Salisbury School Board Hears Annual Police Report

While the number of police calls from Salisbuy schools has been going up, an increased police presence in and around the schools has resulted in less serious incidents, reduced truancy by 40 percent and saved the district money, according to

"The number of calls have been going up, but the severity of the calls have been going down," told the Salisbury Township School Board at the September 14 meeting.

Nothstein and presented the findings in their annual report.

Last year, there were 345 police calls reported from the district:

• 126 from Salisbury High School.
• 94 from Salisbury Middle School.
• 57 from Harry S Truman.
• 20 from Western Salisbury Elementary.
• 9 from the administration building.

Nothstein explained while that number totals 306 calls, the remainder are from calls in which the caller gave a school district address such as the high school.

"The difference is if there was a call for a loud disturbance or a suspicious person and [the caller] gave the high school's address," Nothstein said.

While Nothstein said he didn't have a breakdown of what the calls were for, he said they could be anything ranging from an alarm going off to a medical emergency, theft or harassment.

Nothstein said many of the calls from the high school last year involved cell phone thefts and that the number of fights in the school has decreased.

"The vast majority of drama in our schools is via social networking," said Kress, who educates students about bullying and social networking.

Among the findings:

•  Younger students are less afraid to talk the police because of the increased police presence.

• Truancy has decreased by 40 percent.

• The number of fights has decreased in the high school.

•  22 residency checks were made last year, resulting in $9,233 saved from the elementary school and $8,890 saved from the secondary schools. 

• This year, the police have found six out-of-district families who needed special services and transportation. This saved the district $135,000.

Kress speaks to the elementary students about the DARE program, stranger danger, Internet safety and other topics. He addresses government or psychology classes in higher grades.

Kress said he hopes to have even more programs in the schools.

"We want to get in the elementary school to make the kids aware of us so they are not afraid," he said