Reporting school violence

The Nevada commission studying ways to reduce juvenile violence has come up with good ideas, but a law requiring schools to report violent acts to police is not one of them.

Schools must have some discretion, and police must have some trust in school officials' judgment.

As was pointed out in a commission meeting Wednesday, teachers and principals could be put in the position of having to file a report on every schoolyard fight.

As a policy, that's fine. As a law, it would be fraught with unintended circumstances.

There's a big difference between a couple of sixth-graders getting into a nose-bloodying disagreement and a bunch of high-schoolers in a gang brawl.

That's where discretion comes in. Teachers and principals can distinguish between the two, but a law couldn't.

A law written to require schools to report acts of violence would put educators in a position of liability they don't need.

Stan Olson of the Metropolitan Police in Las Vegas told the commission the important message is that schools do notify police.

"We don't need to be called when some child punches another in the nose and causes a bloody nose," he said. "It's the serious violent crimes."

It's understandable that school administrators want to be able to enforce their own discipline without calling in the cops to handle every situation, but they sometimes overestimate their ability to control events on campus. And truly violent episodes can quickly escalate off-campus.

Schools and police departments should have open lines of communication and clear policies on when uniformed officers are called in. It shouldn't take a law, though - just a phone call.