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| Nonprofit follows up on safety study |
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| Written by John Saiz / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Wednesday, 03 October 2007 | |
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“It’s tough to make comments on that survey, because it’s such a small sample.”
— Tyrone Spencer Patterson police chief Superintendent, police chief challenge claims A study by the West Side Community Alliance suggests Patterson teens don’t feel safe in school, but law enforcement and school officials say the findings are misleading. In a report recently released by the alliance, researchers state that 16 percent of local students have taken a weapon to school and only 10 percent feel “very safe” on campus. The researchers took the statistics from the 2007 Healthy Kids Survey, which polled nearly 900 Patterson Joint Unified School District students. Superintendent Patrick Sweeney points to other parts of the survey that researchers excluded from their report. While only one in 10 high school students reported feeling very safe, more than a third said they felt “safe.” Only 11 percent said they felt “unsafe” or “very unsafe.” Almost half of the students reported feeling neither safe nor unsafe. Sweeney also said most students have never taken a weapon to school. He pointed out other parts of the survey in which close to 80 percent of high school students reported never having been in a fight. The alliance also reported on the results of its own survey, which questioned 235 young people and 80 adults. That survey indicates that only 6 percent of students feel safe from gangs in schools. It’s a statistic that gained extra significance Sept. 19, when a brief gang fight involving about 15 students broke out at Patterson High School. However, police Chief Tyrone Spencer said the alliance’s survey might not be a good indicator of students’ feelings, because only 68 students responded to the question about gangs. “It’s tough to make comments on that survey, because it’s such a small sample,” Spencer said. To reach John Saiz at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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