e | 25 Students also were asked about stealing, gambling, vandalism, extortion (or taxing), gangs, trespassing, forgery, and arson. Exhibits 16 and 17 show the percent of students reporting each of these issues as a major problem. For most, the percent of students perceiving them as major problems declined modestly from time one to time three. The largest declines over the study period were observed for gangs (7.4%), extortion/taxing (6.4%), stealing (5.1%), and vandalism (3.5%). Students did not perceive a change in the degree of such problems as arson, forgery, gambling, and trespassing (exhibit 18). Exhibit 16: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Other Issues, Times 1 thru 3 60 50 49.4 40.3 44.3 48.3 48.7 42.6 43.2 40 38.7 39.7 36.5 36.3 32.1 30.1 31.0 30 28.9 20 10 0 Stealing Gambling Vandalism Extortion / Taxing Gangs Exhibit 17: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Other Issues, Times 1 thru 3 60 50 40 30 20 12.3 12.4 12.9 10.2 10.0 10 10.3 8.2 7.5 0 Trespassing on school grounds Forgery Arson 7.4 P a g e | 26 3.0 Exhibit 18: Percent Change in "Major Problem" for Other Issues from Time 1 to Time 3 1.0 0.1 -1.0 0.4 0.6 -0.8 -3.0 -3.5 -5.0 -5.1 -7.0 -9.0 -6.4 -7.4 Gangs * Extortion / Taxing * Stealing* Vandalism * Arson * Significant at p< .05 Forgery Gambling Trespassing on school grounds Seven issues were clustered under the category of disorderly conduct. The perceived degree of all seven types of disorder declined among student respondents from time one to time three, but the only significant change was for bomb threats, perceived to be a major problem by 17% of students at time one, declining to 10.4% in time three (exhibit 20). Disrespectful behavior declined in perceived importance for students from 60.1% to 57.3%; disruptive behavior declined from 52.5% to 50.1%. Similar declines were found for loitering (57.1% to 55.6%) and littering (51.2% to 49.9%). The perceived importance of obscene language declined from almost 72% in time one to about 69% in time three. Inappropriate sexual contact between students declined from 34.6% in time one to 32.7% in time three (exhibit 19). Exhibit 20 shows the change in percent of students who perceived each disorder issue as “major” from time one to time three. P a g e | 27 Exhibit 19: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Disorder Issues, Times 1 thru 3 80 71.7 70 60.1 58.2 57.3 60 50 52.5 57.1 57.3 55.6 49.4 50.1 40 34.6 30 20 10 29.9 51.2 68.4 69.2 48.4 49.9 32.7 17.0 9.6 10.4 0 Bomb threats Disrespect Disruptive behavior Sexual misconduct Littering Loitering Obscene language Exhibit 20: Percent Change in "Major Problem" for Disorder Issues from Time 1 to Time 3 0.0 -1.0 -2.0 -1.9 -3.0 -2.8 -1.5 -1.3 -2.4 -2.5 -4.0 -5.0 -6.0 -7.0 -6.6 -8.0 -9.0 Bomb threats* Disrespect Disruptive behavior Sexual Littering misconduct * Significant at p< .05 Loitering Obscene language P a g e | 28 Student perceptions of policy issues as major problems over the project period either increased or did not change. At time one, 53.6% of students perceived late arrival at school as a major problem; at time three, this had become 58% -- an increase of 4.4%. The perception of cheating on class assignments as a major problem increased from 27.6% in time one to 29.6% in time three, and of non-students wearing school uniforms over that period, from 14.5% to 16.6%. Student perceptions of problems associated with unauthorized absences and improper uniform violations were unchanged over the study period. Exhibit 21 shows the percent of students reporting different policy violations as major problems at each survey wave; Exhibit 22 shows changes in the perceived importance of problems over the entire period. Exhibit 21: Percent of Students Reporting "Major Problem" for Policy Violation Issues, Times 1 thru 3 70 60 53.6 58.5 58.0 50 40.8 40 30.8 31.1 30.7 30 32.8 27.6 38.4 40.3 29.6 14.5 14.7 16.6 20 10 0 Arriving to school late Unauthorized absence Cheating on class assignments Improper uniform Nonstudents wearing uniforms P a g e | 29 Exhibit 22: Percent Change in "Major Problem" for Policy Violation Issues from Time 1 to Time 3 5.0 4.4 4.0 3.0 2.1 2.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 -0.1 -1.0 -0.5 -2.0 -3.0 -4.0 -5.0 Arriving to school late* Unauthorized absence Cheating on class Improper uniform assignments Nonstudents wearing uniforms * Significant at p< .05 Analysis of Change by School School administrators identified which problems they felt were most important to address for their respective schools early in the VPA process. Seventeen schools completed all the necessary steps to be included in the analyses conducted for this report: identifying a specific problem to address, returning student surveys for all three waves of data collection, and submitting timely project reports to the Ministry of Education. Slightly more than half (58.8%, n=10) of the schools had focused on one problem; four schools had addressed two issues (23.5%) and three (17.6%) had addressed more than two issues. Fighting, the most commonly identified issue, was selected as the problem to target by ten schools; disrespectful behavior was the next most common, selected by seven schools. Assault, disruptive behavior, and gambling each were selected by three schools. Students reported perceiving their schools’ identified problems as “major” at both increased and decreased rates, depending on the problem. (Before drawing conclusions, those results should be considered along with results from official school data reported in SIRF reports). Between time one and time three, some schools showed an increase in student perceptions of the targeted problem being a “major problem.” This may have been consistent with an actual change related to the problem in those schools (which should be reflected on their SIRFs) or it may have represented increased student awareness as those issues received greater administrative attention. Student survey results are just one resource in a broad array that can P a g e | 30 help to explain the complex problems that the VPA’s participant schools were addressing and continue to address. Exhibit 23 below shows the percent of students who perceived various issues as major problems at each survey wave, by school; it also shows the percent of change over the project period. P a g e | 31 Exhibit 23: Percentage of Students Reporting School-Identified Problem as a 'Major Problem,' by Time and Overall Change % Reporting 'Major Problem' School and Identified Problem(s) Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 % Change Assaults Disrespectful Behavior Disruptive Behavior 11.4 48.0 39.4 19.3 45.7 44.4 16.2 52.6 46.1 4.80 4.68 6.61 Fighting * 52.1 49.3 79.6 27.58 Assaults Fighting Larceny Uniform Infractions Disrespectful Behavior Tardiness * 13.4 47.5 46.9 36.6 53.0 42.2 8.1 23.1 21.9 30.5 40.0 39.6 23.3 60.9 56.5 39.5 69.6 61.4 9.86 13.35 9.58 2.90 16.57 19.20 Threats & Intimidation 45.5 45.4 41.5 -3.96 Gambling 42.9 20.0 23.5 -19.33 Fighting * 66.7 48.2 84.8 18.11 Gambling 57.5 75.0 73.5 16.03 Fighting 56.3 63.4 40.0 -16.25 Gambling * 56.4 52.5 45.1 -11.27 Fighting * Disrespectful Behavior Fighting * Disrespectful Behavior San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School Disrespectful Behavior San Juan North Secondary School Tardiness * Indicates significant t-test at p< .05. 74.4 60.9 53.6 60.7 55.9 54.0 54.2 81.0 49.6 61.5 30.2 59.1 -24.80 0.69 -23.34 -1.62 75.0 63.2 61.5 -13.46 58.4 68.1 59.9 1.44 Carapichaima West Secondary School Cunupia Secondary School Five Rivers Secondary Malick Secondary School Marabella North Secondary School Moruga Secondary Morvant Laventille Secondary School Mt. Hope Secondary School Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School Princes Town West Secondary School P a g e | 32 Exhibit 23: Percentage of Students Reporting School-Identified Problem as a 'Major Problem,' by Time and Overall Change, continued % Reporting 'Major Problem' School and Identified Problem(s) Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 % Change Disrespectful Behavior Disruptive Behavior 62.7 59.1 60.6 52.5 53.4 43.1 -9.27 -16.03 Fighting 72.1 56.7 61.5 -10.55 Fighting * Disrespectful Behavior Disruptive Behavior 25.7 55.2 52.4 42.9 50.7 52.8 46.7 43.4 39.5 20.96 -11.82 -12.91 Assaults Fighting 20.2 60.67 35.2 62.5 28.6 47.73 8.33 -12.94 Siparia Secondary East Siparia West Secondary School Success Laventille Secondary School Williamsville Secondary School * Indicates significant t-test at p< .05. Conclusion from Student Surveys At the aggregate level, data analysis indicated that students perceived several identified problems to be less severe in their schools at time three than at time one. Specifically, of 31 problem types examined, 25 were viewed by students to be less of a problem after their schools’ VPA plans had been implemented. Between time one and time three, student perception of 12 problem types as “major” had significantly declined. For example, 8.4% fewer students perceived fighting to be a major problem in the school after the VPA was administered (exhibit 13). Similarly, as represented in exhibits 13, 16 and 18 above, perceptions of marijuana use as a major problem declined by almost 7%; perceptions of extortion as a major problem declined by 6.4%; perceptions of weapon possession, stealing, threats and intimidation, and gangs as major problems declined by similar amounts. Analyses of changes in student perception by school and by problem type, however, were less supportive. Over the three waves, of 17 schools examined, seven experienced significant change (positive or negative) in student perceptions of problems at their schools as “major.” A significant percent of students at three schools perceived the problem as no longer “major,” but a greater percent of student respondents at four schools actually perceived the problem to have become more important following implementation of the VPA plan. P a g e | 33 VPA Impact: Perceptions and Experiences of Teachers The teacher survey included questions measuring problem behavior, school safety, and other school characteristics. Questions measuring problem behavior addressed classroom disruption, teacher victimization, and perceptions of school safety. Questions addressing other school characteristics included job attitudes, school resources, morale, and planning and action. Nature and Quality of the Data Teacher surveys were administered in the 25 schools participating in the Violence Prevention Academy three different times: in October 2008, January 2009, and February/March 2010. Exhibit 24 shows the percent of all teacher surveys completed at each school. Participation was unequally distributed across schools during each survey administration; this could be anticipated, since different schools have different numbers of faculty. When interpreting results, note that schools with more staff and faculty tended to comprise a larger proportion of the overall group, and therefore had a greater influence on results. The impact of individual schools on results was mitigated by the large number of schools included. The largest overall percentage of teacher surveys at any time period for any single school was 6.8%; the smallest was 0%. P a g e | 34 Exhibit 24: Percent of Teacher Surveys Gathered at Each School School Aranguez North Secondary Arima North Secondary Carapichaima West Secondary Cunupia High School El Dorado East Secondary Five Rivers Junior Secondary Marabella Secondary Marabella Senior comprehensive Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Moruga Composite School Morvant Laventille Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Mucurado Secondary Comprehensive Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive Princes Town West Secondary San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive San Juan North Secondary Siparia East Secondary Siparia West Secondary Ste Madeleine Secondary Success Laventille Composite Tranquillity Govt Secondary Valencia High School Williamsville Secondary School Total Time One (N = 1071) Time Two (N = 983) Time Three (N = 945) 4.1% 3.6% 4.2% 3.1% 2.8% 2.5% 2.1% 6.7% 3.5% 1.2% 3.4% 3.9% 5.7% 5.9% 5.9% 4.4% 0.1% 6.4% 4.0% 5.8% 2.6% 4.1% 5.9% 3.7% 4.6% 100.0% 2.7% 5.1% 4.5% 4.3% 0.0% 1.8% 4.1% 5.4% 7.0% 1.5% 3.2% 2.8% 5.4% 4.1% 6.2% 4.9% 4.5% 7.6% 3.8% 4.8% 2.4% 1.9% 3.7% 3.6% 4.8% 100.0% 4.3% 5.5% 4.7% 2.5% 0.0% 2.2% 2.3% 6.8% 5.2% 2.3% 3.9% 3.7% 6.8% 4.3% 6.1% 4.7% 3.1% 6.5% 4.7% 1.9% 2.1% 2.5% 6.1% 3.8% 3.9% 100.0% Exhibit 25 presents characteristics of the teacher survey respondents. Information under the heading “Form” represents the form taught by teacher respondents during each time period; gender and ethnicity represent respondents’ demographic characteristics. At each time period, the majority of respondents reported teaching more than one form. At all time periods, approximately two thirds of respondents were female. Just over one third of respondents reported their ethnicity as African, while over 40% reported their ethnicity as Indian. At each time period, approximately 4% described their ethnicity as Afro/Indian. Note that variation in teacher characteristics was minimal and therefore should have, at most, a minor impact on trends in teacher survey results. P a g e | 35 Exhibit 25: Teacher Survey Respondent Characteristics Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Form 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Lower 6th Upper 6th Other More than one 2.76% 1.18% 1.38% 4.33% 5.51% 0.59% 1.18% 0.98% 82.09% 1.95% 0.10% 1.23% 2.36% 1.74% 0.31% 0.00% 0.31% 92.00% 1.98% 1.19% 0.99% 1.79% 4.37% 0.40% 0.40% 1.19% 87.70% Gender Male Female 36.12% 63.88% 36.80% 63.20% 34.18% 65.82% Ethnicity African East Indian Afro/Indian Other 36.01% 42.80% 4.42% 16.77% 34.56% 46.95% 3.89% 14.60% 35.01% 43.65% 4.92% 16.41% Aggregate Analysis of Change by Problem Type This section highlights changes in problem behavior/school safety. Exhibit 26 presents changes in views on classroom disruption (teacher survey questions 9 and 10). Trends indicated that teachers spent more time coping with disruptive behavior at time one than at time three. Trends also indicated that classroom disruption affected time spent teaching for less time at time three than at time one. Both differences, although relatively small in magnitude, do reach the threshold for statistical significance (p < .05). P a g e | 36 (0=none of my time; 3=most of my time) Exhibit 26: Views on Classroom Disruption 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.39 1.42 1.52 1.24 1.25 1.17 1.0 0.5 0.0 Coping w/Disruptive Behavior* Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Kept from Teaching* Timepoint 3 Teacher victimization results are presented in exhibits 27 and 28. (Exhibit 27 represents answers to teacher survey questions 20 and 21; exhibit 28 represents answers to questions 15 to 20, and question 23). These questions addressed teacher victimization incidents occurring in the month before administering each survey. Exhibit 27 shows that students directing obscene remarks or gestures toward teachers and student threats were relatively common. At time one, about half of the teachers reported having received an obscene remark or gesture from a student. This decreased at time two, but increased again at time three. Just over 28% of teachers reporting at time one had received a threat from a student in the prior month. This decreased at time two, but increased again to approximately the earlier level at time three. For both obscene remarks or gestures and threats by students, differences between time one and time two were statistically significant, while differences between time one and time three were not (p < .05). Exhibit 28 presents results for measures of different types of teacher victimization including damage to personal property (<$60 and >$60), theft of personal property (<$60 and >$60), physical attack (requiring and not requiring attention from a doctor), and having a weapon pulled. Across all of these measures of teacher victimization, fewer teachers reported victimization at time two than at time one. The differences were statistically significant for three of seven measures: damage to personal property both less than and greater than $60, and physical attack not requiring attention from a doctor. P a g e | 37 The percent of teachers reporting victimization incidents between time two and time three increased for four of the seven teacher victimization measures, although time three percentages remained lower than time one percentages for five of the seven measures. Decreases in teacher victimization between time one and time three were statistically significant for damage to personal property greater than $60 and for physical attacks not resulting in the attention of a doctor; no other change between time one and three was statistically significant. Exhibit 27: Teacher Victimization (percent reporting yes) 60% 50% 48.8% 47.8% 41.2% 40% 28.5% 30% 27.8% 23.4% 20% 10% 0% Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student: Time 1 Was threatened in remarks by a student: Time 2 Time 3 P a g e | 38 Exhibit 28: Teacher Victimization (percent reporting yes) 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Timepoint 3 Trends may be substantive and important, even when lacking statistical significance. For example, differences in teacher reports of attack resulting in the attention of a doctor are large between time one and time three, but they do not reach the level of statistical significance. At time one, 1.4% of teachers reported having been the victim of an attack resulting in the attention of a doctor. At time three, 0.6% reported having been the victim of an attack resulting in the attention of a doctor. This difference, while lacking statistical significance, is still important, as it represents a large relative decline. Exhibit 29 below summarizes teacher views of general school safety (teacher survey questions 24 and 25). In the survey, teachers reported how much of a problem vandalism, personal attacks, and theft were in their schools (0 = none or almost note, 4 = very much) and how many times they hesitated to confront misbehaving students for fear of their own safety (0 = never, 4 = nearly all the time). Exhibit 29 shows an increase over the period of the project in the degree to which teachers thought that vandalism, personal attacks, and theft were problems. The exhibit shows a simultaneous decrease, however, in teacher reluctance to confront misbehaving students. Trends summarized in Exhibit 28 are statistically significant between time one and time two and between time one and time three (p. < .05). P a g e | 39 Exhibit 29: Views on School Safety 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.56 2.74 2.61 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.38 1.18 1.25 1.0 0.5 0.0 Vandalism/Attacks/Theft Timepoint 1 Fear of Confrontation Timepoint 2 Timepoint 3 Exhibit 30 summarizes teacher views on school safety by location in the school (teacher survey questions 26 to 34). At each time period, the places reported as least safe were empty classrooms, toilets, outside school, and hallways. Reported as the safest places were the teachers’ own classrooms, the parking lot, and the auditorium. For seven of the nine areas addressed, perceptions of safety increased between time one and time two; for the other two areas (cafeteria and parking lot), perceptions of safety remained unchanged. Between time two and time three, perceptions of safety again increased for seven of the nine areas; perceptions of safety decreased between time two and time three for two areas (toilets, outside school). Despite small decreases in perceptions of safety reported for two of the areas between time two and time three, overall increases in perceptions of safety were reported between time one and time three across all nine areas. Increases between time one and time three in perceptions of safety were statistically significant for empty classrooms, hallways and locker areas, cafeteria, the gym, the school hall/auditorium, and elsewhere outside on school grounds (p < .05). Other increases in perceptions of safety approached statistical significance including those for the cafeteria (p = .05) and those for the student toilets (p = .08). Overall, results presented in exhibits 29 and 30 demonstrated fairly widespread improvements in teacher perceptions of safety. P a g e | 40 Exhibit 30: Safety by Location in School 4.00 (0=very unsafe; 4=very safe) 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Timepoint 3 Exhibit 31 presents survey results from questions regarding job satisfaction (teacher survey questions 6 through 8). The questions addressed how much teachers liked their job (0 = I hate it, 3 = I love it), how much of the time they were satisfied with their job (0 = all the time, 3 = almost never), and how much they liked their job compared with how much others liked theirs (0 = no one likes his or her job better than I like mine, 3 = I dislike my job much more than most people dislike theirs). Trends shown in Exhibit 31 included a slight decrease in how much teachers liked their job, and small increases in job satisfaction and how much teachers felt that they liked their job compared with others. The change in appreciation for one’s job relative to others was statistically significant between time one and time two, but not between time one and time three (p < .05). The change in job satisfaction was not statistically significant between time one and time two, but was between time one and time three (p < .05). Trends in reports on how much teachers liked their jobs were not statistically significant between time one and either time two or time three. P a g e | 41 Exhibit 31: Job Satisfaction 2.50 2.23 2.22 2.20 2.00 1.56 1.53 1.50 1.50 1.50 1.44 1.48 1.00 0.50 0.00 Like Job Satisfied * Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Compared w/ Others Timepoint 3 Exhibit 32 summarizes the results for teacher survey items addressing the sufficiency of school resources (teacher survey questions 11 to 14). Trends were mixed. Between time one and time two, there were decreases in perceptions of sufficiency of resources across all four items included in the teacher survey. However, these decreases were balanced by an increase in perceptions of the sufficiency of resources between time two and time three. Comparisons between time one and time three show that across the four items, there were two decreases, one increase, and one item that remained the same. The only statistically significant (p < .05) trend shown was the increase between time one and time two in teacher perceptions that schools supply materials and equipment needed for teaching. P a g e | 42 Exhibit 32: Views on Sufficient School Resources (0=strongly disagree; 3=strongly agree) 3.00 2.50 2.02 2.00 1.50 1.90 2.00 1.98 1.92 1.93 1.84 1.77 1.84 1.31 1.27 1.38 1.00 0.50 0.00 Material/Equipment Space/Physical Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Extent Timing Timepoint 3 Survey results summarizing respondent beliefs regarding the feelings of teaching faculty at their school are presented in exhibit 33 (teacher survey questions 35 to 41). In all cases, the direction of change was the same between time one and time two and between time one and time three, although the magnitude of the latter increase at times was smaller (see, for example, changes in apathy). Increases in perceptions of teaching faculty as cohesive were statistically significant between time one and time two and between time one and time three (p < .05). Decreases in perceptions of teaching faculty as underappreciated were also statistically significant between time one and time two and between time one and time three. Increases in perceptions of the satisfaction of teaching faculty were statistically significant between time one and time two, but not between time one and time three (p. < .05). Other changes were not statistically significant. P a g e | 43 Exhibit 33: Views of Faculty at School (percent reporting true) 40% 18.7% 22.9% 20.4% 50% 30.8% 32.4% 35.7% 60% 34.4% 39.3% 41.2% 70% 45.6% 53.0% 50.2% 80% 74.6% 70.7% 70.3% 90% 65.6% 63.8% 63.1% 78.9% 76.7% 77.6% 100% 30% 20% 10% 0% Apathetic Enthusiastic Timepoint 1 Satisfied Timepoint 2 Unappreciated Timepoint 3 Exhibit 34 summarizes the results for teacher survey questions addressing teacher participation with other teachers or administrators on planning committees (teacher survey question 42). Trends show increases in teacher participation once a month and several times a month, with decreases for teacher participation less than once a month. Increases in frequent teacher participation on planning committees are statistically significant (p < .05) between time one and time three, but not statistically significant between time one and time two. Other trends shown in exhibit 34 are not statistically significant. P a g e | 44 70% 60% Exhibit 34: Percent of Teachers Working On Planning Committees 57.2% 53.6% 50.5% 50% 40% 30% 24.9% 21.8% 24.5% 24.6% 21.0% 21.9% About once a month Several times a month 20% 10% 0% Less than once a month Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Timepoint 3 Responses to teacher survey questions addressing perceptions of administrator planning and action are presented in exhibit 35 (teacher survey questions 43 – 44). For all areas addressed, there were increases between time one and time two and between time two and time three. Higher percentages indicate an increase in the rate of agreement with positive statements about administrator experimentation, use of teacher evaluations to motivate improvement, engagement in planning, and being progressive. Differences between time one and time two were statistically significant for the use of teacher evaluation to improve performance and for engagement in planning. All differences between time one and time three were statistically significant. In addition to having statistical significance, many of the increases between time one and time two were substantively large. For example, teacher perceptions of administrative use of evaluation to improve teacher performance increased from 37.4% to 49.8% from time one to time three. Together, trends across items shown in exhibit 35 showed improvements in planning and action. P a g e | 45 Exhibit 35: Administrator Planning and Action (percent reporting true) 90% 73.9%76.6% 80% 65.0% 70% 60% 58.1% 55.2% 51.2% 50% 57.2%59.5% 49.8% 45.8% 48.8% 37.4% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Encourages experimentation Teacher evaluation used for improvements Timepoint 1 Engages in planning Timepoint 2 Progressive Timepoint 3 Results for teacher survey questions addressing faculty views regarding change are presented in exhibit 36 (teacher survey questions 47 to 50). Exhibit 36 shows decreases in the percent of respondents perceiving faculty as conservative and traditional, and increases in the percent perceiving them as innovative and open to change. The percent perceiving faculty as conservative increased between times one and two, but decreased sharply between times two and three, resulting in a small decrease between times one and three that was not statistically significant (p. < .05). The percent viewing their faculty as traditional increased slightly between time one and time two, then decreased between time two and three, resulting in an overall decrease in those perceiving faculty as traditional. This decrease was statistically significant (p. < .05). Both the percent of those perceiving teachers as innovative and those perceiving teachers as open to change increased from time one to time two and from time two to time three. Increases from time one to time three were statistically significant. P a g e | 46 Exhibit 36: Faculty Attitudes Regarding Planning and Action (percent reporting true) 80% 70% 72.5%72.6% 67.9% 70.5% 65.6% 63.6% 60% 50% 40% 49.6% 43.0% 39.1% 50.7% 45.2% 42.1% Innovative Open to Change 30% 20% 10% 0% Conservative Timepoint 1 Timepoint 2 Traditional Timepoint 3 Analysis of Change by School The teacher survey helped conceptualize the impact of the Violence Prevention Academy by using information from participating schools. The teacher survey was also intended to provide information on teacher victimization for use in the evaluation of the broader Violence Prevention Academy. As such, it consists of questions about school characteristics and teacher victimization, but it does not contain questions about the prevalence of specific forms of indiscipline that was occurring among students. With this design, the teacher survey can provide some additional information regarding the impact of the VPA team’s efforts to address the specific problems that the schools chose to target, but in some cases this information is not directly related to the specific problems they identified. Therefore, we suggest that, all else being equal, the information contained in the student survey and the official school data may be more suited to the evaluation of the impact of a specific team’s efforts. In any case, an assessment of the change that occurred in a specific school should be based on all data available and consider trends in student survey data, teacher survey data, and school incident report form data. P a g e | 47 The teacher survey items used to help evaluate the impact of the VPA varied across schools, depending on the problem being targeted. For schools addressing more than one problem or those focusing on aggressive behaviors, the VPA team included measures of general problem behaviors, of teacher victimization issues indicative of fights and assaults, and of disrespect. Results are presented for each school in exhibits 37 through 46. (Schools that did not submit a final report that identified the problem being targeted were excluded from this analysis.) Exhibit 37: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Carapichaima West Secondary School (Assaults, disrespect, and disruptive Behavior) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 46) (N = 44) (N = 44) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.04 2.27 2.07 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.22 3.36 3.35 Yes Yes 0% 0% 0% * * 2.2% 0% 0% No No 0% 0% 0% * * 1.50 1.57 1.53 No No 1.78 1.78 1.72 No No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Physically attacked no doctor Weapon pulled Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. P a g e | 48 Exhibit 38: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Cunupia Secondary School (Fighting) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 31) (N = 42) (N = 24) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.35 2.22 2.09 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.58 3.88 4.38 Yes Yes 0% 2.5% 4.3% No No 10.0% 2.5% 4.5% No No 0% 0% 0% * * Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Physically attacked no doctor Weapon pulled Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. P a g e | 49 Exhibit 39: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Five Rivers Secondary (Assault, fighting, larceny, uniform infractions, disrespect to staff, late coming to school) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 25) (N = 18) (N = 21) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.29 2.76 2.24 Yes No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.20 3.67 3.48 Yes Yes 0% 0% 0% * * Physically attacked no doctor 0% 0% 5.0% * No Weapon pulled 0% 0% 0% * * 50.0% 40.0% No Yes 28.0% 20.0% No No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. P a g e | 50 Exhibit 40: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Malick (Aggressive behavior) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 36) (N = 69) (N = 49) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.12 2.07 2.13 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.71 4.10 4.07 Yes Yes 0% 0% 0% * * Physically attacked no doctor 9.1% 7.9% 4.4% No No Weapon pulled 2.9% 3.2% 2.2% No No 62.9% 63.6% 52.2% No No 41.7% 43.1% 35.6% No No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. Exhibit 41: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Marabella North Secondary School (Gambling) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 22) (N = 40) (N = 22) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.40 2.33 2.36 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 1.90 2.77 2.27 Yes No P a g e | 51 Exhibit 42: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Moruga Secondary (Fighting) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 12) (N = 15) (N = 22) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.08 2.20 2.23 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.83 2.93 3.36 No No 0% 6.7% 0% No * 8.3% 6.7% 5.0% No No 0% 6.7% 0% No * Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Physically attacked no doctor Weapon pulled Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. Exhibit 43: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Morvant Laventille Secondary School (Gambling) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 34) (N = 31) (N = 37) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 1.91 2.13 1.81 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.97 4.10 4.30 Yes Yes P a g e | 52 Exhibit 44: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Mt. Hope Secondary (Fighting) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 39) (N = 28) (N = 35) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.61 2.52 2.38 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 1.62 3.00 3.34 Yes Yes 0% 0% 0% * * Physically attacked no doctor 0% 7.4% 3.0% No No Weapon pulled 0% 3.8% 0% No * Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. Exhibit 45: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive School (Gambling) Is Change Statistically Average on Item Significant (p < .05)? Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 58) (N = 53) (N = 64) 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.12 2.11 1.94 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 1.91 3.58 3.54 Yes Yes P a g e | 53 Exhibit 46: Change in Teacher Survey Items: Princes Town West Secondary (Fighting, disrespect to staff) Is Change Statistically Average on Item Significant (p < .05) Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 60) (N = 61) (N = 58) 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.00 2.29 1.91 Yes No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 3.58 3.66 3.66 No No 8.0% 0% 0% Yes Yes Physically attacked no doctor 21.4% 8.9% 7.7% No Yes Weapon pulled 6.1% 1.8% 3.8% No No 81.1% 62.1% 73.2% Yes No 55.4% 35.1% 51.8% Yes No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School (Disrespectful behavior) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 39) (N = 44) (N = 29) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.39 2.36 1.90 No Yes Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.25 3.36 3.96 Yes Yes 48.6% 31.0% 59.3% No No 27.3% 14.3% 38.5% No No Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student P a g e | 54 San Fernando Secondary East (Fighting, disrespect) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 45) (N = 48) (N = 44) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.39 2.34 2.34 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 1.98 3.32 2.95 Yes Yes 2.2% 0% 0% No No Physically attacked no doctor 4.4% 0% 0% No No Weapon pulled 2.3% 0% 0% No No 43.2% 48.9% 50.0% No No 27.3% 23.9% 21.4% No No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student San Juan North Secondary (Late coming) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 66) (N = 75) (N = 61) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.24 2.35 2.14 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.21 3.23 3.76 Yes Yes P a g e | 55 Siparia Secondary East (Disruptive and disrespectful behavior) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 40) (N = 37) (N = 44) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.29 2.14 2.59 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.31 3.57 3.05 Yes Yes 55.3% 37.1% 29.5% No Yes 34.2% 16.7% 11.6% No Yes Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student Siparia West Secondary School (Fighting) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 59) (N = 47) (N = 18) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 1.94 1.94 1.94 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.77 3.91 4.40 Yes Yes 2.0% 0% 0% No No Physically attacked no doctor 9.3% 2.3% 10.0% No No Weapon pulled 3.8% 0% 0% No No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor P a g e | 56 Success Laventille Composite (Fighting, disrespect and disruptive behavior) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 41) (N = 19) (N = 24) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.38 1.94 2.04 Yes No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 1.46 3.37 3.88 Yes Yes 0% 0% 0% * * Physically attacked no doctor 2.7% 5.9% 4.5% No No Weapon pulled 2.8% 0% 0% No No 33.3% 5.6% 52.2% Yes No 13.9% 15.8% 45.5% No No Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Disrespect Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. Valencia Secondary School (Fighting) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 37) (N = 35) (N = 36) General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Physically attacked no doctor Weapon pulled Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 2.27 2.00 2.43 3.80 2.12 4.11 No Yes No Yes 2.9% 0% 0% No No 8.1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2.9% No * No No Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. P a g e | 57 Williamsville Secondary School (Fighting /assaults) Average on Item Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 (N = 48) (N = 47) (N = 37) Is Change Statistically Significant (p < .05)? 1 to 2 1 to 3 General Problem Behavior Classroom disruption 2.25 2.16 2.34 No No Vandalism, personal attacks, and theft 2.31 3.50 3.24 Yes Yes 2.3% 0% 0% No No 4.3% 0% 2.9% No No 0% 0% 0% * * Teacher Victimization (Fighting/Assaults) Physically attacked and had to see a doctor Physically attacked no doctor Weapon pulled Note: * = No variance within groups. Statistical significance of change cannot be calculated. Summary Teacher survey results indicated that the Violence Prevention Academy had had an important impact on teacher beliefs and behavior regarding indiscipline, on teacher victimization and safety, and on school organizational characteristics, including teacher morale and organizational capacity for planning and action. Changes in teacher beliefs and teacher behavior regarding indiscipline are evident in increases in teacher perceptions that vandalism, personal attacks, and theft were problems at their schools (exhibit 28). Changes in the extent to which acts of indiscipline constituted a problem were consistent with the VPA team’s emphasis on the importance of addressing indiscipline in order to improve the school environment. We anticipated that as the VPA team and curriculum emphasized the importance of addressing indiscipline, it would increase the extent to which teachers and other school staff viewed indiscipline as a problem in need of attention. There is also evidence within the teacher survey that this change in belief regarding the importance of addressing indiscipline resulted in a change in teacher behavior. The teacher survey showed increasing attention to disruptive behavior in the classroom (exhibit 26) and large decreases in unwillingness to confront misbehaving students for fear of one’s own safety (exhibit 29). These changes may be linked to an improved classroom environment as evidenced by a small decrease in the extent to which teachers reported that disruptive behavior kept them from teaching (exhibit 26). Taken as a group, these results indicated that participation in P a g e | 58 the VPA led to an increasing focus on indiscipline and that as a consequence of this focus, there were fewer classroom disruptions. Teacher survey results showed widespread decreases in teacher victimization and widespread increases in perceptions of safety. Across the nine measures of teacher victimization in the month prior to the survey, as summarized in exhibits 27 and 28, there were nine decreases between time one and time two and eight decreases from time one to time three. The types of victimization showing net decreases between time one and time three were damage to personal property of more than $60, damage to personal property of less than $60, theft of personal property of more than $60, physical attack requiring the attention of a doctor, physical attack not requiring the attention of a doctor, and report of teachers having a weapon pulled on them. Five of the decreases between time one and time two were statistically significant; two of the decreases between time one and time three were statistically significant. As noted in the discussion of exhibit 28, it is important to consider substantive change in addition to statistically significant change. Differences that are substantive and important do not always reach the threshold for statistical significance. For example, a decrease of over half in attacks on teachers resulting in the attention of a doctor does not reach the threshold of statistical significance, yet it would be hard to argue that this is not an extremely important change. Teacher survey results also show improvements in teacher perceptions of safety. Across all of the locations addressed in the teacher survey, perceptions of safety improved between time one and time three. The locations addressed in the survey included classrooms while teaching, empty classrooms, hallways and locker areas, the cafeteria, student toilets, gym, parking lot, school hall/auditorium, elsewhere outside on school grounds. Changes in teacher reports of perceptions of safety between time one and time two were statistically significant in six of the nine measured locations including empty classrooms, hallways and locker areas, the cafeteria, the gym, the school hall/auditorium, and elsewhere outside on school grounds (p < .05). Other increases in perceptions of safety approached statistical significance, including those for the cafeteria (p = .05) and those for the student toilets (p = .08). Trends in responses to the teacher survey showed that during the time in which the violence prevention plans were being implemented, changes were reported in school organizational characteristics. These included improvements in staff morale and increased organizational capacity for planning and action. Improvements in staff morale could be seen in increased job appreciation relative to others and reported job satisfaction (exhibit 31). Increases in morale across the time during which the violence preventions plans were being implemented also were evident in increased perceptions of teaching faculty as cohesive, and decreased perceptions of teaching faculty as underappreciated (exhibit 33). P a g e | 59 Changes in organizational capacity for planning and action were evident in changes in responses to teacher survey questions addressing participation in planning processes, the use of planning and action by administrators, and teaching faculty attitudes towards planning and action. During the course of the VPA, and perhaps as a direct consequence of it, teachers reported increased participation in active planning efforts (exhibit 33). Paralleling this change, there were improvements in teacher perceptions of administrators across a number of dimensions including encouraging experimentation, using teacher evaluation to improve teacher performance, engaging in planning, and the extent to which the principal was viewed as progressive (exhibit 34). Teaching faculty attitudes toward planning and action became more positive, another aspect of organizational capacity that showed improvement during this time. Teacher survey results showed that after implementing their violence prevention plans, the respondents were more likely to perceive their fellow faculty as innovative and open to change, and less likely to perceive them as traditional (exhibit 36). Overall, analysis of the teacher survey indicated that the VPA process had a positive effect on teachers’ beliefs and behaviors regarding indiscipline, decreased teacher victimization, improved school safety, improved teacher morale, and improved organizational capacity for planning and action. Although it is obligatory to recognize that factors other than the VPA may have accounted for some or even all of the trends found in the teacher survey, the trends that are evident in the data show that the VPA had a positive effect across a number of important school characteristics. The explanation of the relationship between the VPA and both teacher victimization and school safety is relatively straightforward. Both teacher victimization and school safety are close corollaries of the behaviors typically targeted by the VPA. Similarly, changes in school capacity for planning and action may be a direct effect of the VPA. At its most basic level, the VPA promotes data-driven planning efforts. Participating in such an effort should have a direct effect on teacher perceptions of a principal’s future use of planning efforts and on teacher perceptions of their own capacity and willingness to engage in organizational development efforts. The link between the VPA and teacher morale is less obvious, but still relatively straightforward. The VPA promotes an inclusive planning process with the specific intent of improving the school environment through a decrease in indiscipline. This process signals faculty and staff that both the administration and the Ministry of Education are committed to addressing indiscipline. Further, the VPA includes faculty and staff in the decision-making process, thereby empowering them. Finally, the VPA provides teachers a data-driven planning process that many faculty members may find valuable in and of itself. These different characteristics of the VPA curriculum may lead to improved staff morale simply through VPA participation. P a g e | 60 VPA Impact: School Incident Report Form (SIRF) Data Based on the School Incident Report Forms (SIRF) data submitted to the VPA team by the Ministry of Education, we conducted a basic analysis of school incident data patterns across the study period. This section examines what we can learn from SIRF data. It is divided into three parts, each with a different focus. The first part examines the nature and quality of the SIRF data reported by the schools. The second presents an aggregate analysis of change in the number of problems before and after implementation of VPA-led responses. The third part drills deeper and looks at change by school, for the specific problem types selected by each school. The Nature and Quality of SIRF Data The Ministry of Education provided SIRF data on 6,055 incidents in 23 of the 25 schools that participated in the VPA. (No data were reported from El Dorado East Secondary School or San Juan North Secondary School.) We were unable to use all of the data submitted for two reasons. First, because we only had sufficient data for 2009 from term 3 (the summer session lasting from April-July), we excluded all reported incidents occurring during term 3. Second, as shown in Exhibit 47, although approximately 18 to 20 schools reported SIRF data for each of the remaining four terms, only 13 of them reported consistently across all four of the terms. In order to conduct an analysis of change over time, we could only use data from the 13 schools that reported data consistently across each of the four terms. For this analysis, we excluded schools that did not report data for all four terms. Exhibit 47 provides a brief summary of the number of incidents and schools represented in the raw SIRF data submitted to the VPA team. Exhibit 47: Summary of SIRF Data Term Before Fall 2008 Fall 2008 Spring 2009 Summer 2009 Fall 2009 Spring 2010 Total Analysis Period Number of Incidents Number of Schools 1 2 3 4 - 434 2,045 1,184 845 838 709 6,055 19 18 20 19 - P a g e | 61 The analysis that follows is based on data from four academic terms: September-December 2008, January-March 2009, September-December 2009, and January-March 2010. We refer to these four terms as Analysis Periods 1 through 4, respectively. Recall that the first session of the VPA met in September 2008 at the start of Analysis Period 1. The second session of the VPA met in November 2008 near the end of Analysis Period 1. The third session of the VPA met at the end of March 2009 near the end of Analysis Period 2. At this third session, the participants finalized their “responses”: the actions or interventions they planned to implement within their schools. The implementation of these responses was scheduled to occur after the completion of the third session, and after Analysis Period 2. Thus, Analysis Periods 1 and 2 constitute what evaluation researchers call a “pre-test.” Analysis Periods 3 and 4 occurred during and after the implementation of the responses by the VPA participants, thus they constituted what is called a “post-test” because data were collected after the responses were implemented. The analyses that we had planned to present below originally were intended to compare data from Analysis Periods 1 and 2 (the pre-test) against data from Analysis Periods 3 and 4 (the post-test) for all 25 participating schools. This analysis would have allowed us to draw inferences about whether the VPA produced changes in the nature of incidents, or the responses to these incidents, occurring within participating schools. Although we are still able to conduct a limited version of that planned analysis, missing data and erratic reporting practices by participating schools limited our ability to conduct a more complete and robust evaluation of the VPA using SIRF data over time. For the reasons specified above, after excluding unusable data, we were left with data on 3,556 incidents from 13 schools. Exhibit 48 lists these 13 schools together with the total numbers of reported incidents at each school during each Analysis Period. P a g e | 62 Exhibit 48: Total Incidents by School and Reporting Period School Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Total Malick Secondary Comprehensive School 462 193 156 240 1,051 Siparia West Secondary 214 88 11 54 521 Moruga Composite School 154 62 56 41 313 Mount Hope Secondary School 150 72 33 15 270 Marabella Secondary School 119 101 2 35 257 San Fernando East Secondary 56 62 42 51 211 San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School 52 70 44 30 196 Morvant Laventille Secondary School 116 16 11 32 175 Cunupia High School 54 26 34 38 152 Valencia High School 30 18 45 20 113 Ste. Madeleine Secondary School 54 1 17 38 110 Success Laventille Composite School 14 48 23 22 107 Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive School 40 18 17 5 80 1515 775 491 621 3556 TOTAL One unfortunate pattern is immediately apparent from viewing the above data: Data reporting practices in some schools were highly erratic. For example, for the five schools with a cell shaded grey, reported infractions decreased from a previous term by 90% or more. We acknowledge the possibility that these five schools may have observed a dramatic reduction in offending and indiscipline, but a far more likely explanation is simply erratic reporting practices on the SIRF form. In the end, we simply cannot know whether these fluctuations represent real changes in the phenomena of interest or simply poor recording or reporting practices. As social scientists, however, we are trained to look upon such patterns with suspicion. Although we believe the fluctuating data from these five schools represent likely reporting errors, the extent to which less obvious reporting errors exist in data from the remaining eight schools is simply unknown. In summary, two of the 25 schools provided no SIRF data at all, leaving us with data from 23 schools. A further 10 schools failed to provide SIRF data consistently across all four terms used in this analysis, leaving us with data from 13 schools. Another five schools showed evidence of serious fluctuations over time, a pattern which typically suggests recording or reporting errors. P a g e | 63 If we exclude these five schools, we are left with eight schools. We are uncertain about the quality of the SIRF data provided by these eight schools, and some unknown portion of the data from these schools may still have data quality issues, but these are the eight schools with the best data among the VPA participants. For that reason, all of the remaining analyses using SIRF data are based on these eight schools only. Aggregate Analysis of Change by Problem Type In this section we examine the degree of change across schools in the various problem type categories captured by the SIRF data recording forms. The SIRF form contains 31 different problem type categories. The analysis of change is most meaningful when we examine problem type categories that have a sufficient frequency of offending or indiscipline. For instance, most people would agree that a 100% increase in offending is serious, but those same people would probably disagree that an increase in tardy students from one to two (which is a 100% increase) is a serious problem. With this logic in mind, we only examined problem types that occurred at least 10 times during the pre-test period, across all schools. Twenty problem types met this criterion, and they are listed in exhibit 49. Because of a change in the number of students from one year to the next (pre-test period 5,612 students; post-test period 5,110), we calculated rates for each incident type to control for student population each year. The final column is based on the percent change in rate by problem type from pre-test to post-test; asterisks indicate whether the change was significant. The findings from this analysis revealed that 15 of the 20 problem types experienced a decline in offending from pre-test to post-test. Five problem types experienced an increase in offending frequency from pre-test to post-test. Additionally, these findings suggest that in the aggregate, there was a statistically significant decrease in reported offending and indiscipline problems after the implementation of the violence prevenction plan s. However, this overall analysis masks what happened within individual schools; thus, in the next section, we examine changes in reported incidents by school. P a g e | 64 Exhibit 49: Analysis of Change by Problem Type Unauthorized absence 130 Rate per 100 students 2.32 Weapon possession 32 .57 7 .14 -76* Gambling 97 1.73 22 .43 -75* Sexual assault 22 .39 5 .10 -75 Inappropriate sexual contact 21 .37 8 .16 -58* Disruptive behavior Threats and intimidation Vandalism Obscene language Assault with a weapon Assault Disrespect Improper uniform Fighting Bullying Drug use / possession 329 88 24 82 18 107 320 154 205 22 14 5.86 1.57 .43 1.46 .32 1.91 5.70 2.74 3.65 .39 .25 162 46 13 45 10 68 240 128 177 19 14 3.17 .9 .25 .88 .20 1.33 4.70 2.50 3.46 .37 .27 -46* -43* -41 -40* -39 -30* -18* -9 -5 -5 10 Loitering Robbery Extortion/taxing Stealing 43 12 14 25 .77 .21 .25 .45 52 16 20 40 1.02 .31 .39 .78 33 46 57 76* 1759 31.34 1,117 21.86 -30.26* Problem Type Total Pre-test n 25 Rate per 100 students .49 % Change in rate -79* Post-test n Analysis of Change by School The next stage of the analysis examined the extent to which offending and indiscipline patterns changed in individual schools during the VPA period. Structuring this analysis required careful consideration of data completeness and data quality. Eight schools provided sufficient data with no clearly observable errors in reporting. These eight schools are listed in exhibit 50, together with the total number of incidents during the pre-test period before any VPA responses were implemented (Analysis Periods 1 and 2) and during the post-test period after the responses were implemented (Analysis Periods 3 and 4). P a g e | 65 Enrollment data over time for these schools were provided to the VPA team by the Ministry of Education. These data suggested that the schools had experienced changes in enrollments during the VPA period, and in some cases those changes were dramatic. For instance, in Malick Secondary Comprehensive School, the number of students decreased from 1,034 during the pre-test to 670 during the post-test, a 35.2% reduction. Using raw numbers of incidents without accounting for changes in the number of students enrolled in these schools would be a mistake. Thus in addition to counting the number of incidents, we also computed an offense rate per 100 students. Our analysis of change focused on the percent change in the rate of offending, not in the raw number of incidents. This percent change is listed in the final column of exhibit 50. Its interpretation is simple: A negative sign indicates that the number of incidents decreased from pre-test to post-test, while a positive sign indicates an increase in the number of incidents. Exhibit 50: Total Incidents in Eight Schools Pretest Period School Posttest Period # incidents # students Rate per 100 students # incidents # students Rate per 100 students % Change Malick Secondary Comprehensive School 655 1,034 63.3 396 670 59.1 -6.7 Moruga Composite School 216 559 38.6 97 513 18.9 -51.1* San Fernando East Secondary 118 540 21.9 93 510 18.2 -16.6 San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School 122 712 17.1 74 630 11.7 -31.4* Cunupia High School 80 694 11.5 72 652 11.0 -4.2 Valencia High School 48 569 8.4 65 635 10.2 +21.3 Success Laventille Composite School 62 779 8.0 45 800 5.6 -29.3 Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive School 58 725 8.0 22 700 3.1 -60.7* P a g e | 66 The clear pattern from this analysis is that indiscipline decreased in seven of the eight schools examined. The decreases ranged from 4.2% to 60.7%. Notably, three of the schools experienced a substantial and significant decline in incidents. Specifically, Moruga Composite School experienced a 51% decline in incidents, San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School experienced a 31% decline in incidents, and Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive School experienced a 61% decline in incidents. The analyses presented so far ignore the idea that during the VPA period, all schools selected a major problem type on which to focus their efforts. Thus a complete evaluation of program impact ought to examine changes in the specific problem types selected by each school. Exhibit 51 lists the problem types selected by each school. Exhibit 51: Problem Types Selected by Schools School Problem Type Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Aggressive Behavior Moruga Composite School Fighting San Fernando East Secondary Fighting and disrespect San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School Disrespectful behavior Cunupia High School Fighting Valencia High School Fighting Success Laventille Composite School Fighting, et al. Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive School Unknown 1 2 Exhibit 52 shows the total number of incidents of these problem types before and after the VPA period. Furthermore, consistent with the previous analysis, we also computed the rate of offending per 100 students for each problem type. The key outcome of interest is the percent change in this offending rate, which is listed in the final column of exhibit 52. Once again, a negative sign indicates a decrease from pre-test to post-test and a positive sign indicates an increase. 1 For purposes of this analysis, we included the following offense types in our measure of aggressive behavior: sexual assault, assault with a weapon, robbery, extortion/taxing, bullying, threats and intimidation, assault, and fighting. 2 Participants from Success Laventille Composite School selected three primary offense types: fighting, disrespect, and disruptive behavior. P a g e | 67 Exhibit 52: Incidence of Selected Problem Types in Eight Schools Pretest Period School Posttest Period # incidents # students Rate per 100 students # incidents # students Rate per 100 students % Change Malick Secondary Comprehensive School 18 1,034 1.7 11 670 1.6 -5.7 Moruga Composite School 50 559 8.9 48 513 9.4 +4.6% San Fernando East Secondary 56 540 10.4- 56 510 11.0 +5.9% San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive School 32 712 4.5 14 630 2.2 -50.6* Cunupia High School 18 694 2.6 22 652 3.4 +30.1 Valencia High School 11 569 1.9 15 635 2.4 +22.2 Success Laventille Composite School 64 779 8.2 65 800 8.1 -1.1 Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive School -- 725 -- -- 700 -- -- The findings from this analysis suggested that some schools were more successful than others in generating a decrease in the specific problem behaviors on which they had chosen to focus their efforts. Of the seven schools that provided information on the problem type they selected, three experienced a decrease in the offense rate from pre-test to post-test and four experienced an increase. We should clarify that in some cases, the results based on rates of offending are different than the results based on raw numbers of incidents. For instance, Moruga Composite School experienced a reduction in the number of fights (from 50 to 48), but since enrollments also decreased, there was an actual increase in the offending rate. Similarly, San Fernando East experienced no change in the number of fights and incidents of disrespect (56 during the pre-test period and 56 during the post-test period), but since the number of students decreased during that time period, the rate of offending actually increased. P a g e | 68 SUMMARY Although our ability to carry out a definitive evaluation of project impact was influenced by problems with missing data and erratic reporting by schools, the analyses presented in this section are still helpful for thinking about the impact of the VPA on offending and indiscipline problems in schools. Our aggregate analysis of reported incidents across schools found a clear pattern, with most problem types decreasing in frequency, While the first analysis focused on all schools together, our second analysis focused on total incidents by school. This analysis also concluded that crime and indiscipline had decreased, with seven of the eight schools experiencing a decrease in total incidents from pre-test to post-test. Our final analysis drilled more deeply, focusing on the specific problems selected by each school and seeking to determine whether there was a change in the frequency of those specific problem types. This analysis found that three of eight schools experienced a decrease in offending rates. In summary, we conducted three types of analyses, and these analyses indicated that following the implementation of the VPA plans, crime and indiscipline decreased at several of the participating schools. Of interest was our finding that over the course of the VPA, conditions improved at participating schools, but those improvements were not necessarily limited to the specific problem types selected by each school. P a g e | 69 Part V: Participant Evaluation of the VPA During the last session of training, teachers and administrators from the participating schools were asked to complete two brief evaluation forms. The forms were aimed at collecting participant evaluations of the Violence Prevention Academy curriculum and efforts. One survey asked participants to assess the VPA overall and to provide commentary on their experiences and opinions. The second survey was aimed specifically at assessing the School Incident Record Form (SIRF). Violence Prevention Academy Evaluation The first five questions on the VPA evaluation form asked respondents to assess the instructors, their explanations and enthusiasm, and the utility of the curriculum. Respondents were asked to specify their level of agreement with each statement, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” including an option for “neither/neutral.” Responses of “agree” and “strongly agree” were combined for the results presented in exhibit 53 below. The overall results from the participant evaluations of the VPA were highly positive. Participants generally agreed or strongly agreed that they had learned a lot in the course (92.2%), that they understood the material (98%), and that instructors were enthusiastic (96.1%) and cared about student success (86.3%). Almost 71% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the VPA curriculum had helped to make their school safer (exhibit 53). Exhibit 53: Percent of respondents who "agreed” or “strongly agreed” with each statement % n 98.0 50 I understood the instructors’ explanation of course material. 96.1 49 The instructors conveyed enthusiasm for the subject matter. 92.2 47 I learned a lot in this course. 86.3 44 The instructors cared about my success in this course. 70.6 36 Overall, I think that this course helped my school to become a safer environment. When asked what aspect(s) of the VPA were most helpful, 43.1% of participants said that learning the SARA model (scanning, analysis, response, assess) was the most helpful. Another 21.6% said that learning about data collection and recordkeeping (or means of improving them) was the most helpful, closely followed by analyzing data (19.6%). Others cited problem P a g e | 70 identification (5.9%), CPTED strategies (2%), or other aspects (2%) as the most helpful. Three participants (3.9%) said that “everything” was helpful (exhibit 54). Exhibit 54: Most Helpful Aspects of VPA (n=50) % 43.1 21.6 19.6 5.9 3.9 2.0 2.0 n 22 11 10 3 2 1 1 SARA Model Data collection or record-keeping Analyzing data Problem identification Everything CPTED principles Other When asked to identify the least helpful aspect of the VPA, the most common response was “nothing – everything was helpful” (68.6%). No individual aspect was identified as “least helpful” by more than 6% of respondents (exhibit 55). Exhibit 55: Least Helpful Aspects of VPA (n=50) % 68.6 5.9 5.9 5.9 5.9 2.0 2.0 2.0 n 35 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 Nothing - Everything was helpful Analyzing or interpreting data Using computer for reports Program length or delay between sessions Other Lack of resources SIRF instruments Teacher surveys Participants were also asked to provide an open response for feedback. Of 51 possible respondents, 44 provided additional comments. Among those, 72.7% (32) could be characterized as generally positive comments, including the following: “A very helpful approach in problem solving in a more scientific manner.” “Enlightened to amount of number of techniques available.” P a g e | 71 “Excellent awareness of violence/indiscipline scenarios and methods that can work. A very informative program. Should continue throughout all schools.” The other 14 comments could be categorized as neutral (15.9%, n=7) or negative (11.4%, n=5). One neutral comment offered this constructive criticism: “More individual working with the schools. Closer monitoring of intervention strategies.” Among the comments categorized as negative: Program was too prolonged. Teams lost momentum. Members did not pull weight, stopped communicating, some found course irrelevant and were absent for most of the sessions. As a result, report became a burden and is being done half-heartedly. Some consistent complaints revolved around resources or administrative support. A full list of the open-ended responses follows in exhibit 56 below. P a g e | 72 Exhibit 56: Open-ended Responses (n=44) A good initiative. The test will be to sustain the program. Efforts should be made to keep the team interested enough to keep program alive. A valuable program however there is need for all the relevant stakeholders (school supervisors, principals etc) to buy in. A very good model for schools to use and it can be tailored to each schools specific needs. A very good program that can be used as a tool to change the behavior of misfitting students and indentifying the major problem of misbehavior. A very good program. It should be expanded to all secondary schools. A very helpful approach in problem solving in a more scientific manner. This makes implementation of responses less "biased". As a whole, greater support from the ministry of education refunding for requested programs would have maintained the enthusiasm and allowed for greater impact. Documentation on the analysis process should be provided. However the team provided pertinent information in a logical manner and was generally helpful in ensuring that participants understood the course material. Enlightened to amount of number of techniques available. Excellent awareness of violence/indiscipline scenarios and methods that can work. A very informative program. Should continue throughout all schools. Gained knowledge on research and analysis and VPA overall was a great experience for me. Great concept of trying to educate would on a "scientific" way of responding and to solve nation’s crime. Thank you. I think there must be continuous training along with a department specifically to deal with VPA program. In general the program was good however a local facilitator would have been added value, because of his knowledge of the local cultures and belief. Interesting concepts encouraged. This information should be communicated to as many schools so as to stem school violence throughout one country. It is a great initiative but needs to be consistent thing. Also recommendations need to be seriously made to the min of education to assist where necessary to improve the crime/discipline in school. It is quite relevant and it helps to deal with indiscipline in secondary schools. It should be continuous all schools should be trained. Ministry actions were not acceptable, not keeping time frame, having teacher prepare presentation for ministry postponing it several times and the cancelling it, this is disrespectful. Improve time frame needed. Lack of support in schools. Why did ssiii drop out of program? Why did principal or VP drop out of teams or never was put on VPA team. Without support from admin in school, program cannot succeed. More discussion among schools pertaining to responses used at their schools. Helpful program as it charted a scientific process to working indiscipline in the school. More individual working with the schools. Closer monitoring of intervention strategies. Need for follow up support. E.g. continued processing of incident data. Special funding for VPA projects in future that principal can access (not from schools vote). Part of the program should be conducted during the holiday period. It should have more of a local flavor to suite the T & T schools. Period was drawn out at times enthusiasm was lost. P a g e | 73 Exhibit 56: Open-ended Responses (n=44), continued Program was great, however it was very difficult to meet deadlines, together with other responsibilities. Program was too prolonged. Teams lost momentum. Members did not pull weight, stopped communicating, some found course irrelevant and absent for most of the sessions. As a result, report became a burden and in being done half heartedly. Schools should adopt/encourage daily routine with this methodology. Should be an ongoing process 3 times per year during vacation time. Dr Katz was the best though; this process should be instilled throughout all schools to prevent all sorts of crime etc. Solving problems and solutions in a school environment and using strategies and when a problem occurs. The academy has been instrumental in the establishment of a long term system that not only identifies problems and influencing factors, but also provides a "faculty" to maintain the positive changes attained from the responses to the problems. The facilitators were well versed in this topic. The idea of the academy was an excellent one but the program was disrupted with respect to time. It affected the intent of the participants. The lectures did what they were asked to do but were really willing to understand and tailor to the difference in cultures. The problem is not so much the VPA but the level of support from ministry of education in ensuring that it was carried out. No supervisors were there to ensure that principals were onboard for the idea. Many schools were left to the 4 people asked to attend, thereby resulting in school dropout from the program. The program should be sustained and a re-launch done at schools so as to have all staff on board and informed. The figures submitted by schools, should be used to provide interventions which would be timely and effective. The violence prevention academy is a good initiative and once the suggested methods are used and used and used we may start seeing some results. The VPA is a worthwhile program that should be introduced in all schools in Trinidad and Tobago. The SARA model can help schools collect information, analyze data, work out responses and finally educate whether responses are working or not. This program provided us with some tools to deal with enough incidents. Timely intervention Very enlightening, allowed for a more organized approach to indiscipline. Efforts from the M.o.E. should be sustained. Very good concept but more enthusiasm should be shown from ministry's side. Very helpful and scientific. Very useful, very helpful. Put a lot of emphasis on the collection of data and understanding the causal factors of situation e.g. one situation may be caused because of another. Was a great program. For me I feel that more time is needed in pursuing data collected and returned from the team. I enjoyed the sessions. P a g e | 74 Evaluation of the Student Incident Record Form (SIRF) Participants were asked nine questions about the SIRF and were encouraged to add open comments. Respondents were assured that their responses would be anonymous, reported only in aggregate. For the first seven questions, respondents were asked to specify their level of agreement with each statement, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree and including an option for neither/neutral. Responses of “agree” and “strongly agree” were combined for the results presented in exhibit 57. Representatives from 22 schools participating in the VPA were available when the evaluation form was distributed. All 22 respondents (100%) agreed or strongly agreed that information about the incidents provided by the SIRF was useful; 82.4% agreed that the school’s annual report about school incidents, generated from SIRF data, was also useful. According to 95.5% of the respondents, SIRF was helpful in managing problems at their schools (exhibit 57). Exhibit 57: Percent of respondents who "agreed” or “strongly agreed” with each statement % n 100.0 22 The information about incidents was useful. 82.4 17 The school’s annual report about school incidents was useful. 43.8 16 The information provided in the annual report helped reduce problems at your school. 90.9 22 80.0 20 18.2 95.5 22 22 Our school changed the way we recorded incidents from before we first used the SIRF. Our school changed the way we recorded incidents from since we first used the SIRF. The SIRF needs to have fewer incidents listed. I think having the SIRF is helpful for managing problems at my school. When asked what about the SIRF they liked best, respondents cited the form’s efficiency or ease of use and its data and record keeping quality (42.1% each). Other respondents cited the form’s utility for conducting analyses (exhibit 58). Exhibit 58: What did you like BEST about the SIRF (n=19) % n 42.1 8 Efficiency or ease of use 42.1 8 Data and record keeping quality 15.8 3 Utility for analyses P a g e | 75 Most respondents (66.7%) indicated that their biggest objection to the form was the amount of time it required to complete. Other complaints: the distribution timeframe was poor (11.1%, n=2), the forms were unnecessary or too impersonal (5.6%, n=1, each). Two participants (11.1%) liked “nothing” the least (exhibit 59). Exhibit 59: What did you like LEAST about the SIRF (n=18) % n 66.7 12 Too time consuming to complete 11.1 2 Distribution of forms time-frame 11.1 2 Nothing 5.6 1 Forms are unnecessary 5.6 1 Other ("too impersonal") Eight of the 22 respondents provided open-ended comments. Five comments (62.5%) could be considered positive, two were neutral (25%), and one was negative (12.5%). The only negative comment stated that the forms should be provided “in a timelier manner.” Comments were generally favorable, citing the SIRF’s utility for analysis and the desire to see it standardized for all schools (exhibit 60). Exhibit 60: Open-ended responses regarding the SIRF (n=8) A good way of recordkeeping. It is a methodology to positively impact on teaching/learning. Data could be analyzed and solutions aimed at. I am to the opinion that more questions should be used to non-teaching and cleaning staff etc. for additional positive feedback. Our school had designed a spreadsheet to record incident data before the SIRF forms in response to VPA requirements for specific data on each incident, which we continued to use even when the SIRF forms were instituted. Both SIRF and incident spreadsheets were done. SIRF forms should be standardized for all schools. Teachers, deans, safety, and principal need to attend this type of meeting on a regular basis to improve quality of life for the stakeholders. The "form" itself is useful along with the system (SIRF/SARA) in maintaining the positive change that has come about as a result of the responses made to certain problems. The program is very informative. We learned different ways of recording and analyzing data. The SIRF forms should be provided in a timelier manner. P a g e | 76 Part VI. General Conclusions Regarding the Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) The Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) represents a substantial experimental initiative by the Ministry of Education to address head-on the growing problem of school-based violence. The Ministry of Education’s sponsorship represents a significant investment in improving school safety; overall, the assessment of the Trinidad and Tobago VPA experience indicates a favorable return on that investment. There were both primary and secondary beneficial outcomes of the pilot VPA in 25 Trinidad and Tobago schools. Several intended or primary positive outcomes were directly associated with violence reduction. Other secondary positive outcomes were also associated with the VPA process. On the surface, the latter may appear somewhat less directly related to school violence reduction, but they were clearly important factors in building a positive and safe school environment. Primary VPA Benefits Throughout this report, we have assessed the impact of the VPA through the eyes of students and teachers. For students, most of the issues addressed by their schools appeared to become less important over the course of the VPA. Importantly, students’ perceptions of the most serious and violence-related major problems declined substantially. Their perspectives were measured with student surveys; administered at three points in time over the course of the VPA project. We acknowledge that evidence of a relationship between VPA activities and the declines in problem behavior is correlational; no claim for a direct cause-and-effect relationship is made, given the absence of a true experimental design for evaluating VPA outcomes. Nevertheless, absent evidence to the contrary, those declines occurring over the course of the VPA’s violence-prevention planning process provides useful evidence of its benefits. Overall, teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the VPA also were highly positive. The results of the surveys, administered at three points in time, identified important benefits associated with the VPA related to reducing victimization and increasing school safety. In addition to a reduction of teacher victimization and increased perceptions of school safety, teacher survey results indicated positive reductions in classroom disruption, and with teachers spending less class time addressing disruptive behavior, they have more time to spend teaching. Assessing the impact of the VPA on actual incidents of indiscipline was difficult because many of the participating schools did not provide the necessary incident data (on School Incident Report Forms or SIRFs). However, of the schools that provided complete data, the over-time analysis indicated that the VPA was associated with a 30% decrease in offending and indiscipline. Seven of the eight schools that provided data experienced a significant decrease in total incidents from the pre-test period to the post- P a g e | 77 test period. For example, Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive School and Moruga Comprehensive School each reported more than a 50% decrease in the rate of offending and indiscipline between the pre- and post-test periods. Secondary VPA Benefits Several secondary benefits accrued during the Violence Prevention Academy, and these were likely to have resulted from participation in the VPA process. The VPA is a data-driven problem-solving and planning process. It engages program participants in gathering and using data to identify and assess problems and to plan and develop strategies for addressing them. Most importantly, the VPA process requires team members to work together to identify and address school violence problems. The VPA process empowers local school teachers and officials with the means to solve their own school violence problems. Data from two sources, the teacher surveys and the participant evaluation of the VPA, produced evidence of secondary VPA benefits. Teacher surveys indicated that over the time period of the VPA, there were changes in school organizational characteristics including improvements in staff morale and increased organizational capacity for planning and action. Teacher survey results provided several indicators of improved staff morale including increases in job appreciation, reported job satisfaction, and perceptions of teaching faculty as a cohesive body, and decreases in perceptions of teaching faculty as underappreciated. Evidence of positive changes in organizational capacity for planning and action during the course of the VPA included teacher reports of increased participation in active planning efforts, improvements in their perceptions of administrators, more positive attitudes about planning, and increased perceptions of their fellow faculty as innovative and open to change. An important set of benefits resulting from the Violence Prevention Academy is the skill set that is developed by participation in the VPA. These skills included learning to use a formal problem-solving process (SARA Model), engaging in systematic data collection and analysis, and becoming familiar with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. Although the goal of the VPA is to equip participants with these skills in order to address school violence; problem-solving and data collection and analysis skills can be applied to other school-related domains including those directly related to student learning outcomes. Participant Evaluation Violence Prevention Academy participants provided evaluation feedback on their views of the strengths and weaknesses of the VPA. As was previously noted, just over 70% of the VPA participants indicated that the VPA had helped to make the school environment safer. Additionally, 51 VPA participants provided 44 comments on the VPA; nearly 73% of these comments were positive. VPA participants were also asked to evaluate the Student Incident Record Form (SIRF). Their evaluations were highly positive, with 100% of the participants indicating that SIRF information was useful and nearly 96% of the participants indicating that the SIRF was a useful tool for managing school problems. In sum, the overall assessment of the VPA by program participants was quite positive. P a g e | 78 Policy Recommendations Overall, the preponderance of evaluation evidence suggests that the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy was successful. Not only does it appear that the VPA produced the intended primary benefits of violence reduction and increased school safety, but the Ministry of Education sponsored project demonstrated that Trinidad and Tobago schools could successfully form and train teams who could work together to use a formal problem-solving approach for addressing school violence and other forms of inappropriate behavior. The teams could scan for and use data to identify and assess problems and design and implement solutions. Even though the VPA was successful, there are several ways in which it can be strengthened and made more effective. To that end, we offer three sets of recommendations focused on (1) improving the VPA process, (2) improving school safety through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and other crime prevention practices, and (3) strengthening policies and practices related to school indiscipline. Improving the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy 1. All public schools should be required to collect and deposit data on school incidents. These data should be collected weekly in a uniform, standardized manner. A report based on these data should be produced annually, and the data should be made available to schools and administrators for the purpose of school-based problem solving. Consideration should be given to implementing electronic data collection on indiscipline at all schools for this purpose. These processes are in place in most developed nations and should be instituted in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Without the data infrastructure in place at both the Ministry of Education and school levels, it will not be possible for administrators to make data-driven decisions toward improving school safety. The absence of such data constrains the effectiveness of the VPA process. We noted elsewhere in this report that most VPA schools simply did not do what they were supposed to in collecting data. Two schools reported nothing; ten schools reported some data, but were missing one or more items that were needed; five schools submitted complete data, but there was evidence of major reporting errors. That left only eight schools for longitudinal analysis. The VPA is a data-driven process, and mandatory data recording and reporting is a prerequisite for optimizing the effectiveness of the VPA. 2. Stability in each school’s VPA team is important for optimizing the VPA process and outcomes. In the future, care should be taken to select VPA team members who will be available to serve on the team throughout the VPA process. Continuity in team membership is essential for completing VPA tasks, especially those involving data collection and analysis and strategy implementation. 3. Selection of team members in Trinidad and Tobago VPA schools should take into consideration the following team requirements. (a) Each VPA school or team needs someone who is responsible for collecting required information. (b) To function optimally, each VPA team needs P a g e | 79 one or more laptop computers equipped with Excel software, and one or more team members who are competent using electronic databases and spreadsheets, especially Excel. 4. Future expansion of the Trinidad and Tobago VPA should involve local academics who can work alongside VPA facilitators with the goal of training local academics and past “star” VPA participants to become the VPA facilitators of the future. 5. Future delivery of the VPA should be based on a firm calendar schedule, with all training sessions and VPA-related activities and deadlines published before the VPA is implemented. 6. Consideration should be given to incorporating a stronger research design when evaluating future VPA efforts. The design used to evaluate the first Trinidad and Tobago VPA was a simple non-experimental design that measured change at three points in time. A stronger quasiexperimental design that compares control schools to VPA schools should be used in the future. Improving school safety through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and other crime prevention practices 1. A strong and enforceable set of physical security guidelines should be developed. Site visits conducted by the VPA facilitators indicated that classrooms were frequently left unlocked and were occupied by unsupervised students. Nearly every VPA school had one or more physical locations where line-of-sight supervision was impossible. Such locations offer motivated offenders with an opportunity to engage in inappropriate behavior with little fear of being detected. The inventory policy for discarded equipment also needs to be reviewed and modified. The current policy has resulted in several campuses having substantial “inventory junk piles” indicating physical disorder, which in turn promotes social disorder. A process should be established for monitoring compliance with security guidelines. 2. Watchful guardianship needs to be improved on nearly every VPA campus. Students were frequently without supervision while in classroom and on campus grounds. Sound crime prevention strategy requires the presence of watchful guardianship to discourage would-be offenders from engaging in illegal and inappropriate behavior. 3. Coordination between security officers and school principals needs to be improved. Policies regarding what security officers should do needs to be reviewed and revised. Security officers need to be made more accountable to school principals. Strengthening policies and practices related to school indiscipline 1. The Ministry of Education should embark on a public relations campaign aimed at correcting the misconception that schools in Trinidad and Tobago are generally unsafe. Over the last two years, the news media has been responsible for a growing public impression that violence and serious crime are rampant in the schools in Trinidad and Tobago. Our findings suggest that the most common problems occurring in schools are associated with P a g e | 80 indiscipline, disrespectful behavior, and non-violent crime. Serious violence in Trinidad and Tobago schools appears to be a relatively rare event. It is important for the public, parents, and other government organizations to understand that schools in Trinidad are safer than the communities and homes where students come from. 2. The Ministry of Education should collaborate with administrators, teachers, parents, and students—through a committee—to develop common strategies for addressing patterns associated with indiscipline in the schools identified in the safe schools report. For example, the committee might consider examining issues associated with where incidents occur (e.g., empty classrooms). Nationwide policies might be developed to address the issue in a uniform, systematic way. Alternatively, the committee might consider why some schools reported more incidents than others. This committee might also serve as means of digesting the contents of this report and developing policy based on it. 3. Policies, practices, and traditions that impact the level of surveillance or watchful guardianship on school campuses, such as those related to teacher absenteeism, late coming, and early leaving, should be reviewed and revised if necessary. The goal should be to have policies and practices that maximize student supervision and campus surveillance by minimizing teacher absenteeism, late coming, and early leaving. Consideration should be given to developing an incentive system designed to reduce absenteeism, late coming, and early leaving. 4. Consideration should be given to establishing a decentralized or streamlined process for the expulsion of students who commit serious and /or violent acts of indiscipline. In-school and after-school detention processes should be made into important tools for addressing indiscipline. In sum, the preponderance of evidence supports the conclusion that the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy has been a successful project. It resulted in several benefits related to the goal of reducing and preventing school violence and indiscipline. The VPA model could be strengthened by modifying the process as described in the preceding section, and it could become a permanent tool for addressing school violence and indiscipline in Trinidad and Tobago. 81 Appendix A: Training Schedules 82 Time 8:30-9:00 9:00-10:15 10:1510:30 1030-11:30 11:30-1:00 1:00-2:00 2:00-2:15 2:15-3:15 3:15-3:30 3:30-4:30 4:30-4:45 Session 1: Trinidad & Tobago Violence Prevention Academy Training Schedule (September 15-19, 2008) Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Launch Opening Opening remarks Opening remarks Opening remarks Opening remarks Remarks Scanning for Problems Analysis of the Developing a response Assessing the (ch.14-18) Problems (ch. 19-26) (ch. 38-45) impact (ch. 46-53) Break Break Break Break Break 1. Introductionsus/them by school 2. About the TT VPA 3. Fill out info sheet Lunch 1. What do they do currently? 2. What will they be doing after this class (Ch. 1-3) Break SARA Model (ch. 4-7) Group exercise 1. Work on school profile 2. Work on yearly safe schools report Lunch CEPTED and hotspots: Advanced Analysis of the Problems (ch. 27-37) Lunch Lunch Daily, weekly, monthly Discretionary rhythms (Ed-homicide prevention activities in TT example Lunch Value of Data cont. Break Group exercise 1. Work on school profile 2. Work on yearly safe schools report Break Examples of a projects Break Group exercise: Work on trend analysis Break Response Identification Break Group exercise: school survey Break Value of Data: TTYS Break Break Group exercise: school Clean up survey End of day remarks End of day remarks Break Environmental criminology (ch. 9-13) End of day remarks End of day remarks End of day remarks School discipline management practices Group exercise: Work on trend analysis 83 Time 9:00-9:15 9:15-10:15 10:15-10:30 10:30-12:00 12:00-1:00 1:00-2:30 2:30-2:45 2:45-4:00 Session 2: Trinidad & Tobago Violence Prevention Academy Training Schedule (November 17-21, 2008) Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Opening Remarks Opening remarks Opening remarks Opening remarks Opening remarks What else do we need Understanding & Situational crime Tools for research Understanding & to know?-Dr. Webb responding to problems-Dr. Armstrong responding to crime prevention: Dr. Katz offenders-Dr. Webb places-Dr. Maguire Break Break Break Break Break Scanning Student Survey: Teacher Survey-Dr. Official school data: Dr. Repeat offender analysis Group work Dr. Katz Armstrong Maguire Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Group Work Group work Group work Group work Responding to Targets/Victims: Dr. Webb Break Break Break Break Break Group work Group work Group work Repeat victim analysis Group Work 84 Time 9:00-9:15 9:15-10:30 10:30-10:45 10:45-11:45 11:45-1:00 1:00-2:00 2:00-3:15 3:15-3:30 Session 3: Trinidad & Tobago Violence Prevention Academy Training Schedule (March 23-27, 2009) Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Opening Remarks Opening remarks Student & Teacher Challenges to implementing-Gantley Survey Results: Katz & Armstrong School School Break Break Site visits Site visits Break out session: Break out session: Review of submitted Participant analysis of reports their data Assessing and Evaluating Break out session: Responses: Webb Participant analysis and report development Lunch Lunch Using official school data: Issues in response Katz generation and implementationArmstrong Concluding remarks Concluding remarks Friday School Site visits 85 Time 9:00-9:15 9:15-10:15 10:15-10:45 Session 4: Violence Prevention Academy Training Schedule (April 12-13, 2010) Monday Tuesday Opening Remarks Opening remarks Groups report on their experiences implementing their Assessment using teacher survey data Responses Review of the SARA model and explain what the Break out session: Participant analysis and report development participant’s report should look like and due dates 10:45-11:00 Break Break 11:00-12:00 Assessing and Evaluating Responses Break out session: Participant analysis and report development 12:00-1:00 1:00-2:00 2:00-3:15 Assessment using student survey data Lunch Break out session: Participant analysis and report development Concluding remarks Assessment using official school data Lunch Break out session: Participant analysis and report development 3:15-3:30 Concluding remarks 86 Appendix B: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) Report 87 Summary Report on TT VPA CPTED Site Visit Reports Prepared for Ministry of Education Republic of Trinidad & Tobago Prepared by Charles M. Katz, Ph.D. Vincent J. Webb, Ph.D. Todd A. Armstrong, Ph.D. Megan Gantley, M.A. July 2009 88 Table of Contents Summary Review of Site Visits .......................................................................................... 1 Abbreviated Summary Table ............................................................................................ 11 Individual School Reports................................................................................................. 15 Aranguez Secondary School ......................................................................................... 16 Arima Senior Comprehensive School ........................................................................... 18 Carapachaima Secondary School .................................................................................. 19 Cunupia Secondary School ........................................................................................... 20 Five Rivers Secondary School ...................................................................................... 21 Malick Secondary School.............................................................................................. 22 Marabella North ............................................................................................................ 24 Marabella South ............................................................................................................ 26 Moruga Secondary School ............................................................................................ 27 Morvant Laventille Secondary School .......................................................................... 29 Mt. Hope Secondary School.......................................................................................... 30 Mucurapo East Secondary School................................................................................. 31 Pleasantville Secondary School .................................................................................... 32 Princes Town Senior Comprehensive School ............................................................... 34 San Fernando East Secondary School ........................................................................... 35 San Fernando West Secondary School ......................................................................... 36 San Juan Secondary School........................................................................................... 38 Siparia East Secondary School ...................................................................................... 39 Siparia Senior Comprehensive School .......................................................................... 41 Ste. Madeleine Secondary School ................................................................................. 43 Success Laventille Secondary School ........................................................................... 44 Tranquility Secondary School ....................................................................................... 46 Valencia Secondary School ........................................................................................... 47 Williamsville Secondary School ................................................................................... 49 89 Summary Review of Site Visits Overview This summary report and attached materials focuses on findings obtained from site visits conducted as part of the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy. The purpose of the site visits was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This summary report recaps those issues discussed during our meetings, and outlines the CPTED issues that the schools might benefit from addressing. Following this memorandum are two products that might be of assistance to the Ministry. The first is a summary of findings in abbreviated form so that personnel can identify issues at a glance. The second is the specific report that was provided to each school’s VPA team. Each schools team was afforded an opportunity to provide VPA staff with feedback and comments. The following is a list of the major issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: Teacher Absenteeism A number of schools indicated that they had a problem with teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, making classroom coverage challenging, which contributed to unsupervised students and classrooms. In our opinion this was an issue for the following schools: Aranguez Secondary Arima Senior Comprehensive Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary Malick Secondary Marabella North Marabella South Moruga Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Mucurapo East Secondary Pleasantville Secondary San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary San Juan Secondary Success Laventille Secondary Tranquility Secondary Valencia Secondary 90 Williamsville Secondary Student Tardiness and Absenteeism A number of schools indicated that they had a problem with student tardiness and absenteeism. The problem of late arrival of students and student absenteeism is substantial and makes continuity in student supervision difficult. Some students are in classrooms while at the same time others are moving around campus relatively freely and unsupervised. This was an issue for the following schools: Aranguez Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary Malick Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Pleasantville Secondary San Juan Secondary Williamsville Secondary MTS Absenteeism and Staffing There is a substantial amount of absenteeism among MTS officers. The staffing pattern of security officers is uneven and results in gaps in security since there is inconsistency when officers are dropped off and picked up. The below schools rarely have a full complement of MTS officers. Often officers will sign on in the morning and then leave. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Cunupia Secondary Malick Secondary Marabella North Marabella South Mt. Hope Secondary Pleasantville Secondary San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary San Juan Secondary Tranquility Secondary MTS Not Adequately Trained A number of schools indicated that they had a problem with the MTS officers being inadequately trained. Specifically, officers were unwilling to patrol the school compound, particularly after dark. While, in some schools, school administrators have spoken with security personnel about the problem, the security officers’ behavior has not changed. Future contract negotiations with the security firm should incorporate language that permits school administrator to 91 have more influence on security officer performance standards. This was an issue for the following schools: Malick Secondary Marabella South Mt. Hope Secondary Mucurapo East Secondary San Juan Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Type of Course Instruction A number of the schools indicated that they had problems due to the type of course instruction that was provided to students. Religious instruction days contribute to the problem of students loitering and to late coming since many students opt out of attending the instruction. Related, a few of the schools noted that an increase in courses with practical application would help engage students. More teachers are needed to ensure that all core areas of the curriculum are covered and that children have a full day of classes with teachers in every class. Team members believed that students would benefit if the school could offer a full range of classes more directly tailored to the perceived needs of their students. Team members suggested that this might include an increased focus on Vocational/Technical education and less of a focus on academics. This was an issue for the following schools: Aranguez Secondary Moruga Secondary Pleasantville Secondary San Fernando West Secondary Valencia Secondary Graffiti and Vandalism A number of schools indicated that they had problems with graffiti and vandalism on school campus. Significant pockets of physical disorder exist on some campuses, including graffiti, vandalism and untrimmed bushes. The disorder results in an environment that is conducive to disorderly student behavior and crime. These issues should be rectified and maintained in the future. Continue to follow through on painting over graffiti on the compound as quickly as possible, especially in the areas surrounding the agriculture and technical vocation buildings. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary 92 Malick Secondary Moruga Secondary Mucurapo East Secondary Pleasantville Secondary Princes Town Senior Comprehensive San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary Siparia East Secondary Success Laventille Secondary Valencia Secondary Poor Signage A number of schools had issues with signage. Permanent marking of emergency evacuation routes and related signage needs to be improved and maintained. Increase signage on campus to direct visitors to main administrative offices. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Carapachaima Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary PrincesTown Senior Comprehensive San Fernando West Secondary Ste. Madeleine Secondary Valencia Secondary Old and Broken Equipment On-Site A number of schools had a problem with having old and broken equipment still on campus. That is, old, broken and unused equipment is stored on site rather than discarded. It was often placed in large piles in plain sight for students and faculty to observe. This material should be removed. Expedited removal of piles of trash and debris on the compound can help provide a cleaner image for the school, in addition to removing objects that may be used to harm others during outbreaks of violence. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Morvant Laventille Secondary San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary Tranquility Secondary No Monitoring of Traffic on to Campus 93 A number of schools had an issue with monitoring traffic flow on campus. Establish a plan for having all visitors escorted to the main office by MTS officers or assigned school administrators. Additionally, MTS officers should monitor traffic through the front gate. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Princes Town Senior Comprehensive School Layout Conducive to Violence A number of schools had issues with being laid out poorly. When the layout is poor, in terms of crime prevention, supervision of students can be very difficult. These schools should consider removing structural elements that hinder line of sight (i.e. short concrete walls, large trees where students congregate). While we understand that it is unlikely that schools will undergo drastic layout changes, there are small things that can be altered that will help increase supervision of students. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary Malick Secondary Marabella North Marabella South Moruga Secondary Pleasantville Secondary San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary San Juan Secondary Tranquility Secondary Valencia Secondary Williamsville Secondary Inadequate Supervision and Communication A number of the schools had issues with being able to adequately supervise students. These schools require substantially more security personnel on school grounds. For some of these schools the physical layout of the campus makes lineof-sight surveillance of students and their supervision difficult. The Violence Prevention Academy team identified a number of “entrapment areas’ at many of the schools. These areas are suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. To a certain extent, the suitability of these areas for violence and other behaviors may be decreased with the addition of security devises as well as increased patrols to these areas. Consideration should be given to improving surveillance through the use of technology including remote Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) and Convex 94 Mirrors. Additionally, supervisors and MTS could improve communication through the use of walkie-talkie systems and scheduled patrols of “hot spots” around the campus. Developing a regimented monitoring and surveillance schedule of certain areas during peak hours of activity would help reduce instances of misbehavior. This was a noticeable problem for the following schools: Aranguez Secondary Cunupia Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary Malick Secondary Marabella North Marabella South Morvant Laventille Secondary Princes Town Senior Comprehensive San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary San Juan Secondary Siparia East Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Ste. Madeleine Secondary Success Laventille Secondary Tranquility Secondary Valencia Secondary Williamsville Secondary Trees Need to be Trimmed A number of schools had issues with trees and bushes being over grown. Vegetation is over grown making it hard to supervise. Trees and plants in some areas of the school should be trimmed to increase guardianship. This was an issue for the following schools: Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Morvant Laventille Secondary Mucurapo East Secondary Princes Town Senior Comprehensive Siparia East Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Disciplinary Consistency A number of schools had problems with inconsistent disciplinary action. Incidents of indiscipline are not treated in a manner consistent with written policy. Regularly scheduled detention should be a disciplinary option. Establish a 95 detention room for students who commit minor offenses to remain during their lunch period; this room might be monitored by deans. In order for policies to be effective, teachers need to understand and implement disciplinary policies routinely. This was an issue for the following schools: Arima Senior Comprehensive Siparia Senior Comprehensive Williamsville Secondary Classrooms Left Unlocked and Unsupervised A number of schools had classrooms that were open and unsupervised. Some of the schools had doors that were broken, which permitted students to enter many of the classrooms and “hangout” unsupervised by school staff. New doors are required to restrict student access to these areas. Additionally, students often arrive at and occupy unsupervised classrooms; this presents an opportunity for misbehavior. Ensure all classrooms that are not in use are locked (especially science labs where chemicals and other harmful substances may be easily accessible to students). It was noted that many classrooms went unsupervised due to teacher absenteeism as well. This was an issue for the following schools: Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Fiver Rivers Secondary Marabella North Moruga Secondary Princes Town Senior Comprehensive San Fernando West Secondary Siparia East Secondary Ste. Madeleine Secondary Tranquility Secondary Valencia Secondary Poor Fencing around Schools Perimeter A number of the schools had a perimeter that was unsafe and/or not secure. There are multiple points of entry (i.e., dilapidated fences, broken down walls, etc.) that cannot be observed by school staff. This problem not only permits students to come and go as they please, but also allows outsiders onto the school compound that might pose a threat to the school and its students. This was an issue for the following schools: Carapachaima Secondary Cunupia Secondary Malick Secondary Princes Town Senior Comprehensive 96 San Juan Secondary Siparia East Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Success Laventille Secondary Tranquility Secondary Valencia Secondary Poor Lighting A number of the schools had poor lighting, which can contribute to crime and delinquency. When there is little lighting within a compound it can result in security officers being unwilling or unable to adequately patrol the campus during the night. Additionally, increased lighting will deter unwanted visitors at night. Lighting also needs to be improved in hallways and restrooms to increase the safety of the students. This was an issue for the following schools: Cunupia Secondary Malick Secondary Marabella North Marabella South Mucurapo East Secondary San Fernando East Secondary San Juan Secondary Classroom Deterioration A number of schools had issues concerning classroom deterioration. The physical condition of many classrooms is such that they lend themselves, especially when unsupervised students are present, to various forms of student generated disorder. This was an issue for the following schools: Fiver Rivers Secondary Malick Secondary Marabella North Moruga Secondary Pleasantville Secondary San Fernando West Secondary Unsafe School Conditions Visits to three schools indicated unsafe school conditions. Some of the conditions were as follows: visible electrical problems, holes in walls and ceilings, bugs and animals living in classroom space, leaky ceilings, broken doors, broken lights, peeling paint, trash about the compound, mold growing on walls, broken chalk boards, rust on metal objects, graffiti, termites, broken water pipes, and broken sidewalks. While none of the members of the VPA team are engineers, we felt 97 that it is our obligation to inform you that these schools were very unsafe and not conducive to classroom instruction. These schools infrastructure issues should be addressed immediately for the safety of the students and staff. This was an issue for the following three schools: Marabella North Mucurapo East Secondary Princes Town Senior Comprehensive Inadequate Lunch Seating A number of schools had a problem with adequate seating and supervision for students during lunch. All areas where students are allowed to eat lunch should be monitored during the lunch period. This was an issue for the following schools: San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando West Secondary No Public Phone Two schools lacked a public phone. There are no public telephones with cost free connections to emergency services. This was an issue for the following schools: Carapachaima Secondary Valencia Secondary Property Shared with Another School One school had a problem with having to share facilities with another school. Having a shared athletic field has lead to conflicts between students from the respective schools. This was an issue for the following school: San Fernando West Secondary Poor After-School Transportation A school-related issue that is a problem for the surrounding community has to do with after school transportation, which does not always take them close to their homes and makes them vulnerable to victimization. This also results in unsupervised time which increases the risk of their participating in undesirable forms of behavior. This was an issue for the following school: Williamsville Secondary Violent Community 98 Many students live in violent communities and observe violence in the home and on the streets. Because of the short and long term impact of observing violence the school should consider being provided with a social worker who specializes in post traumatic stress disorder. This was an issue for the following school: Malick Secondary 99 Abbreviated Summary Table 100 Aranguez Sec. STUDENT TARDINESS & ABSENTEEISM TEACHER TARDINESS & ABSENTEEISM X X Arima Sr. Comp. X Carapachaima Sec. X Cunupia Sec. X MTS ABSENTEEISM & STAFFING MTS NOT ADEQUATELY TRAINED RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION (INCREASE COURSES WITH PRACTICAL APPLICATION) GRAFFITI & VANDALISM POOR SIGNAGE OLD/BROKEN EQUIPMENT ON SITE X X X X X X X X X X X Malick Sec. X X X Marabella North X X Marabella South X X Moruga Sec. X X X X X X X X X Morvant Laventille Sec. X X Mucurapo East Sec. Pleasantville Sec. X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Princes Town Sr. Comp. X X San Fernando East Sec. San Fernando West Sec. San Juan Sec. X X X X X X X X X X Siparia East Sec. X Siparia Sr. Comp. X Ste. Madeleine Sec. X Success Laventille Sec. X Tranquility Sec. X Valencia Sec. X Williamsville Sec. X X Fiver Rivers Sec. Mt. Hope Sec. NO MONITORING TRAFFIC ON TO CAMPUS x x X X X X X X 101 SCHOOL LAYOUT SUITABLE FOR VIOLENCE (LOW VISIBILITY) Aranguez Sec. INADEQUATE SUPERVISION & COMMUNICATION CLASSROOMS LEFT UNLOCKED AND UNSUPERVISED NO PUBLIC PHONE (W/ FREE CONNECTIONS TO EMERGENCY SERVICES POOR FENCING AROUND THE SCHOOLS PERIMETER (Unwanted Guests) X X X X X X TREES NEED TO BE TRIMMED DISCIPLINARY CONSISTANCY LIGHTING NEEDS IMPROVEMENT x Arima Sr. Comp. X Carapachaima Sec. X Cunupia Sec. X X Fiver Rivers Sec. X X Malick Sec. X X Marabella North X X Marabella South X X Moruga Sec. X Morvant Laventille Sec. X X X X X X X X X X X X Mt. Hope Sec. Mucurapo East Sec. Pleasantville Sec. X X X Princes Town Sr. Comp. X San Fernando East Sec. X X San Fernando West Sec. X X San Juan Sec. X X Siparia East Sec. X X X X X X X Siparia Sr. Comp. X X Ste. Madeleine Sec. X Success Laventille Sec. X X x X X X X Tranquility Sec. X X Valencia Sec. X X Williamsville Sec. X X X X X X X X X X 102 CLASSROOM DETERIORATION UNSAFE SCHOOL CONDITIONS ( EXPOSED METAL/ WIRING, MOLD, ETC) THERE IS NO ADEQUATE SEATING FOR LUNCH FIELD IS SHARED WITH OTHER SCHOOL POOR AFTER SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION IN A VIOLENT COMMUNITY Aranguez Sec. Arima Sr. Comp. Carapachaima Sec. Cunupia Sec. Fiver Rivers Sec. X Malick Sec. X Marabella North X X X Marabella South Moruga Sec. X Morvant Laventille Sec. Mt. Hope Sec. Mucurapo East Sec. Pleasantville Sec. X X Princes Town Sr. Comp. X San Fernando East Sec. San Fernando West Sec. X X X X San Juan Sec. Siparia East Sec. Siparia Sr. Comp. Ste. Madeleine Sec. Success Laventille Sec. Tranquility Sec. Valencia Sec. Williamsville Sec. X 103 Individual School Reports (In alphabetical order) 104 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Aranguez Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Aranguez Secondary School This memo highlights findings and observations from the site visit to Aranguez Secondary School. Pleasantville VPA team members have identified fighting as the problem they are addressing. Aranguez officials described some of the challenges they face as stemming from a large percentage of students not living with their parents, which in turn results in a low level of parental involvement in the educational process, for example in PTA. They also indicated that effectively addressing the problems of violence and other forms of illegal and disruptive behavior as well as other education issues would require an increased commitment on the part of teachers as well as a greater willingness to work cooperatively to develop solutions. They also identified a need to raise expectations for student academic performance and behavior. The Aranguez VPA team noted several positive aspects of their VPA training experience, including collecting and analyzing data and learning about the problems and activities of the other schools participating in the VPA program. They described some of the tools that they were using or had used to address violence and related issues. These includes the development and use of a student data base that includes student photos, a police youth club, and a program to give students values training. With regard to the values training, they pointed out that some students missed the training due to absenteeism, which mitigated its potential impact. Identification cards and student photos are being prepared in readiness for the move to the new school. Major Issues: The physical layout of the campus makes supervision/guardianship by teachers, deans, and campus security officers difficult. This problem is exacerbated by the construction of the new school adjacent to the new campus. • Absenteeism rates for students and teachers are excessive and need to be addressed to ensure adequate supervision of students. This includes the problem of late coming and early leaving. There are too many classrooms with students present but without teachers present. • Religious instruction days contribute to the problem of students loitering and to late coming since many students opt out of attending the instruction. • Overall campus-wide supervision of students is inadequate due to limited human resources/supervisors. Other Issues: A CPTED inspection and plan should be developed and implemented before the new school is occupied. Although technology reflecting CPTED principles should be an important part of that plan, steps need to be taken to ensure that there is adequate human supervision of students, that classrooms are occupied by students only when teachers or supervisors are present, and policy measures to reduce student and teacher absenteeism are in place. 105 106 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Arima Senior Comprehensive School This memo highlights elements from the site visit to Arima Senior Comprehensive School. The Violence Prevention Academy team at Arima Senior Comprehensive School faces some extremely difficult challenges. These challenges include a lack of interest among teachers and parents. VPA team members related that many teachers are uninterested in the VPA process and felt that many of the schools disciplinary problems would be solved if teachers would provide increased guardianship and address incidents of indiscipline in a manner consistent with existing policy. The results of the VPA team’s scanning and analysis, and a plan for increased guardianship had been presented to teachers during staff development day. The plan for increased guardianship was not implemented. While the difficulties with staff are acknowledged, the VPA team needs to work to address barriers to implementation through the involvement of key stakeholders and with administrative support. In addition to these issues, VPA team members noted that the introduction of a single repository for disciplinary information was very beneficial. Major Issues: • • • • • • • • The campus layout is not conducive to the supervision of students by teachers, administration, and MTS officers. Due to high rates of teacher absenteeism there are classrooms without consistent supervision. There is a substantial amount of graffiti and vandalism. There are a number of areas on campus suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. The school has difficulty implementing policy that requires additional effort on the part of teachers. Incidents of indiscipline are not treated in a manner consistent with written policy. There is a substantial amount of absenteeism among MTS officers. Regularly scheduled detention should be a disciplinary option. Other Issues: • • • MTS officers do not adequately monitor traffic through the front gate. Old, broken and unused equipment is stored on site rather than discarded. This material should be removed. Signage should be improved. 107 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Carapachaima Secondary School This memo highlights elements from the site visit to Carapachaima Secondary School. The Violence Prevention Academy team at Carapachaima Secondary School prepared a detailed Crime Prevention Through Environmental (CPTED) review for the site visit. This document identifies the issues faced by the school. Some of these issues are caused by the construction of a new school on Campus grounds. Violence Prevention Academy team members noted that at Carapachaima Secondary School students who committed acts of indiscipline were put in detention during lunch. This is a very good policy and should be replicated at other schools. Major Issues: • • • • • • • The fence separating the existing school from construction has created several areas where students can be concealed from administrators for extended periods of time. These areas need to be addressed. Possibilities include moving the fence, or the routine supervision of these areas. Campus layout is not conducive to the supervision of students by teachers, administration, and MTS officers. Due to high rates of teacher absenteeism there are classrooms without consistent supervision. Classrooms are left unlocked after classes are dismissed. Classrooms need to be secured when teachers or other staff are not present. There is a substantial amount of graffiti and vandalism. The Violence Prevention Academy team at Carapachaima Secondary School identified a number of ‘entrapment areas’. These areas are suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. To a certain extent, the suitability of these areas for violence and other antisocial behaviors may be decreased through the installation of parabolic mirrors. As recommended by the Violence Prevention Academy team at Carapachaima Secondary School, trees and plants in the Farm Area of the school should be trimmed to increase guardianship. Other Issues: • • • Old, broken and unused equipment is stored on site rather than discarded. This material should be removed. There is no public telephone with cost free connections to emergency services. The signage identified in the CPTED review should be introduced. 108 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Cunupia Secondary School This memo highlights elements from the site visit to Cunupia Secondary School. Violence Prevention Academy team members at Cunupia Secondary School have identified fighting as their major concern. A review of the disciplinary data showed that most of the fights occur during lunch and free periods. The Violence Prevention Academy team has identified a range of possible solutions including locking classrooms during lunch and reinstituting the supervision roster. The Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) review conducted by the Violence Prevention Academy team noted that while keys are kept in a box in the administrative office, there is no system to keep track of keys. It should also be noted that the Violence Prevention Academy team members at Cunupia Secondary School appreciated the Ministry of Education’s zero tolerance policy regarding drugs, weapons and violence. Major Issues: • Campus layout is not conducive to the supervision of students by teachers, administration, and MTS officers. • MTS shifts rarely have a full complement of officers. • Due to high rates of teacher absenteeism there are classrooms without consistent supervision. • Classrooms are often left unlocked. • There is a substantial amount of graffiti and vandalism. • There are a number of areas on campus suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. To a certain extent, it may be possible to address these through the installation of security cameras. These areas may also be addressed by preventing access. • The fence around the campus needs to improved. Other Issues: • Old, broken and unused equipment is stored on site rather than discarded. This material should be removed. • Trees can be pruned to improve sight lines. • Buildings have short concrete walls along second floor walkways. These concrete walls provide concealment to students engaging in misbehavior. • Lighting in hallways need to be improved. 109 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Five Rivers Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Five Rivers Secondary School This memo highlights some of the findings and observations from the VPA site visit to Five Rivers Secondary School. In general Five Rivers Secondary School officials are embracing the principals of the VPA. They indicate that the VPA training and process has provided them with a tool to identify the what, when, where, and who associated with violence and disorder problems. As a result of the VPA they indicated that they have modified the allocation of personnel in order to increase watchful guardianship, which is an important step in the right direction. School officials should continue to focus on expanding watchful guardianship. Five Rivers officials acknowledge that their VPA report was less than stellar and offered a number of reasons for the quality of the report. Fiver Rivers officials report an improving situation regarding violence and disorder. They maintain that the move to becoming a five year school has been partially responsible for this trend, which they attribute to the improved self-esteem of their students resulting from the status of attending a five year school. Five Rivers officials express the belief that a small number of students are responsible for a substantial majority of the problems. They believe that for this group it is necessary to penetrate homes and engage parents in order to determine the sources of problem behavior, and they described the use of a workshop involving high offender youths, parents, police and others that they believe resulted in a reduction in offenses. Major Issues: • The physical layout of the campus makes line of sight surveillance of students and their supervision difficult. Consideration should be given to improving surveillance through the use of technology including remote CCTV. • Students often arrive at and occupy unsupervised classrooms. • The problem of late arrival of students and student absenteeism is substantial and makes continuity in student supervision difficult. Some students are in classrooms while at the same others are moving around campus relatively freely and unsupervised. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. • Significant pockets of physical disorder exist on campus including graffiti and classroom deterioration. The disorder results in an environment that is conducive to disorderly student behavior. Other Issues: • Permanent marking of emergency evacuation routes and related signage needs to be improved and maintained. 110 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Malick Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • The campus is extremely large, is very poorly laid out in terms of crime prevention, lies within a neighborhood that has extreme levels of violence and crime. The school requires substantially more security personnel on school grounds. Additionally, because the physical layout of the campus makes line of sight surveillance of students and their supervision difficult consideration should be given to improving surveillance through the use of technology including remote CCTV. • The schools perimeter is unsafe and not security. There are multiple points of entry (i.e., dilapidated fences, broken down walls, etc.) that cannot be observed by school staff. This problem not only permits students to come and go as they please, but also allows outsiders onto the school compound that might pose a threat to the school and its students. • There is very little lighting within the compound and as a result security are unwilling to patrol. Increased lighting is required to increase line of site for patrols, and well as to deter unwanted visitors at night. • Significant pockets of physical disorder exist on campus including graffiti, vandalism and classroom deterioration. The disorder results in an environment that is conducive to disorderly student behavior. These issues should be rectified and maintained. • It was stated that other schools in the country send their difficult students to Malick. This issue should be examined more carefully. If this is the case additional resources should be provided to Malick so that they can accommodate and safe guard these students more appropriately. • Many of Malick’s students live in violent communities and observe violence in the home and on the streets. Because of the short and long term impact of observing violence the school should consider being provided with a social worker who specializes in post traumatic stress disorder. 111 • The problem of late arrival of students and student absenteeism is substantial and makes continuity in student supervision difficult. Some students are in classrooms while at the same others are moving around campus relatively freely and unsupervised. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 112 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Marabella North Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. Marabella North faces serious challenges in the days, months, years ahead as a consequence of its decapitated infrastructure. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • The infrastructure of the school is not adequate for students or staff. There are visible electrical problems, holes in walls and ceilings, bugs and animals living in student space, leaky ceilings, broken doors, broken lights, peeling paint, trash about the compound, mold growing on walls, broken chalk boards, rust on metal objects, graffiti, termites, and broken water pipes. While none of the members of the VPA team are engineers it is visible apparent that this school is unsafe and not conducive to classroom instruction. This schools infrastructure issues should be addressed immediately for the safety of the students and staff. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. It is estimated that about 25% of teachers are absent each day. This is most likely related to the poor working conditions of the school. • There is very little lighting within the compound and as a result security are unwilling to patrol. Increased lighting is required to increase line of site for patrols, and well as to deter unwanted visitors at night. • The campus is extremely large and is very poorly laid out in terms of crime prevention. Because the physical layout of the campus makes line of sight surveillance of students and their supervision difficult, consideration should be given to improving surveillance through the use of technology including remote CCTV. • Many of the doors on the school’s campus are broken, which permits students to enter many of the classrooms where they can “hangout” unsupervised by school staff. New doors are required to restrict student access to these areas. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other 113 administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 114 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Marabella South Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • The campus is large and is very poorly laid out in terms of crime prevention. The school requires substantially more security personnel on school grounds. Currently only one MTS officer patrols the school. The school should be staffed with about 5 officers. Additionally, because the physical layout of the campus makes line of sight surveillance of students and their supervision difficult consideration should be given to improving surveillance through the use of technology including remote CCTV. • There is very little lighting within the compound and as a result security are unwilling to patrol. Increased lighting is required to increase line of site for patrols, and well as to deter unwanted visitors at night. • Many of the schools administrators believed that the MTS officers required additional training. They frequently have items stolen from the school including live stock. They believe that this is because the security officer is unwilling to patrol the school at night because it is dangerous. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session 115 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Moruga Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Moruga Secondary School This memo highlights some of the findings and observations resulting from the site visit to Moruga Secondary School. Moruga has identified fighting as a significant problem and one that they are attempting to address. Moruga officials noted two trends related to fighting: more girls are involved in fighting and more fights are occurring after school and off campus. Motivations for fights are often trivial and fights are frequently village versus village. School officials pointed out that students often bring trouble from home to school and they also pointed that high rate offenders accounted for a disproportionate amount of violence and behavior problems. They have addressed the fighting problem by gathering intelligence from students that enable them to prevent fights. They are attempting to do in-school suspension but lack the resources to do it comprehensively. Officials expressed the belief that their effort to reduce fighting on campus might have displaced it to off-campus locations. With regard to CPTED practices, they have attempted to reduce student loitering by adding more benches in corridors. They have also focused on the school’s graffiti problem by trying to quickly cover up graffiti. They have also identified other CPTED practices that they believe would reduce violence and other forms of undesirable behavior if implemented. School officials indicated that they were initially cynical about the VPA, but they now see value in it since it has taught them to use data to make decisions and enable them to be proactive and not just reactive to schools violence and related forms of disorder. Major Issues: • Campus physical layout makes line of sight supervision of students very difficult and severely limits natural guardianship. • Teacher absenteeism is substantial as is late coming and early leaving which results in classrooms having unsupervised students. This also contributes to the absence of natural guardianship of students has they move to, across, and from different campus locations. • Student loitering in public spaces is a problem as is student vandalism, for example near and in toilet areas. • The scheduling of religious instruction contributes to the problem of loitering since many students choose not to attend and instead loiter in public places that have little supervision. • Although schools officials have responded to the graffiti problem, it continues to resurface and the emphasis on quick cover ups needs to be maintained and expanded. • The physical condition of many classrooms is such that they lend themselves, especially when unsupervised students are present, to various forms of student -generated disorder. Other Issues: 116 • The Ministry should consider revising the policy for the disposal of outdated and or damaged equipment. What is needed is a quick method for removing such equipment from inventory and from campus so that it does not accumulate and convey that the campus is a place of disorder 117 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Morvant Laventille Secondary School Re: VPA site visit to Morvant Laventille Secondary School During this visit I met with Mr. Sanchez, Mr. Pierre, and Mr. Farrell. The purpose of this visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This letter recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that Morvant Laventille Secondary would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • • • • The back area of the school is covered with thick vegetation resulting in the barrier wall being only minimally visible. As a result, students may sneak through this area to leave the compound, or others may use this as an invisible means of entry onto school property. Clearing some of the brush obstructing the view of the back are of the school would help increase security and visibility. The back side stairwell of Block B represents a major hot spot area for violent and delinquent activities. Developing a regimented monitoring and surveillance schedule of this area during peak hours of activity would help reduce these instances. Targeting other problem areas on the compound for monitoring and surveillance would also be ideal. Expedited removal of piles of trash and debris on the compound can help provide a cleaner image for the school, in addition to removing objects that may be used to harm others during outbreaks of violence. Establishing a VPA Committee in the school to include others not attending the VPA sessions in assisting with CPTED and other response and intervention efforts. This list represents the major response items that were identified during my site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at Morvant Laventille Secondary School to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 118 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Mt. Hope Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. Our site visit lead us to understand that Mt. Hope is in the process of building a new school. They are hopeful that they will be able to transition into the new school in September 2009. Because of the move the school’s staff felt that it was not appropriate to spend too much time on infrastructure issues. As a consequence, the following is a list of the systemic security issues that were identified as possible contributors to violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform (regardless of which school Mt. Hope students attend). • The problem of late arrival of students and student absenteeism is substantial and makes continuity in student supervision difficult. Some students are in classrooms while at the same others are moving around campus relatively freely and unsupervised. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. A strategy should be implemented that will increase the supervision of students when a teacher is absent. • School officials claimed that security personnel were inadequate. Specifically, they were unwilling to patrol the school compound, particularly after dark. While school administrators have spoken with security personnel about the problem, the security officers’ behavior has not changed. Future contract negotiations with the security firm should incorporate language that permits school administrator to have more influence on security officer performance standards. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 119 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Mucurapo East Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • There is very little lighting in the front and back of the compound and as a result security are unwilling to patrol. Increased lighting is required to increase line of site for patrols, and well as to deter unwanted visitors at night. • Significant pockets of physical disorder exist on campus including graffiti, vandalism and untrimmed bushes. The disorder results in an environment that is conducive to disorderly student behavior. These issues should be rectified and maintained in the future. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. • There were noticeable electrical problems that were a safety hazard to students and school staff. This issues should be rectified. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 120 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Pleasantville Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to This memo highlights findings and observations from the site visit to Pleasantville Secondary School. Pleasantville VPA team members have identified fighting and assault as the problem they are addressing. Their analysis has identified Block E as a hotspot for fights. Pleasantville is attempting to provide security through the use of 16 CCTV cameras, which for a while were not working , but the system has been repaired and Pleasantville officials believe that CCTV is an effective tool. Pleasantville officials expressed a variety of concerns related to staffing support for both educational and extramural programs. The school is placing a great deal of emphasis on the development of sports programs and they need more coaches and quality coaches, but do not have funding for them. Pleasantville officials report that the local police are responsive to school needs and patrol the perimeter. The police also check on children in uniform who are off campus during school time. School officials have the admirable goal having their school become a “first choice” destination school. Officials expressed concern about potential problems arising with the start of the next school year due to parents want to sending students to attend Form Four who have not previously been to Pleasantville Secondary School. Officials indicated that these children might not fit in and could be disruptive. Officials also expressed the belief that the primary school system is not doing an adequate job and that too many of the students they receive cannot read and write. Pleasantville officials used the VPA CPTED check list to identify three actions that could improve school safety. These include: the elimination of some interior and exterior entrapment places (e.g. access to stairwells); posting better signage regarding prohibited areas; and establishing a two-way communication system between the front office and the classroom for use in emergencies. Officials ruled out the use of parabolic mirrors due to concern about students breaking them and using shards as weapons. Major Issues: • • • • • Other issues: As with several other government schools, the physical layout of the campus makes supervision/guardianship by teachers, deans, and campus security officers difficult. The staffing pattern of security officers is uneven and results in gaps in security since there is inconsistency when officers are dropped off and picked up. Absenteeism rates for students and teachers are excessive and need to be addressed to ensure adequate supervision of students. This includes the problem of late coming and early leaving. The student supervision problem resulting from teacher absenteeism, both when the reasons for it are legitimate and when they are not, could be addressed with an adequate system of substitute teachers. School officials should continue to respond quickly to signs of physical disorder on campus including graffiti and vandalism. Classrooms in disrepair need to be repaired and improved. 121 • More teachers are needed to ensure that all core areas of the curriculum are covered and that children have a full day of classes with teachers in every class. • Policies should be examined that allow students with behavior problems in one school or from remand schools are automatically allowed to enroll in the government school of their choice. • Some gang activity at the school is suspected and this possibility needs attention and assessment. 122 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Princes Town Senior Comprehensive School Re: VPA site visit to Princes Town Senior Comprehensive School The purpose of this visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This letter recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that Princes Town Senior Comprehensive would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • • • • • • • Establish a formal schedule for monitoring and surveillance of “hot spots” on the campus during peak times of violence or delinquency, such as Blocks E and F and the student washrooms. Provide monitoring of the compound’s back gate during the morning and afternoon hours when the gate is open. This monitoring could be conducted by MTS officers, school security officers, or school deans. Continue to follow through on painting over graffiti on the compound as quickly as possible, especially in the areas surrounding the agriculture and technical vocation buildings. Ensure all classrooms not in use are locked, including science labs where chemicals and other harmful substances may be easily accessible to students. Continue with efforts to trim and clear away vegetation that may obstruct visibility for monitoring and surveillance. Determine opportunities for funding for school fire alarm system and repairs to walkways and corridors. Increase signage on campus to direct visitors to main administrative offices. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during my site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at Princes Town Senior Comprehensive School to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 123 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to San Fernando East Secondary School This memo highlights elements from the site visit to San Fernando East Secondary School. The Violence Prevention Academy team at San Fernando East Secondary School have identified violence as the behavior that their team will address. The team has found that the majority of incidents occur in the afternoon after school is over. San Fernando East, currently has a diverse approach to indiscipline in school. This approach includes involvement from parents, police and community members. Solutions to the problem identified by the VPA team (fighting) may include revisiting existing policies and implementing new policies and programs directly targeted at fights occurring after school. It is worthwhile to note, that classrooms at San Ferndando East Secondary School are locked when they are not in use. This is a very good policy and should be implemented at other schools participating in the Violence Prevention Academy. San Fernando East also makes use of a supervision roster that schedules patrols in designated areas. Teachers at San Fernando East Secondary School feel that the has improved a great deal in the past three years. Major Issues: • Campus layout is not conducive to the supervision of students by teachers, administration, and MTS officers. • The school usually does not received a full complement of MTS officers. • Due to high rates of teacher absenteeism there are classrooms without consistent supervision. • There is a substantial amount of graffiti and vandalism. • There are a number of areas on campus suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. • There is no lunchroom or adequate seating for students during lunch. Other Issues: • • The lighting by the toilet area is inadequate. This area has been identified as a hotspot. Old, broken and unused equipment is stored on site rather than discarded. This material should be removed. 124 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to San Fernando West Secondary School This memo highlights elements from the site visit to San Fernando West Secondary School. The Violence Prevention Academy team at San Fernando West Secondary School has identified disrespect as the problem that it will address. The team has already developed a plan to begin to address disrespect in the Spring of 2009. This plan should be further developed to include a clear statement of how instances of disrespect will be handled by teachers and other school staff. It is suggested that clear standards for how to handle disrespect should be articulated and instances of disrespect should be disciplined in a consistent manner with sanctions increasing if the student continues with a pattern of disrespect. The VPA team may also want to consider focusing on disrespect from a student that is directed towards teachers. At San Fernando West Secondary School deans offices are in classroom buildings. This increases the capable guardianship in these classroom buildings. This policy and should be implemented in schools where it is not already implemented. Team members feel that they would benefit if the school could offer a more full range of classes more directly tailored to the perceived needs of their students. Team members suggested that this would include an increased focus on Vocational/Technical education and less of a focus on academics. Major Issues: • Campus layout is not conducive to the supervision of students by teachers, administration, and MTS officers. • San Fernando West Secondary School rarely has a full compliment of MTS officers. Often officers will sign on in the morning and then leave. • Students eat in unsupervised classrooms during lunch time. • Classrooms are unlocked before teachers arrive. This results in students without supervision in the classrooms prior to the arrival of a teacher. • There is a substantial amount of graffiti and vandalism. • There are a number of areas on campus suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. These areas provide cover for students participating in behaviors and long sight lines for lookouts. To a certain extent, the suitability of these areas for violence and other antisocial behaviors may be decreased through the installation of parabolic mirrors. • The athletic field is shared with San Fernando Central. This has lead to conflicts between students from the respective schools. • Inadequate curriculum facilities (e.g. P.E., language laboratory, etc.) coupled with staff shortages have contributed to existing patterns of student problem behaviors. Other Issues: • Signage is limited. • Old, broken and unused equipment is stored on site rather than discarded. This material should be removed. • Team members feel that they would benefit if the school could offer a more full range of classes more directly tailored to the perceived needs of their students. Team members 125 suggested that this would include an increased focus on Vocational/Technical education and less of a focus on academics. 126 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: San Juan Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • The campus is extremely large and is very poorly laid out in terms of crime prevention, The school requires more security personnel on school grounds. Additionally, because the physical layout of the campus makes line of sight surveillance of students and their supervision difficult consideration should be given to improving surveillance through the use of technology including remote CCTV. • The schools perimeter fence/wall has not been completed. There are multiple points of entry that cannot be observed by school staff. This problem not only permits students to come and go as they please, but also allows outsiders into school compound that might pose a threat to the school and its students. • The problem of late arrival of students and student absenteeism is substantial and makes continuity in student supervision difficult. Some students are in classrooms while at the same others are moving around campus relatively freely and unsupervised. • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. A strategy should be implemented that will increase the supervision of students when a teacher is absent. • There is very little lighting within the compound and as a result security officers are unwilling to patrol the area. Increased lighting is required to increase line of site for patrols, and well as to deter unwanted visitors at night. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 127 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Siparia East Secondary School Re: VPA site visit to Siparia East Secondary School During this visit I met with Mr. Charles, Ms. Thomas, Ms. Robinson, and Mr. Kadir. The purpose of this visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This letter recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that Siparia East Secondary School would benefit from addressing. While there is currently ongoing construction to build a new school facility, attending to some of these security concerns will help address some problems in the interim and help in the planning process for putting systems in place to enhance security once the new facility is opened. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • Revisit emergency escape plan, utilizing local fire department to assist in establishing a muster point for evacuation. Practice this plan once a system is in place. • Conduct formal scheduled patrols of “hot spot” areas on the compound during peak times, including stairwells, hallways, the media room, the remedial classroom area, and the parking lot. MTS officers, school security officers, and deans should help in a systematic schedule of monitoring and surveillance. • Continue efforts to paint away graffiti on the compound, which will enhance the overall appearance of the school’s facilities. • Establish formal monitoring of unsupervised classrooms using a supervision roster. Enhance this monitoring system by having curriculum developed to provide to students with absent teachers. • Have areas of thick vegetation cleared away to enhance visibility. • Remove trees on the compound where students tend to congregate that are not easily monitored. • Have a gate or other barrier erected in the back stairwell where many children hide and congregate. • Establish a plan for having all visitors escorted to the main office by MTS officers or assigned school administrators. • Consider options for replacing current washroom entrances with double-entry doors to assist in monitoring and surveillance. 128 This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during my site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at Siparia East Secondary School to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 129 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Siparia Senior Comprehensive School Re: VPA site visit to Siparia Senior Comprehensive School During this visit I met with Mrs. Subnaik, Mrs. Maharaj, Mr. Ali, and Mr. Aziz. The purpose of this visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This letter recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that Success Laventille Secondary would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • Removal of the bench located behind the technical vocation building where students have been congregating to gamble. • Continue with plans to utilize walkie-talkie systems to enhance monitoring and surveillance activities. • Conduct formal scheduled patrols of “hot spot” areas of the compound during peak times, including Blocks E and F, the washroom facilities, and cafeteria area. MTS officers, school security officers, and deans should help in a systematic schedule of monitoring and surveillance. • Removal of thick vegetation in key areas of the campus to enhance surveillance efforts. Key areas would include: next to and behind the washroom facilities and behind Block C. • Replace barbed wire that is missing from the top corner of the barrier wall near the washrooms. • Clean and enhance the savannah on the compound for possible utilization of recreational activities. • Consider closing off “pass through” sections of the side gate when classes are in session to discourage vendors from selling items during class time. • Equip Security Officers’ office with collapsible ladder to allow for easy exit from the front of the third floor of Block C. • Establish a detention room for students who commit minor offenses to remain during their lunch period. This room will be monitored by deans. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during my site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to 130 the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at Siparia Senior Comprehensive School to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 131 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Ste. Madeleine Secondary School Re: VPA site visit to Ste. Madeleine Secondary School During this visit I met with Ms. Balramsingh, Ms. Branker, Ms. Sookhai, and Ms. Benjamin. The purpose of this visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This letter recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that Ste. Madeleine Secondary School would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • Conduct formal scheduled patrols of “hot spot” areas of the compound during peak times, including Block B, the school cafeteria area, and the northern perimeter fence and gate. MTS officers, school security officers, and deans should help in a systematic schedule of monitoring and surveillance. • Establish a system for unsupervised classes to be monitored during teacher absences as these situations have led to a higher level of incidences. • Have administrative offices relocated to another area of the compound to enhance surveillance efforts. • Plan efforts to decrease violent and delinquent acts in the parking lot area, including securing cameras for monitoring and relocating vehicles to another part of the campus. • Repaint red and yellow arrows throughout the campus indicating the escape routes for emergency drills. • Ensure fire extinguishers in labs and other areas on the compound are charged and operating effectively. • All of the items listed in the school’s 1st Draft Security Plan represent improvements to the security and safety of Ste. Madeleine Secondary School. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during my site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at Ste. Madeleine Secondary School to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress further the next VPA session. 132 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Success Laventille Secondary School Re: VPA site visit Success Laventille Secondary School On Wednesday March 25, 2009 I had the pleasure of visiting Success Laventille Secondary School as part of the Violence Prevention Academy program. During this visit I met with Ms. Radix, Ms. Baksh, Mr. Williams, Ms. Johnson, Mr. Constantine, and Mr. Stewart. The purpose of this visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This letter recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that Success Laventille Secondary would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • Continue with newly developed system to track teacher tardiness and absenteeism. Monitoring this information effectively and coupling findings with a standardize plan for monitoring classes without teachers can help reduce the number of unsupervised students on the campus. • Follow through with plans for security cameras and alarm system in the parking lot to deal with the issue of students interacting with community members on the other side of the school’s fence. • Conduct formal scheduled patrols of “hot spot” areas on the compound during peak times, including Block B. MTS officers, school security officers, and deans should help in a systematic schedule of monitoring and surveillance. • Continue with plans to eliminate community member access to the courtyard located at the back of the school compound. • Consider the possibility of securing convex mirrors in areas of the school that are difficult to view from multiple angles to help with monitoring and surveillance. • Continue with plans to repaint graffiti in an expedited fashion to help keep up the appearances of the school’s compound. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during my site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at Success Laventille Secondary School to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 133 134 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: Tranquility Secondary School Re: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) school site visit The purpose of the site visit was to discuss security concerns as they relate to the school’s violence and delinquency problems, including completing the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) review. This memorandum recaps those issues discussed during our meeting, and outlines the CPTED issues that the school would benefit from addressing. The following is a list of the security issues that were identified as possible contributors to the school’s current violence and delinquency problems and possible areas for reform: • The campus is large and there are a number of locations that are not observable. The school requires substantially more security personnel on school grounds to enhance the surveillance of students.. • The schools back perimeter is unsafe and not secure. This problem not only permits students to come and go as they please, but also allows outsiders onto the school compound that might pose a threat to the school and its students. • A number of the doors toward the back of the school remain open and unable to be locked. This problem permits students to roam around and unsupervised by school staff. The school should consider working with the MoE to have the doors locked if it does not pose a safety threat to those in the school (i.e., need for fire escape). • Teacher absenteeism, late coming and early leaving, makes classroom coverage challenging and contributes to unsupervised students and classrooms. This list represents the major security based response items that were identified during our site visit to your school. There were many other problems, responses, suggestions, and barriers to implementation discussed. Our team plans to address some of these larger concerns in a memo to the Ministry of Education. I encourage the Violence Prevention Academy team and other administrators at your school to continue your hard work and diligence in utilizing the SARA process to help respond efficiently and effectively to your school’s problems, including those aimed at issues of environmental design. While this process is never simple or easy, it can have a significant and measurable impact on the safety of your school. I look forward to discussing your ideas and progress during the next VPA session. 135 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Valencia Secondary School This memo highlights elements from the site visit to Valencia Secondary School. While facing considerable challenges, the Violence Prevention Academy team from Valencia Secondary School have clearly embraced the Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) Process. At Valencia, the acting principal is a member of the VPA team and has begun to use information describing the distribution of violence in the school to inform policy. For example, during January of 2009 Valencia High School created a Patrol Roster. The patrol provides a presence in areas where there are concentrations of indiscipline. These areas are referred to as hotspots and were identified by the VPA team. Hotspots are patrolled during critical times of the day including break time and lunch time. The Patrol Roster identifies the individuals who are to conduct patrol, the time at which they will patrol and the area that will be patrolled. Those conducting patrol include administration, deans, and teachers with non-teaching periods, school safety officers and MTS security officers. Major Issues: • Campus layout is not conducive to the supervision of students by teachers, administration, and MTS officers. • Due to high rates of teacher absenteeism there are classrooms without consistent supervision. When there are fewer teachers than classrooms with students, two or more teachers are selected to patrol the vicinity of the relevant classrooms. • Classrooms are often left unlocked. • There is a substantial amount of graffiti and vandalism. Many classrooms have louvers removed. It is or understanding that these issues are currently being addressed by the school. • There are a number of areas on campus suitable for violence and other antisocial behaviors. These areas provide cover for students participating in behaviors and long sight lines for lookouts. To a certain extent, the suitability of these areas for violence and other antisocial behaviors may be decreased through the installation of parabolic mirrors. • There is a squatter on campus grounds. This squatter was described as a low level drug dealer. Additionally, the squatter can be a security threat as he sometimes enters the school compound, undetected by the night security and interferes with school amenities. Maximum effort should be made by all parties to have this squatter removed from school grounds. Other Issues: • As of the site visit, staff had been unable to get substitute teachers to cover long term absence. • Staff felt that offering courses with a practical application may help alienated students become more interested in academics. It is hoped that this increased academic interest will result in less indiscipline. • There are no directional signs. • There is no public telephone with cost free connections to emergency services 136 • Old, broken, and unserviceable equipment are not removed from the compound in a timely manner. 137 From: Violence Prevention Academy Team To: The Ministry of Education Re: Violence Prevention Academy site visit to Williamsville Secondary School This memo highlights findings and observations from the site visit to Williamsville Secondary School. The Williamsville VPA team has identified assault as the principal problem to be addressed. The Williamsville team noted several challenges related to violence and behavioral disorder at the school. They indicated that the school had a high dropout rate of those involved in fights and described it as happening naturally since students who are to come back to school with their parents as part of the disciplinary process frequently fail to return. The Williamsville team described different efforts that they had made to address the school violence and related problems including bringing representatives from the prison and police services as well as other programs to deliver lectures. Williamsville school officials have taken several CPTED measures to improve school safety and provided a document of these measures. They reported several CPTED action items that have been completed regarding natural access control, natural surveillance, territorial reinforcement, target hardening, and maintenance. Construction of gates, perimeter fencing, access to and better signage for the muster point, equipping security personnel with metal detectors, and installing water storage tanks to reduce early school closing are a few of the CPTED related steps that have been taken. The Williamsville team indicated that they were having a difficult time coming up with additional responses to the problem of assault and related behaviors that were within Trinidad and Tobago law and Ministry of Education Policy. Major Issues: • Recognizing that the campus layout is not conducive to violence prevention, it should be noted that major uses of CPTED actions have been taken at Williamsville. However, officials there need to continue to explore CPTED approaches to improving security and guardianship including those involving electronic technology. • A school-related issue that is a problem for the surrounding community has to do with after school transportation, which does not always take them close to their homes and makes them vulnerable for victimization. This also results in unsupervised time which increases the risk of their participating in undesirable forms of behavior. • Student absenteeism and teacher absenteeism are problematic. In the case of teachers, their absenteeism makes it harder to provide adequate student supervision and overall campus guardianship. Other Issues: • More tools than are currently available are needed for the disciplinary process. The seven day suspension policy is inadequate for addressing the disciplinary requirements of dealing with high rate offenders. • Consideration needs to be given to making resources available to for in-school, afterschool, and weekend suspension. 138 • Principals and deans need stronger authority to effectively address problems associated with the disciplinary process, and with student and teacher late coming, early leaving, and absenteeism. 139 Appendix C: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) Student Survey 140 VPA STUDENT SURVEY MARKING INSTRUCTIONS • Use a No. 2 pencil or a blue or black ink pen only. • Do not use pens with ink that soaks through the paper. • Make solid marks that fill the response completely. • Make no stray marks on this form. CORRECT: INCORRECT: 1. What school do you currently attend? Aranguez Govt Secondary San Juan Secondary Comp Moruga Composite Arima Senior Comp Siparia Secondary Morvant Laventille Secondary Carapichaima Secondary Siparia Senior Comp Mt. Hope Secondary Cunupia High School Ste. Madeline Secondary Mucurapo Senior Comp El Dorado Secondary Comp Success Laventille Composite Pleasantville Secondary Comp Five Rivers Secondary Tranquility Govt Secondary Princes Town Senior Comp Marabella Secondary Valencia High School San Fernando East Secondary Marabella Senior Comp Williamsville Secondary San Fernando Secondary Comp Malick Secondary Comp 2. What form are you in? Form 4 Other 4.Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes what you consider yourself to be? 5. How old are you? 11 or younger Form 5 African 12 East Indian 13 Afro/Indian 14 Other 15 Other 3. Are you ? Male 16 Female 17 18 19 or older Please turn survey over and complete the questions on the back! 141 6. Since the begining of the term, how much of a problem has the following issue been for your school? Not a problem at all Minor problem Major problem Arson Assault (victim does not fight back) Bomb threats Bullying Cheating on class assignments Cocaine use Arriving to school late Disrespect Disruptive behavior Drug sales Extortion\ taxing Fighting Forgery Gangs Gambling Guns Littering Loitering Marijuana use Obscene language Robbery Unauthorized absence from school or class Improper uniform Sexual assault Stealing Threats and intimidation Trespassing on school grounds Vandalism Weapon possession Inappropriate sexual contact between students Nonstudents wearing school uniforms to attend school functions/activities Thank you for participating in this study! OFFICIAL USE ONLY Time 1 2 3 4 142 Appendix D: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) Teacher Survey 143 VPA Teacher Survey MARKING INSTRUCTIONS • Use a No. 2 pencil or a blue or black ink pen only. • Do not use pens with ink that soaks through the paper. • Make solid marks that fill the response completely. • Make no stray marks on this form. CORRECT: Job Satisfaction 6. How do you like your job? I hate it I don't like it I like it I love it INCORRECT: 7. How much of the time do you feel satisfied with your job? 1. At which school do you currently teach? All the time Most of the time Aranguez Govt Secondary Arima Senior Comp Carapichaima Secondary Cunupia High School El Dorado Secondary Comp Five Rivers Secondary Marabella Secondary Marabella Senior Comp Malick Secondary Comp Moruga Composite Morvant Laventille Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Mucurapo Senior Comp Pleasantville Secondary Comp Princes Town Senior Comp San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando Secondary Comp San Juan Secondary Comp Siparia Secondary Siparia Senior Comp Ste. Madeline Secondary Success Laventille Composite Tranquility Govt Secondary Valencia High School Williamsville Secondary Other Some of the time Almost never 8. How much do you think you like your job compared with other people? No one likes his or her job better than I like mine. I like my job better than most people like theirs. I like my job about as much as most people like theirs. I dislike my job much more than most people dislike theirs. Classroom Orderliness 9. How much of your time in the classroom is directed to coping with disruptive student behavior? About half of my time None of my time Most of my time Some time each day 10 . How much does the behavior of some students in your classroom (talking, fighting, etc.) keep you from teaching? A great deal Not very much at all A fair amount Not at all 2. What form do you teach? 3. Are you ? Male Upper 6th Other More than one Female 4. Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes what you consider yourself to be? African East Indian Afro/Indian Other Resources 5. How old are you? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 e re ag is t D ha ly ng ew m ro t St So ha e ew re m ag ee So is D gr ee A gr y A gl on 4 th 5 th Lower 6 r St 1 st 2 nd 3 rd 11. The school supplies me with the material and equipment I need for teaching 12. This school building has the space and physical arrangements needed to conduct the kinds of programs we need 13.The school's learning program extends to settings beyond the school building for most students 14.Teachers and students are able to get the instructional materials they need at the time they are needed 144 Personal Security In the past month have any of the following happened to you personally in this school? 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Planning and Action YES NO Damage to personal property worth less than $60.00 Damage to personal property worth more than $60.00 Theft of personal property worth less than $60.00 Theft of personal property worth more than $60.00 Was physically attacked and had to see a doctor Was physically attacked but did not have to see a doctor Received obscene remarks or gestures from a student Was threatened in remarks by a student Had a weapon pulled on me Safety 24. In your opinion, how much of a problem are vandalism, personal attacks, and theft in your school? None or almost none A little Some Fairly much Very much 25. Since school started this year, how any times did you hesitate to confront misbehaving students for fear of your own safety? Never Once or twice A few times Many times Nearly all the time fe Sa ry Ve afe S y irl ge Fa ra ve A e af ns U y e irl af Fa ns U ry Ve At your school during school hours, how safe from vandalism, personal attacks and theft is each of the following places? 26. Your classroom while teaching 27. Empty classrooms 28. Hallways and locker areas 29. The cafeteria 30. The toilets used by students 31. The gym 32. Parking lot 33. The School Hall/Auditorium 34. Elsewhere outside on school grounds Morale Please indicate which of the following descriptors are mostly true of the teaching faculty of your school and which are mostly false about the faculty. True False 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. Apathetic Cohesive Enthusiastic Frustrated Satisfied Tense Unappreciated 42. How often do you work on a planning committee with other teachers or administrators from your school? Several times a month About once a month Less than once a month True False 43. The principal encourages experimentation 44. Teacher evaluation is used in improving teacher performance Are the following statements mostly true or mostly false about the principal of your school? True False 45. Engages in planning 46. Progressive Please indicate which of the following descriptors are mostly true of the teaching faculty of your school and which are mostly false about the faculty True 47. 48. 49. 50. False Conservative Innovative Open to change Traditional Thank you for your participation! Please contact The Student Leadership Unit at 622.0536 if you have any questions about this survey. Modified and reproduced by special permission of the Publisher, Gottfredson Associates, Inc., Ellicott City, MD 21042, from Effective School Battery Teacher Questionnaire by Gary D. Gottfredson. Copyright © 1999 by Gottfredson Associates, Inc.. All rights reserved. Further reproduction is prohibited without the Publisher's written consent. OFFICIAL USE ONLY Time 1 2 3 4 145 Appendix E: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) School Incident Report Form (SIRF) 146 STAPLE IN THIS BOX School Incident Record Form (SIRF) Directions: Please complete every question to the best or your ability. When filling out the names please start on the left side, fit as many letters as possible. If the name is unknown, leave it blank. If there is more than one offender or victim please attach as many additional offender/victim forms as needed. Staple all the forms together in the top RIGHT hand corner, the timing marks on the left hand side need to remain undamaged for scanning purposes. SCHOOL NAME (School Number) Aranguez Govt Secondary 1001 Arima Senior Comp 1002 Carapichaima Secondary 1003 Cunupia High School 1004 El Dorado Secondary Comp 1005 Five Rivers Secondary 1006 Marabella Secondary 1007 Marabella Senior Comp 1008 Malick Secondary Comp 1009 Moruga Composite 1010 Morvant Laventille Secondary 1011 Mt. Hope Secondary 1012 Mucurapo Senior Comp 1013 Pleasantville Secondary Comp 1014 Princes Town Senior Comp 1015 San Fernando East Secondary 1016 San Fernando Secondary Comp 1017 San Juan Secondary Comp 1018 Siparia Secondary 1019 Siparia Senior Comp 1020 Ste. Madeline Secondary 1021 Success Laventille Composite 1022 Tranquility Govt Secondary 1023 1024 Valencia High School Williamsville Secondary 1025 Other 1026 About the incident... Time of incident AM PM INCIDENT DATE MONTH Jan Feb Mar DAY : YEAR Incident Location... Classroom while teaching Empty classrooms # OF OFFENDERS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Apr May 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 June July 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 Aug Sept 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 Oct Nov Dec 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 YES NO Incident was ON school grounds All offenders wearing school uniform? Weapon used? Was an individual injured? Ministry informed? Police called? Incident type (Choose ALL that apply) Alcohol use/possession Arriving to school late Arson Assault (victim does not fight back) Assault with weapon Bomb threats Bullying Cheating on class assignments Disrespect Disruptive behavior Drug sales Drug use/possession Extortion/ taxing Fighting Forgery Gambling # OF VICTIMS Disciplinary Action (Choose ALL that apply) Guns Improper uniform Inappropriate sexual contact between students Littering Loitering Obscene language Robbery Sexual assault Stealing Threats and intimidation Trespassing on school grounds Unauthorized absence Vandalism Weapon possession Other_____________________ Cafeteria Toilets used by students School field Parking lot Counseling Warning given Detention Confiscated items Parents called to pick up student Set up meeting with parents Suspended 1 Day Suspended 2 Days Suspended 3 Days Suspended 4 Days Suspended 5 to 7 days Extended Suspension In school suspension Expelled SSO called Police called Other School Hall/Auditorium Hallways and locker areas Elsewhere outside on school grounds Other Z142 147 Offender #1 FIRST NAME LAST NAME In what form is Offender #1? A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S 1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th Lower 6 Upper 6 Non-Student Unknown Offender #1 age Offender #1 gender Male Female 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 P 8 8 Q Q 9 9 R R R S S S T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes Offender #1 African East Indian Afro/Indian Other ATTENTION: Attach ADDITIONAL OFFENDER/VICTIM FORM as needed Victim #1 In what form is Victim #1? FIRST NAME LAST NAME 1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th Lower 6 A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 Victim #1 gender Upper 6 Non-Student Unknown Victim #1 age Male Female Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes Victim #1 African East Indian Afro/Indian Other Official Use Only 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 148 STAPLE IN THIS BOX ADDITIONAL VICTIM/ OFFENDER FORM Directions: Please identify if the information is a victim or an offender for each individual. When filling out the names please start on the left side, fit as many letters as possible. If the name is unknown, leave it blank. Staple all Additional Victim/ Offender Forms to the back of the School Incident Record Form for this incident. Be sure to staple the forms together in the top RIGHT hand corner, the timing marks on the left hand side need to remain undamaged for scanning purposes. School Number Please use the "School Number" located next to your school's name on the School Incident Record Form (SIRF). Is this student a.... 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 DAY Jan Feb Mar : YEAR # OF OFFENDERS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Apr May 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 June July 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 Aug Sept 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 Oct Nov Dec 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 In what form is this student? OFFENDER VICTIM # OF VICTIMS Time of incident AM PM INCIDENT DATE MONTH FIRST NAME 1 st 2 nd 3 rd LAST NAME A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 4 th 5 th Lower 6 Upper 6 Non-Student Unknown Age Gender Male Female 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 M 8 8 N N 9 9 O O Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes this student? African East Indian Afro/Indian Other ATTENTION: Attach ADDITIONAL OFFENDER/VICTIM FORM as needed P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 Please use other side for additional victims or offenders Official Use Only Is this student a.... 149 OFFENDER VICTIM FIRST NAME LAST NAME In what form is this student? A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S 4 th 5 th Lower 6 Upper 6 Non-Student Unknown Age Gender Male Female 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 P 8 8 Q Q 9 9 R R R S S S T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Is this student a.... 1 st 2 nd 3 rd Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes this student? African East Indian Afro/Indian Other ATTENTION: Attach ADDITIONAL OFFENDER/VICTIM FORM as needed OFFENDER VICTIM FIRST NAME LAST NAME In what form is this student? A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E 1 st 2 nd 3 rd 4 th 5 th Lower 6 Gender Upper 6 Non-Student Unknown Age Male Female F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H 0 0 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 1 1 J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J 2 2 K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K 3 3 L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L 4 4 M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M 5 5 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N 6 6 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 7 7 P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P 8 8 Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q 9 9 R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Please choose the ONE answer that BEST describes this student? African East Indian Afro/Indian Other ATTENTION: Attach ADDITIONAL OFFENDER/VICTIM FORM as needed 150 Appendix F: Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) 2008-2009 Safe Schools Report 151 A Safe Schools Report by the Trinidad and Tobago Violence Prevention Academy 2008-2009 Presented to the Minister of Education The Honourable Esther Le Gendre Produced by Todd A. Armstrong Jana Benson Andrew M. Fox Megan Gantly Charles M. Katz Matthew J. Larson Edward R. Maguire Vincent J. Webb October 2009 152 Table of Contents Letter to the Minister 2 Background 3 Section 1: Information about reported incidents in schools 5 Section 2: Information about offenders and victims 13 Section 3: Information about disciplinary outcomes 25 Policy Recommendations 29 Appendix A Data Collection Instrument 30 1|Page 153 October 15, 2009 Honourable Esther Le Gendre Ministry of Education 18 Alexandra Street St. Clair Port of Spain Dear Honourable Esther Le Gendre, Since September 2008 the Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) has been collaborating with personnel from 25 schools in Trinidad. As part of the course participants emphasized a need for collecting official data at the school level to determine the scope and nature of indiscipline in their schools. To facilitate this process participating schools developed a standardized School Incident Reporting Form (SIRF) to help them collect school incident data in a more standardized and uniform way than had been done in the past. As a consequence, data for the 2008-2009 school year were collected and provided to your office and to each of the participating schools. While the attached report was not contractually required as part of our work for the VPA we thought that it might be of assistance to your staff and associated personnel. We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Stephen Williams and Ms. Marlene Charles. Mr. Williams and Ms. Charles facilitated all of the enclosed work, and the project could not have been accomplished without their hard work and dedication. We hope that you find this report of interest and value. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. Sincerely, Charles M. Katz, Ph.D. Director & Associate Professor Center for Violence Prevention & Community Safety 2|Page 154 Background Safety in Trinidad and Tobago’s schools is one of the nation’s most important issues. School safety is important not only for fostering and maintaining an environment conducive for learning, but is also important for building healthy communities. Toward this goal, in 2008, the Ministry of Education established the Violence Prevention Academy (VPA) The purpose of the VPA is to train school personnel to develop comprehensive, integrated, and evidence-based violence prevention plans tailored to the specific needs of their school. By providing school personnel with the appropriate training and skills the nation will be better equipped to develop prevention and intervention strategies that increase safety and improve the quality of education for the students of Trinidad and Tobago. As part of the VPA, participants emphasized a need for collecting official data at the school level to determine the scope and nature of indiscipline in their school. To facilitate this process participating schools developed a standardized School Incident Reporting Form (SIRF) to help them collect school incident data in a more standard, uniform way than had been done in the past (See Appendix A for the data collection form). The collected data were to be used at the school level, not only better understand the problems that impacted their school, but also to better understand the success (or failure) that they might have when their school’s violence prevention programs are implemented. This report provides details from official school data that were collected from schools participating in the Violence Prevention Academy. School administrators and teachers received training prior to the implementation of this data collection instrument and were asked to fill out a SIRF every time an incident took place in their school. An incident was defined as any event that happened on the same day, at the same time, and was connected in any way, no matter how many students, teachers, or adults. Data were to be collected on all incidents that occurred in the 2008-2009 school year. Participation in the data collection exercise was voluntary and schools were not required to submit data. By July 31, 2009 data were returned by 18 of 25 schools. Of the 18 schools that provided data, most provided data over the entire school year. As seen in Exhibit X, 11 of the 18 schools provided data for 9 or more months, four of the 18 schools provided data for 8 or 8.5 months, and 3 schools provided data for 6 or fewer months. As a consequence, readers of this report should be cognizant of the fact that not all schools participating in the VPA provided data to this data collection exercise, and of those that did provide data, data was not provided over the entire school year. Therefore, this report should not be viewed as encompassing all incidents that occurred in the 2008-2009 school year at participating schools. 3|Page 155 Exhibit 1: Number of months of data provided by school School Name Number of Months Reported Cunupia High School Five Rivers Junior Secondary Marabella Secondary Marabella Senior comprehensive Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Moruga Composite School Morvant Laventille Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Mucurado Secondary Comprehensive Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive Siparia Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Ste Madeleine Secondary Success Laventille composite Tranquillity Govt Secondary Williamsville Secondary School 8.5 5.0 8.5 9.0 10.0 6.0 9.0 9.5 10.0 9.0 9.0 10.0 10.0 3.0 9.0 8.5 8.0 9.0 The report has two primary purposes. The first is that it is intended to provide the Ministry of Education with a summary of the findings derived from this specific VPA exercise, which we hope might be of some use for conducting nation-wide educational policy analysis. All of the data collected for this exercise were provided to the Ministry of Education, and to each of the schools that collected the data so they can conduct their own analysis if interested. The second purpose of this report is to demonstrate the possibilities associated with the Ministry of Education requiring standardized, uniform data collection on school indiscipline from all public schools in Trinidad. A report similar to this is produced by all developed nations on an annual basis and we hope that Trinidad will consider such an effort as well. This report provides information related to four major areas: 1) Information about reported incidents at schools 2) Information about victims and offenders 3) Information about the disciplinary outcomes that resulted from the student offenses 4) Recommendations 4|Page 156 Section 1: Information about Reported Incidents in Schools The primary focus of this section is on issues related to number and characteristics of the incidents that were reported in schools. In regards to the number of incidents reported, we examined the average number per school, per month, by day of the week, and by time of the day. We also analyzed the type of incidents that were reported and characteristics of those incidents, including whether it occurred on school grounds, the offenders were in uniform, a weapon was used, an individual was injured, and whether the ministry or police were informed. Finally, we examined where the incidents occurred, paying specific attention to the location of the four most common offenses: disrespect, disruptive behavior, fighting, and assaults. Key Findings Malick Secondary Comprehensive reported the most incidents, followed by Siparia Secondary, and Tranquility Government Secondary. Together these schools accounted for more than 40% of all incidents. While more incidents were reported in October than any other month, there was virtually no difference in the number reported by day of the week. While incidents were reported throughout the day, most were reported at 9:00am, 10:00am, 1:00pm, and 1:30pm. The most commonly reported types of incidents were disrespect, disruptive behavior, and fighting with disrespect accounting for more than one quarter (25%) of all violations. The least commonly reported were arson, forgery, guns, and drug sales. Almost all incidents occurred on school grounds when the students were wearing their school uniforms. Weapons were rarely used and it was uncommon for individuals to report injuries. Most incidents were handled at the school level, with the ministry and police rarely being informed of indiscipline problems. The most common location for an incident to occur was in a classroom while teaching or an empty classroom. Incidents were least likely to be reported in the parking lot or the school field. More than half of all disrespect and disruptive behavior incidents occurred in classrooms while teaching. Fighting and assaults were most likely to be reported as occurring in empty classrooms. 5|Page 157 Exhibit 2: Average number of incidents per month per school Number of Incidents Reported Percent of Total Number of Months Reported Avg # of Incidents per Month Cunupia High School Five Rivers Junior Secondary Marabella Secondary Marabella Senior comprehensive Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Moruga Composite School Morvant Laventille Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Mucurado Secondary Comprehensive Pleasantville Secondary Comprehensive San Fernando East Secondary San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive Siparia Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Ste Madeleine Secondary Success Laventille composite Tranquillity Govt Secondary Williamsville Secondary School 44 38 150 81 2.0 1.7 6.8 3.7 8.5 5.0 8.5 9.0 5.2 7.6 17.6 9.0 421 19.2 10.0 42.1 111 110 126 53 51 92 5.1 5.0 5.8 2.4 2.3 4.2 6.0 9.0 9.5 10.0 9.0 9.0 18.5 12.2 13.3 5.3 5.7 10.2 84 3.8 10.0 8.4 296 101 87 59 163 124 13.5 4.6 4.0 2.7 7.4 5.7 10.0 3.0 9.0 8.5 8.0 9.0 29.6 33.7 9.7 6.9 20.4 13.8 Total 2191 100.0 School Name 6|Page 158 Exhibit 3: Incidents by month (N= 1,977) Percentage of Incidents 25 19.4 20 15 13.2 11.9 10.2 9.9 10 8.5 7.5 4.2 4.1 5 1.5 0 September October November December January February March April May June Exhibit 4: Incidents by day of week (N=2,166) Percentage of incidents 25 18.9 20 19.8 20.0 20.4 18.9 15 10 5 1.3 .7 0 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 7|Page Percent of total incidents 7:00 7:35 7:55 8:15 8:35 8:55 9:10 9:20 9:32 9:38 9:50 10:05 10:12 10:25 10:45 11:00 11:20 11:40 11:55 12:08 12:20 12:38 12:47 12:59 13:10 13:20 13:38 13:45 13:55 14:10 14:24 14:33 14:45 15:45 Number of incidents 159 Exhibit 5: Number of Incidents by Time of Day by Minute (N=1,369) 70 60 20 15 10 9:00 10:00 13:00 13.8 9.3 7.5 7.0 6.7 13:30 50 40 30 20 10 0 Exhibit 6: Types of incidents (N=2,144) 30 25 25.6 18.7 13.2 6.6 5.7 5 0 8|Page 160 Exhibit 7: Types of Incidents, con't (N=2,144) Percent of total incidents 5 4 3.6 3.4 3.0 3 2.3 2.1 2 1.4 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.1 1 0 Exhibit 8: Types of Incidents, con't (N=2,144) Percent of total incidents 5 4 3 2 1.1 1 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0 9|Page 161 Exhibit 9: Characteristics of incidents 80 60 40 15.1 20 4.2 3.1 3.2 0 On School Grounds (N=2,069) Offenders in Weapon Used Uniform (N=2,004) (N=2,032) Individual Injured (N=1,977) Ministry Informed (N=1,981) Police Informed (N=1,950) Exhibit 10: Incident Location (N=1,920) 30 26.3 25 Percent of incidents Percent of incidents 98.6 95.6 100 20.1 20 15 17.8 13.5 12.5 10 5 4.6 3.0 1.4 0.5 0.3 0 10 | P a g e 162 Exhibit 11: Location of Disrespect Incidents (N=490) 60 51.6 50 Percent of incidents 40 30 20 11.0 10 13.7 9 8.2 3.3 2.0 0.8 0.4 0.0 0 Exhibit 12: Location of Disruptive Behavior (N=364) 70 Percent of incidents 60 59.1 50 40 30 20 10 12.4 11.8 9.6 2.7 2.2 1.4 0.8 0 0 0 11 | P a g e 163 Exhibit 13: Location of Fighting (N=264) 30 28.4 Percent of incidents 25 20 17.8 13.6 15 12.9 12.5 9.1 10 5 2.7 1.9 1.1 0.0 0 Exhibit 14: Location of Assault (N=179) Percent of incidents at each location 30 28.5 25 20 15 10 5 15.6 15.1 15.6 13.4 6.7 2.8 1.7 0.6 0 0 12 | P a g e 164 Section 2: Information about Offenders and Victims The section of the report focuses on characteristics of offenders and victims as well as the number of victims and offenders reported per incident type. First, the specific offender and victim characteristics examined include gender, ethnicity, form, and age. Second, we examined the average number of victims and offenders per incident, the average number of offenders by incident type, and incident types that involved multiple victims. Third, we identified individuals that were involved in multiple offenses (repeat offenders) or were victimized multiple times (repeat victims). High rate offenders, those having committed five or more offenses during the reporting period, were then identified. Key Findings While offenders are more likely to be males, the gender break down of victims is almost equal for males and females. On average, most incidents types involved a male offender (about 70% of the time). The exceptions are gambling, which was almost always committed by males, and improper uniform, which was committed by males and females almost equally. For violent offenses, fighting and assaults, the victims were more often males. For incidents involving violations of school rules, the victims were more often female. The majority of offenders and victims were African, followed by East Indian. The ethnic breakdown of offenders did not vary greatly by offense type, although the offense with the largest proportion of African offenders was gambling and the largest proportion of East Indian offenders was unauthorized absence. Offenders were commonly in the first through fourth forms. The most common classification of victims was non-student, designating that many offenses are being committed by students against faculty and staff. Older offenders (age 14 through 17) are committing offenses against non-students and younger students (ages 11 through 13). Most incidents involved one or two offenders and zero to one victim. It was most common to see students offending together when using drugs and littering. Multiple offenders were least likely with alcohol use and arriving late to school. Sexual assault was the incident type that was most likely to involve multiple victims, followed by extortion/taxing and assault. A small proportion of students were responsible for committing multiple offenses. Repeat offenders, who made up less than 5% of the student body, committed more than 50% of all incidents reported. 13 | P a g e 165 Exhibit 15: Offender and Victim Characteristics Offender Percentage (%) N Victim Percentage (%) N Male 70.1 2054 52.7 405 Female 29.9 876 47.2 363 African 75.6 2130 60.7 429 East Indian 15.8 446 31.0 219 Afro/Indian 5.6 159 4.5 32 Other 2.9 82 3.8 27 1st 21.4 625 22.2 179 2nd 23.9 697 16.6 134 3rd 22.6 660 8.7 70 4th 20.1 588 8.5 69 5th 6th (upper/lower) 11.1 324 4.2 34 0.1 3 0.2 2 Non-Student 0.3 9 37.4 302 Unknown 0.5 13 2.2 18 11 0.9 18 1.1 5 12 5.1 103 9.3 43 13 12.5 250 15.6 72 14 23.7 474 17.5 86 15 25.5 511 16.0 74 16 19.5 391 10.6 49 17 10.4 209 4.8 22 18+ 2.3 46 24.0 111 Characteristic Gender Ethnicity Form Age 14 | P a g e 166 Exhibit 16: Gender involvement as offender and victim Percent of offenders and victims 80 70.1 70 60 52.7 47.2 50 40 29.9 30 20 10 0 Male (N= 2390) Female (N=768) Offenders 100 Victims Exhibit 17: Proportion of incidents involving a male offender by incident type 94.9 Percent of offenders 90 80 70 78.1 74.8 72.3 68.5 66.8 63.8 61.1 60.9 60 52.2 50 40 15 | P a g e 167 70 Exhibit 18: Proportion of incidents involving a male victim by incident type 67.3 58.0 Percent of victims 60 50 45.0 40.6 40.5 40 36.5 30 20 Assault (N=165) Fighting (N=150) Disrespect (N=202) Disruptive Threats and Behavior Intimidation (N=96) (N=84) Obscene Language (N=52) Exhibit 19: Ethnicity involvement as Offender and Victim Percent of offenders and victims 80 75.6 70 60.7 60 50 40 31.0 30 20 15.8 10 5.6 4.5 2.9 3.8 0 Offenders (N=2817) African East Indian Victims (N=707) Afro/Indian Other 16 | P a g e 168 Exhibit 20: Offender Ethnicity by Offense Ethnicity Incident Type % African % East Indian % Afro/Indian % Other Disrespect 80.5 11.0 6.1 2.4 657 Disruptive Behavior 78.5 12.5 8.2 0.8 511 Fighting 81.8 11.1 3.2 3.9 440 Assault 79.5 12.3 7.0 1.2 244 Gambling 88.0 5.2 4.7 2.1 192 Unauthorized Absence 79.9 14.8 3.7 1.6 189 Improper Uniform 80.9 9.6 5.6 3.9 178 Total N **Note: These are the 7 most prevalent incidents that were reported on the SIRF Forms. Exhibit 21: Offender and Victim involvmenet by Form 40 37.4 Percent of offender and victims 35 30 25 20 21.4 22.2 23.9 22.6 20.1 16.6 15 10 11.1 8.7 8.5 4.2 5 0.1 0.2 0.3 0 Offender (N=2306) Victim (N=790) 17 | P a g e 169 Exhibit 22: Offender and Victim involvement by Age 30 25.5 25 Percent of offender and victims 24.0 23.7 19.5 20 17.5 16.0 15.6 15 12.5 10.6 9.3 10 10.4 5.1 4.8 5 2.3 0.9 1.1 0 11 12 13 14 Offender (N=2002) 15 16 17 18+ Victim (N=462) Exhibit 23: Average Offender Age by Incident Type Average age of offender 16 15.31 15.29 15.19 15.13 15.00 15 14.97 14.96 14.77 14.76 14.72 14 18 | P a g e 170 Exhibit 24: Average Number of Offenders & Victims per Incident Average Number per incident 1.6 1.4 1.37 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.39 0.4 0.2 0.0 Offenders (N=2196) Victims (N=2194) 19 | P a g e 171 Exhibit 25: Average Number of Offenders by Incident Type Drug Use/ Possession Littering Cheating on Class Assignments Vandalism Fighting Gambling Loitering Other Sexual Assault Inappropriate Sexual Contact Extortion/ Taxing Stealing Threats and Intimidation Robbery Bullying Disruptive Behavior Weapon Possession Assault Unauthorized Absence Obscene Language Bomb Threats Disrespect Assault with Weapon Improper Uniform Tresspassing on School Grounds Forgery Arson Arriving to School Late Alcohol Use/ Possession 2.12 1.87 1.71 1.69 1.60 1.59 1.55 1.51 1.50 1.46 1.43 1.42 1.37 1.35 1.35 1.33 1.32 1.29 1.26 1.26 1.25 1.24 1.22 1.13 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.44 0.04 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 20 | P a g e 172 Exhibit 26: Multiple Victims by Incident Type 14 12.5 Percent of incidents 12 10 8 6.7 6.5 5.5 6 4.3 4 3.8 3.1 3.0 2.4 2 0.0 0 Percent (%) Exhibit 27: Repeat Offenders and Incidents Committed 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 52.57 4.49 Individuals (N= 12,527) Repeat Offenders Incidents (N=2,956) Non-Repeat Offenders 21 | P a g e 173 Percent (%) Exhibit 28: Repeated Victims and Victimization Incidents 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 25.72 0.66 Individuals (N= 12,527) Repeated Victims Victimizations (N=828) Non-Repeated Victims 22 | P a g e 174 Exhibit 29: List of all students involved in five or more incidents First Name TERRENCE KESTON ABRE SHANTEL SHAKEEM JAMELIA FANE RICKY JOEL NKOSE JABARI MARK ALI STEPHAN KERDELL ALEX KIRSTON SAVEON JEREMY NICHOLAS LILLIAN KAREEM LEON DOMINIQUE KYLE CHRISTOPHER KWASI KELSEY CRYSTAL CHRISTOPHER JESSE ADRIAN JORDAN ANDRE KADEEM NIETZSCHE BRANDON TRAVIS SHERMAN KERN DANICA MARK DANIEL GERRON WADE SHAQUILLE BENJAMIN Last Name VILLAFANA JOHN CRAWFORD RAMROOP ROBERTS JESSOP SCIPIO LALCHAN NEPTUNE BAPTISTE THOMAS CRITCHLOW MUHAMMED POPE GIBBS LEITH SAMUEL SMITH ALLEYNE JAMES PAUL DUNCAN GIBSON DEDIER CHANDLER SPEARS FRIDAY MARCELLE WILLIAMS CHARLES GOBINDASS MILLS MODEST RAMSARAN RICHARDSON KINGKNIGHTS WILLIAMS AHYEW FRANCIS MORGAN PRINCE RAHIM LOCARIO MATTHEWS NAVARRO CHARLES GRIFFITH # of Offenses 13 12 10 10 9 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Form 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 3 rd 5 th 3 rd 2 nd 2 nd 1 st 1 st 4 th 4 th 4 th 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 1 st 1 st 1 st 4 th 4 th 4 th 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 3 rd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 2 nd 1 st 1 st 1 st 1 st 1 st Gender Male Male Male Female Male Female Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Female Male Male Female Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Male Female Male Male Male Male Male Male Race African African African Afro/Indian African African African East Indian African African African African African African African African African African Other African African African African African African African African Afro/Indian African African East Indian East Indian African East Indian African African African East Indian African African African East Indian African African African African African Age 16 15 15 14 15 16 15 14 14 13 13 17 16 14 14 16 14 14 13 14 15 13 15 15 16 15 16 15 15 15 15 15 16 15 14 13 13 15 16 13 15 13 14 13 14 14 School San Fernando East Secondary Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Tranquillity Govt Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Mt. Hope Secondary Siparia Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Tranquillity Govt Secondary Tranquillity Govt Secondary Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Ste Madeleine Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Moruga Composite School Mt. Hope Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Siparia Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Williamsville Secondary School Siparia Secondary Marabella Senior comprehensive Mt. Hope Secondary Williamsville Secondary School San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Tranquillity Govt Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Williamsville Secondary School Siparia Secondary Moruga Composite School San Fernando East Secondary Marabella Senior comprehensive Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Siparia Secondary Siparia Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School San Fernando East Secondary 23 | P a g e 175 Exhibit 30: List of all victims involved in three or more incidents First Name DANNY EDMIE LARISSA RICARDO INDRANI MS YVONNE JOHNATHAN KYMO JEROME MISS RAHEEM MISS HARRILAL KEITH MISS SATNARINE MISS MS VIJAI Last Name DEEPAN FRIDAY LALMAN NICHOLSON PERSAD MELVILLE SAMAROO TOUSSAINT MOORE PRUDHOMME ALI ALI BABWAH BATCHOO JOSEPH MAHARAJ RAGOO RAGOOPATH RAMKISSOON RAMOUTAR # of victimizations 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Form Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student 2 nd 2 nd 1 st Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Non-Student Gender Male Female Female Male Female Female Female Male Male Male Female Male Female Male Male Female Male Female Female Male Race East Indian African East Indian African East Indian African East Indian African African African East Indian East Indian East Indian East Indian African East Indian East Indian East Indian East Indian East Indian Age 40 59 13 13 14 40 45 22 49 56 37 54 42 School Mt. Hope Secondary San Fernando East Secondary Ste Madeleine Secondary Ste Madeleine Secondary Ste Madeleine Secondary Tranquillity Govt Secondary Ste Madeleine Secondary Tranquillity Govt Secondary Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Malick Secondary Comprehensive School Siparia Senior Comprehensive San Fernando East Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Mt. Hope Secondary San Fernando East Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Ste Madeleine Secondary Siparia Senior Comprehensive Tranquillity Govt Secondary Williamsville Secondary School 24 | P a g e 176 Section 3: Information about Disciplinary Outcomes The section of the analysis focuses on the disciplinary outcomes that resulted from the student’s offenses. We examined the percentage of total offenses that received each possible outcome. In addition, we examined the breakdown of the disciplinary actions taken for the three most commonly reported offenses: disrespect, disruptive behavior, and fighting. Key Findings The most common disciplinary action taken was setting up a meeting with parents followed by giving the student a warning. Expulsions were the least common response to an offense. Students were suspended for some amount of time in almost 40% of all incidents, with the most common length of suspension being five to seven days. Disciplinary actions for disrespect and disruptive behavior were very similar. The typical response to these offenses was setting up a meeting with parents. The next most common actions taken were giving a warning and some suspension, which occurred in almost equal proportions. Fighting was almost equally as likely to result in parents being contacted as the student being suspended, with about 60% of all fighting incidents receiving these outcomes. 25 | P a g e 177 Exhibit 31: Disciplinary Outcomes by Discipline Type (N=2,144) Percent of total incidents 60 54.3 50 40 31.1 30 20 11.1 10 2.8 2.0 8.7 8.0 5.2 2.8 0 Exhibit 32: Disciplinary Outcomes by Disciplinary Type con't (N=2,144) Percent of total incidents 25 22.6 20 15 10 7.1 3.9 5 3.5 0.9 0.5 1.0 0.0 0 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 to 7 Days Suspension Suspension Suspension Suspension Suspension Extended In School Expulsion Suspension Suspension 26 | P a g e 178 70 Exhibit 33: Disciplinary Outcomes taken for Incidents Involving Disrespect (N=548) 66.6 Percent of incidents 60 50 39.2 40 38.9 30 20 10 9.9 6.6 3.3 1.1 0 Counseling 80 Warning Detention Any SSO Called Suspension Police Called Exhibit 34: Disciplinary Outcomes Taken for Incidents Involving Disruptive Behavior (N=400) 69.8 70 Percent of incidents Parents Contacted 60 50 40 35.0 34.8 30 20 10 7.8 3.8 5.5 1.5 0 Counseling Warning Detention Parents Any SSO Called Contacted Suspension Police Called 27 | P a g e 179 70 Percent of incidents 60 Exhibit 35: Disciplinary OutcomesTaken for Incidents Involving Fighting (N=296) 62.8 59.5 50 40 30 20 26.0 13.5 13.2 10 2.4 5.1 0 28 | P a g e 180 Policy Recommendations 1) The Ministry of Education should require all public schools to collect and deposit data on school incidents. These data should be collected on a weekly basis in a uniform, standardized manner. A report based on these data should be produced annually, and the data should be made available to schools and administrators for the purpose of schoolbased problem solving. These processes are in place in all developed nations and should be done in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Without the data infrastructure in place at both the Ministry and school levels it is not possible for administers to make data driven decisions toward improving school safety. 2) The Ministry of Education should embark on a public relations campaign aimed at correcting the misconception that schools in Trinidad and Tobago are generally unsafe. Over the last two years there has been a steady increase in the news media that schools in Trinidad and Tobago are places were violence and serious crime are rampant. Our findings suggest that the most common problems that occur in schools are associated with indiscipline, disrespectful behavior, and non-violent crime. Violence in Trinidad and Tobago schools appears to be a relatively rare event. It is important for the public, parents, and other government organizations to understand that schools in Trinidad are safer than the communities and homes where students come from. 3) The Ministry of Education should collaborate with administrators, teachers, parents, and students—through a committee--to develop common strategies to address patterns associated with indiscipline in the schools identified in this report. For example, the committee might consider examining issues associated with where incidents occur (i.e., empty classrooms), and nationwide policies that might be developed to address the issue in a uniform, systematic way. Or the committee might consider why some schools reported more incidents than others. Are they related to recording practices, differences in student population or behavior? This committee might serve as means of digesting the contents of this report and developing policy based on it. 29 | P a g e 181 Appendix A: 30 | P a g e 182 31 | P a g e 184 Appendix G: Individual School Evaluations by School Note: Due to the length of the Individual School Evaluations, they are not presented here in hardcopy form. They are available for download on the internet at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety’s website: http://cvpcs.asu.edu/