Alexandria City Public Schools saw a 26% increase in student arrests last school year, and a disproportionate number of arrested students are Black males.
There were 58 ACPS students arrested last school year, according to a school safety report to be presented to the School Board on Thursday. There were also 32 weapons-related incidents, 100 students injured, 112 fights/assaults and five reports of sexual misconduct.
The news follows an ACPS report revealing that most of Alexandria’s middle and high school students feel unsafe.
There were 451 incidents requiring a police response within Alexandria City Public Schools in the 2022-2023 school year — 188 incidents in the first two quarters of the year and 263 incidents in the final two quarters. That’s a 17% increase over the 385 incidents in the 2021-2022 school year.
While 25% of ACPS students are Black, most of those arrested are Black males.
Middle School Arrests (27)
- Black male — 14
- Hispanic male — 4
- Black female — 4
- Hispanic female — 3
- White male — 2
High School Arrests (31)
- Black male — 18
- Hispanic male — 6
- Black female — 4
- White male — 3
- Hispanic female — 2
Weapons seized include a handgun, two BB guns, stun guns, tasers, knives, pepper spray and a box cutter.
ACPS made a number of safety improvements in the 2022-2023 school year, like new ID requirements for students, designating entrances and exits at schools, installing metal detectors, and renewing its partnership with the police department to provide school resource officers.
Incidents in the 2022-2023 school year include:
- 112 fights
- 116 incidents characterized as “other” (parking lot accidents, trespassing, mental health episodes, property lost/damaged)
- 100 injuries requiring medical assistance
- 32 confiscated weapons
- 21 reports of controlled substances recovered
- 19 threats (verbal/cyber/social media)
- 16 missing student reports
- Seven reports of suspicious activity
- Five alarms pulled
- Five reports of sexual misconduct
- Three thefts
- One report of possessing prohibited materials
There were 175 incidents reported at the Alexandria City High School campuses, 183 incidents at the city’s two middle schools, 43 incidents at K-8 schools and 50 incidents at elementary schools.
Alexandria’s new speed cameras have already issued over 3,500 warnings. Soon, the city says those will become speeding tickets.
The City ran a two-week warning period at the end of the last school year and will start another one beginning Monday, Aug. 21, as the new school year starts. The City warned that the speed cameras will begin ticketing starting Sept. 18.
There are five cameras set up in school zones around the city:
- Francis Hammond Middle School (Seminary Road, between Kenmore Avenue and North Jordan Street)
- John Adams Elementary School and Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School (North Beauregard Street, between North Highview Lane and Reading Avenue)
- George Washington Middle School (Mount Vernon Avenue, between Braddock Road and Luray Avenue)
“The City selected the above locations using a data-driven process that considered factors such as crash history, traffic volumes, vehicle speeds, and age and number of students,” the City said in a release. “Each school zone is approximately ¼ mile in length and has a 15 MPH speed limit when school signs are flashing, which is when the speed cameras will be active.”
The release noted that signs have been installed to inform drivers they are entering a speed camera zone.
The City of Alexandria is considering some improvements to sidewalks to make it easier and safer for students to walk to school.
The City is considering curb extensions, which bump out the sidewalk at corners or mid-block to shorten the crossing distance, make pedestrians more visible, and slow turning vehicles. Curb extensions were recommended in the city’s Complete Streets Design Guidelines.
A walk audit conducted in 2017 at 13 schools also recommended curb extensions at multiple intersections.
The city is considering multiple extensions near four different schools:
- Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School: N. West Street and Princess Street
- Mount Vernon Community School: Commonwealth Avenue’s intersections with Uhler Avenue, Mt. Ida Avenue, Groves Avenue and Forrest Street
- Patrick Henry K-8 School: N. Jordan Street and Taney Avenue
- Samuel Tucker Elementary School: Cameron Station Blvd
The city is developing a grant application to fund the design and construction of the curb extensions. A survey is available online and the grant application deadline is later this fall. If the funding is approved, the design work could start next year, with construction from 2025-2026.
The City is seeking public input on curb extensions near 4 schools in Alexandria, which would make it much safer for children to walk to school.
Very quick survey here:https://t.co/CdeFXxiX3G
— Alex Goyette (@Alex_Goyette) August 11, 2023
Tonight is National Night Out — an event where Alexandria’s first responders interface with the communities. This year’s celebrations come after a rough week with the city rattled by multiple shootings, including one homicide.
“On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, The City of Alexandria will celebrate National Night Out (NNO), a day designed to heighten crime prevention awareness, generate support for anti-crime programs, and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized, and working with law enforcement to help prevent crime,” the city said in a release.
The shootings last week are still under investigation and no arrests have been made. Police said they’re looking for a silver Nissan Rogue linked to the shooting.
The city has also been struggling with attrition in its police force. Last year, the Alexandria Police Department announced it would be cutting back on community services thanks to short staffing.
There are 37 National Night Out events occurring in neighborhoods around Alexandria. A full list of them is available on the city website.
Image via Alexandria Sheriff’s Office/Facebook
This upcoming Independence Day, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is bringing back the SoberRide program.
The program runs from 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 4th, to 4 a.m. on Wednesday, July 5.
“During this twelve-hour period, area residents ages 21 and older celebrating with alcohol may download the Lyft app to their phones then enter the SoberRide® code in the app’s ‘Payment’ tab (under the ‘Add Lyft Pass’ option) to receive their no-cost (up to $15) safe transportation home,” WRAP said in a release. “WRAP’s 2023 Independence Day SoberRideⓇ promo code will be posted at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 4th on www.SoberRide.com.”
Last year, 435 people used SoberRide on the 4th of July.
“Nearly 40% of U.S. traffic fatalities during the Independence Day holiday involve drunk drivers according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” said Kurt Erickson, WRAP’s president, said in the release. “And July 4th’s nighttime hours are of particular concern as 82% of fatal drunk driving crashes in the U.S. during the Independence Day holiday occur at night.”
As another quick safety reminder: fireworks are allowed in Fairfax and Arlington but not in Alexandria.
Amid a crime surge, Alexandria Police Chief Don Hayes said Monday night that the police force is seeing a “plethora” of guns out on the streets.
Alexandria’s gun-related crime jumped 100% in 2022 over 2021, and Hayes says that overall crime is up 27% for the year.
“I can tell you there are a plethora of guns out on the street,” Hayes said at an Agenda Alexandria panel on the crime surge. “I just read the last four daily watch reports that we have. There was one where officers stopped the car and they arrested the individual for having burglary tools in the car and also there was a gun there. Your officers made an arrest of a stolen car the other day, and in the stolen car there was a stolen gun. One of the shootings that happened about probably three weeks ago, up off of Madison Street, everyone one of the three (suspected) individuals that were stopped all had guns.”
Monday’s panel was held at The Lyceum, and included retired Sheriff Dana Lawhorne, Alexandria City High School parent Jennifer Rohrbach and Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Strange. It was moderated by Agenda Alexandria chair Rod Kuckro.
Rohrbach witnessed two fights outside Alexandria City High School last year when she went to pick up her child, prompting her to begin advocating for student safety.
“I witnessed two fights in front of the school picking my daughter up on different days,” she said. “And then a student was arrested with a loaded glock very close to the classroom at the front door. So what I did is I started getting involved in online groups and one thing led to another and so here I am advocating for safety in the city and for our kids.”
Hayes said that a lot of the uptick in gun violence is attributable to “crews” of violent youth and stopped short of calling them gangs. He also said that the guns seized are a mix of legal and illegal weapons.
“It’s the beefs that are going on between the crews, some from down Route 1, some from Woodbridge, some from Alexandria, and there is no one particular reason why it’s happening.” Hayes said. “I just think that things have changed and hopefully this is not going to be a norm, we can get a handle on this, and get them to do some other things that are constructive. But I will say this: that it’s been happening a lot, just not the same characters.”
The department’s strategy so far is to add police presence to high-crime areas, putting more cops in communities with public events and the strategically placement of mobile camera units. Hayes also said that his office is in constant communication with neighboring law enforcement agencies, as crime is up regionally and nationally.
Lawhorne, who served as sheriff from 2006 to 2021, said that there need to be harsher punishments for such offenses.
“These notification of shots fired, most are if Rod does something to make me mad, I drive over to his house, I stick my gun out the window, and I discharge it about 12 times with shell casings around the street,” Lawhorne said. “Rod’s going to return the favor. He’s going to drive back to my house and he’s going to do the same thing. That’s a simple explanation of kind of what’s going on… However, it’s done to intimidate others, but it is terrorizing neighborhoods and it’s unnacceptable.”
Lawhorne said that underage possession of a firearm is a class one misdemeanor, as is public discharge of a firearm.
“Unfortunately, sometimes those bullets hit property, or sometimes people, but let me say the majority they’re shooting in the air to intimidate somebody,” Lawhorne said. “Unless I hit somebody or their property it’s a class one misdemeanor. There needs to be harsher penalties for this reckless behavior.”
Hayes also said that the department is also short-staffed, and that significant resources are devoted to an increase in mental health-related calls for service.
“It’s a significant drain on our resources, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight,” Hayes said.
After years in development, a new agreement was released between Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Police Department to provide school resource officers (SROs) at the city’s high school and middle schools.
The new memorandum of understanding between ACPS and APD has been a long time coming. SROs were defunded by the City Council in last year’s budget, and Alexandria City Public Schools spent the first few months of the 2021-2022 school year without the officers in its high school and middle schools. The officers were returned after ACPS pleaded with Council for their return in the wake of multiple incidents with weapons in schools.
“You will see that a lot of the MOU remains unchanged,” Alicia Hart, the ACPS chief of facilities and operations, told the School Board last Thursday night. “The areas where substantial updates and additions were added include the addition of the use of shared technology resources section, which speaks to the ways in which this partnership may transcend into the joint use of technology resources to support safety.”
Many updated are based on recommendations by the School Law Enforcement Partnership (SLEP) Advisory Group, which formed last fall.
Those changes include police providing quarterly statistical reports with metrics to measure the effectiveness of their work, that school administrators complete ACPS Law Enforcement Occurrence Report forms, and that the school system meet with police quarterly to review SRO performance and data.
With juvenile crime is on the rise, the school system also plans to roll out a metal detector program this month.
There were 188 incidents requiring a police response within Alexandria City Public Schools in the first two quarters of the current school year, according to a school safety report. Seventeen Alexandria City Public School students were arrested. There were also 15 weapons-related incidents, 41 students injured, 44 fights/assaults and a report of sexual misconduct.
In March, an Alexandria City High School teacher confiscated handgun from a student and in April a suspended student was arrested for allegedly firing a gun near a bus stop at the Bradlee Shopping Center.
The current MOU expires on June 30.
City Council will discuss the matter with the School Board on May 15 (Monday), and the School Board will hold a public hearing and vote on it on May 18 (Thursday). If approved, the MOU will go into effect on July 1 and be renewed in 2025.
According to the proposed MOU:
- Police will provide quarterly statistical reports with metrics to measure the effectiveness of the ACPS/APD partnership
- School administrators must fill out an ACPS Law Enforcement Occurrence Report form within 24 hours of a law enforcement action at a school. Those actions may include assisting administrators as requested, investigations, referrals, and arrests
- ACPS will participate in law enforcement sponsored/related educational activities and seminars
- ACPS will handle discipline within schools and SROs should not be involved with enforcement of school rules or disciplinary infractions that are not violations of the law
- APD must meet with APD in August, November, February and May of each school year to review SRO performance and discuss reporting data. The meetings will include daily SRO attendance, calls for assistance, incident reporting and educational activities with students
- Each principal with an SRO must complete quarterly assessment forms
- Principals will permit the SROs to complete an educational activity at their assigned school with a goal of one activity per quarter. Such an activity could include classroom briefings, student council briefings and other presentations
- SROs may intervene to de-escalate situations. However, an SRO should not be involved in the physical restraint of a stuent unless there is imminent danger of serious physical harm to self or others
A new survey shows widespread support for the installation of metal detectors within Alexandria City Public Schools.
There were 4,374 respondents to the survey, which ACPS opened on Feb. 24 and closed on March 8. Included in the survey were 1,181 students, 609 staff, 2,295 family/guardians, and 289 community members. About 85% of survey respondents supported using weapons screening equipment in all or some schools, and 58% of respondents want the metal detectors in every school.
The news comes as the Alexandria School Board on Thursday (March 16) will give final consideration to a pilot program to install metal detectors at the city’s middle schools and high school. If approved, the “advanced weapons abatement technology” will be installed next month in both Alexandria City High School campuses and at the city’s middle schools. The program would go live in May, before the end of the school year.
About 80% of respondents said they wanted the metal detectors to make the school system safer, and 72% reported that weapons entering schools are a significant concern/problem. About 65% of respondents also said that metal detectors crate a less anxious environment, and 49% said that the metal detectors are a much needed security upgrade for the school system. A majority of those against the proposal (59%) responded that the metal detectors detract from a welcoming feeling within schools, 32% were concerned with the cost of the equipment, 20% said weapons are not a significant problem, and 19% said that the current safety protocols are adequate.
There were 15 weapons-related incidents in the first two quarters of the 2022-2023 school year, and weapons seized include knives, brass knuckles, stun guns/tasers, a BB gun and pepper spray, according to a school safety report. ACPS began the school year last August with new security upgrades, like the installation of door alarms, upgraded security cameras, a new student ID process and a new visitor and emergency management system.
It costs $60,000 for every affixed metal detector, and $13,000 for mobile detectors, the latter of which would be used for outdoor athletic events and as-needed. The devices use artificial intelligence to detect weapons, while students, staff and guests can freely walk through them without emptying their pockets or bookbags in a lone line.
ACPS will need at least four units for Alexandria City High School’s King Street campus alone, and up to three units at the Minnie Howard campus, Alicia Hart, the ACPS chief of facilities and operations, told the Board last month. It was not clear how many will be needed for the city’s two middle school campuses.
The survey results are below.
Students:
- 44% (519 students) want the metal detectors in all schools
- 29% (337 students) only want metal detectors at the middle schools and high school
- 28% (325 students) want no metal detectors
Staff:
- 58% (356 staff members) want the metal detectors in all schools
- 33% (198 staff members) only want metal detectors at the middle schools and high school
- 9% (55 staff members) want no metal detectors
Family/Guardians:
- 65% (1,484 family members/guardians) want the metal detectors in all schools
- 25% (577 family members/guardians) only want metal detectors at the middle schools and high school
- 10% (234 family members/guardians) want no metal detectors
Community members:
- 63% (182 community members) want the metal detectors in all schools
- 20% (59 community members) only want metal detectors at the middle schools and high school
- 17% (48 community members) want no metal detectors
The Alexandria Police Department (APD) announced today that it will start rolling out its body worn camera program in April.
In a release, APD said the deployment will be on a rolling basis, with the goal of every sworn personnel being issued a camera within the next year.
According to the release:
In April 2023, APD will begin deployment of Body Worn Cameras (BWC) throughout the Department. This in turn will create greater transparency and accountability in its interactions with the public.
Deployment of the cameras will be on a rolling basis, with a goal of ensuring every sworn personnel is issued a camera as a part of their required gear within a year.
APD also released an FAQ outlining what the cameras do. The FAQ also notes that many policies, including the one that says who will be allowed to watch body camera footage and public requests for video, are still in draft form and have not been completed.
The department also said it will soon release a draft policy regarding the cameras, including how they will handle media requests.
APD has been struggling to get a body worn camera program off the ground since 2016. Funding for body worn cameras was approved last year with the goal of officers wearing cameras starting that summer.
Additional funds for the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney to handle the added workload from body worn cameras was included in City Manager Jim Parajon’s proposed budget, released earlier this week.
The Alexandria Police Department will soon be adding Body Worn Cameras to their uniform.
This will result in greater transparency and accountability in our interactions with the public.
If you are interested in learning more, please visit: https://t.co/cFbLK1db2Q pic.twitter.com/ZOvevR85PW
— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) March 2, 2023
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) leadership presented some recommendations for a school safety plan to City Council members, but faced some pushback that the process is moving too slowly and occasionally missing the point.
ACPS leadership presented interim Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt’s recommendations for a School Law Enforcement Partnership (SLEP) in a joint City Council/School Board meeting yesterday. Broadly, the recommendations emphasize continued funding of school resource officers along with a reexamination of protecting student confidentiality and new de-escalation strategies.
One focus of discussion early in the meeting was a need to address some of the roots of school violence.
“We do have conversations with our [Alexandria Police Department] counterparts in general as it relates to school safety data that we present,” said Alicia Hart, director of facilities and operations for ACPS. “In the last three reports, we’ve noted our black males have the highest number of arrests in the high school and middle school categories. It’s going to take a lot of conversation to dig into the why behind that. Again, some behaviors that we may be seeing, that are not unique to students of color, but some are escalating to criminal activity which is now being reflected in our arrest data, is something that we need to dig into more.
Police Chief Don Hayes said pushing back against violence, like the murder of a student at McDonalds last year, is a community effort:
We are meeting with the community, the managers of the shopping center, the schools… all of us are putting our heads together to develop a strategy on how to approach this. The approach is not to make arrests, that is not the goal. The goal is to find out how we can get ahead of that and how we can get them to a point where mcDonald’s is not the hang out place. A lot of people don’t want to talk about this, but a missing part of this is the parents that need to be involved in these situations. We need to be able to contact them to come up with a comprehensive plan.
Hayes said the Bradlee Shopping Center is paying for the police officers to monitor the gathering spots for local teens, but Hayes also said the solutions can’t just be police-led.
“It’s not just a police situation, it’s got to be the community,” Hayes said. “It has to be teachers and everybody coming together. Something as simple as moving a bus stop from in front of the McDonald’s would alleviate [the problem] because that’s where the kids get off… but it’s not that simple. We’re looking at outside-the-box type things to resolve this situation, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
Meanwhile, School Board Chair Meagan Alderton said there were structural issues at play within ACPS that need to be addressed.
“I am willing to bet that we would find trends that students who are being arrested are Black males,” Alderton said. “I’m willing to bet we would see overrepresentation in discipline data and not so great academic data. We have to address all of those. When we’re seeing the arrest, we’re seeing the symptoms. If we can tackle those inputs: how are we addressing academic achievement for our black males? How do we engage with them socio-emotionally? We have to dig into this so deeply, it’s such a huge and heavy lift, but we have to do that.”
The discussion comes as the School Board and APD need to approve a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) before the end of the school year in May. The current MOU between ACPS and APD allows SROs to work within ACHS and Alexandria’s middle schools and runs until the end of May. The two-year agreement was set to expire last October and was extended in November.
City Council members, by and large, expressed a lack of enthusiasm for the process up to this point. Council member Canek Aguirre compared Alexandria’s process to a similar safety review process in Arlington and lamented that Alexandria’s process has been slower.
City Council member John Chapman said the pieces of the school resource officer (SRO) discussion seemed stuck back where they have been for years and fundamentally missed the point of City Council’s concerns.
As we’re talking about [SROs] being a specific piece of the puzzle, looking at that specific piece and seeing how we adjust that, how we make that more student friendly. Everyone on Council understood there was an opportunity for benefit to extracurricular activities and a real strong connection with individuals there… but as I note what happened with the subcommittee, I didn’t see innovative steps or pointing to other jurisdictions doing things different. It seems like we just want to keep what we have and add training… rather than looking at the needs of our kids and providing something that says ‘we want to build a relationship that might not be what we do now.’
That was the main thrust of what council was looking at: how do we change the regular mode of what our SROs are and look at something more innovative and modern, something more student-friendly… and that seems to be missed from where we are today.
Hart said the discussion around SROs won’t stop with the SLEP recommendations.
“I think there is an opportunity to still get there,” Hart said “even if it didn’t necessarily come out of this particular advisory group.”
“This is not the end,” said Alderton. “If people are concerned about the length of time: I think six months is a pretty quick turnaround. This is not the only work [our staff] is doing, so we’re going to have to take this in chunks, we just have to, if we’re going to be respectful to the other work that goes into running a school and a city.”