Cinnaminson Sees Drops in Bullying, Violence

Cinnaminson School District saw a significant drop in the number of instances of bullying from last year, as well as a minor drop in incidents of violence.

Superintendent Salvatore Illuzzi presented the results of the district’s Electronic Violence and Vandalism (EVVRS) and the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) reports to the board of education Tuesday. According to the latter report, bullying incidents dropped from 17 in the 2011-12 spring semester to five during the same period this year.

Illuzzi attributed the decline to the institutionalization of the HIB guidelines—adopted in 2011—and students’ understanding of their seriousness.

“As they became familiar, they realized we intended to fully enforce the rules,” he said.

According to Illuzzi, specific changes in the school day also positively impacted the results, particularly trimming lunch at the middle school—where the majority of incidents of HIB and violence occurred in 2011-12—from 40 minutes to 25 minutes.

“The kids finish lunch in 15 to 20 minutes, then have 20 to 25 minutes to figure out what to do with themselves—which, if you have middle school children, you know can be an interesting prospect,” he said.

A few other highlights from the reports:

• There were a total of 34 incidents districtwide: 18 incidents of violence, three of vandalism, eight of substance abuse and five bullying incidents.

• There were no reported instances of violence or vandalism, or bullying, at Rush Intermediate or New Albany Elementary.