| Releases
& Statements
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
August 5, 2008
Contact: Sarah Krauss
(212) 669-4193; (917) 541-0936
Gotbaum Responds to New City School Crime Numbers
MANHATTAN –
Following the Mayor's announcement that major and violent crimes in New York City’s public schools have dropped significantly in the last six years, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum released this statement today:
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said, "My office, as well as the City and State Comptroller offices, have found chronic under reporting of school safety incidents by the Department of Education and city schools. I applaud the Mayor, the Chancellor, and Commissioner for their work reducing crime in schools, but I would ask: What has been done in the past year to address the problem of chronic under reporting and the questionable school safety data that results from it?"
In February 2007, a survey by Gotbaum's office found that for the 2004-05 school year, the Department of Education reported that only eight of the school system’s nearly 1,400 schools experienced 181 or more safety incidents. By contrast, administrators at 16 schools that responded to Gotbaum’s survey experienced 181 or more school safety incidents during that same year. For the 2005-06 school year, Gotbaum’s survey found that the number of schools that experienced 181 or more incidents jumped to 18.
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