Southwest Early College Campus crime report shows a significant increase in violence and misconduct

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Fights, fires, and discipline problems erupted at Southwest Early College Campus (SWECC) when the Kansas City School District combined one of the brightest student bodies with students from one of the districts most troubled school.

SWECC has gone through two principals, and the third has just announced he’s quitting at the end of this semester. Principal Ben Booth has been hired on as the principal at Earl M. Lawson Elementary School in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Sunshine Request documents violence

After many denied requests to see inside SWECC to report on daily activities, we made an official Sunshine Request for documents showing the number of student infractions as defined by District Policy as Class III Offenses. The numbers show increased violence and misconduct nearly across the board.

Fighting at SWECC has happened routinely, even daily according to the numbers which show 152 reported fights since the school year began compared to 85 for all of last year. Boys are responsible for a majority of the fights (97), but the girls are close behind with 65.

Bullying is on pace to exceed last year’s total with 42 incidents so far this year compared to 56 total last year. Chronic Misconduct, defined as “persistent violations of the Code of Student Conduct”, is significantly increased with 63 documented cases in 2011, compared to 14 during the 2009/2010 school year.

Infractions such as academic dishonesty, forgery and gang activity were non-existent last year, but happening now. Sexual harassment and reports of stealing remain about the same.

Police response

When necessary, the District will call for help from the Kansas City Police Department. Prior to combing student populations, SWECC was considered a quiet campus with twenty police response calls from 2008 through 2010.

Capt. Steve Young with the KCPD reports that’s changed significantly. Officers had responded 84 time since school began in August. Police did not immediately have a breakdown of the nature of those calls or possible arrests.

Workers compensation claims filed by teachers

The District reports five teachers have filed for workers compensation for injuries resulting from students. That's the number given us in a request of teacher claims made from SWECC and one other school.  We are awaiting clarification on these numbers from the School District attorney.

We also contacted the Missouri Labor Department for more details of those complaints. Amy Susan is the Media Contact for the Labor Department in Jefferson City. She is researching those claims as well as the number of First Report of Injury (FROI) complaints by teachers and staff who filed that they were injured resulting from students.

“Those complaints must be filed within 35 days of injury, but not all will result in a claim,” explained Susan who said FROI claims could be covered by insurance or proven to be invalid.