Part one of a two-part series. 
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Police Calls from Tulsa and Broken Arrow Schools
Search Police Calls from Schools that Result in an Incident Report
TPS Officer Scott Streeter chats with a student at Memorial High School. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World
Police reports taken after calls from Tulsa elementary schools increased 44 percent since 2005, a Tulsa World investigation found.
Last year, Tulsa police officers filed 210 incident reports after calls from elementary schools, up 64 from four years ago, according to Tulsa Police Department data.
Reasons for the reports include lewd molestation, vandalism, outside drug activity and assault with a deadly weapon.
They include some incidents that police simply had to document, such as a car crash or a biting dog.
Gary Rudick, Tulsa Public Schools police chief, said students — even those in elementary schools — are increasingly bringing a street mentality to campus. But he said that some school-reported crimes, such as child abuse and domestic violence, likely happened off campus and were called in by elementary school officials.
“The schools are not as safe as I would like them to be,” Rudick said. “But they are safer than many of our students’ houses. They are safer than many of our students’ neighborhoods. They are safer than many of the streets in our city.”
Skelly Elementary School Principal Mike Howe said fewer parental controls at home have created more problems for schools.
Tulsa police data, which include calls to Jenks and Union district schools that fall within Tulsa city limits, show that calls from elementary schools resulted in 35 assault reports since 2005, including six assaults with a deadly weapon.
Tulsa schools with the most police reports
Sources: Tulsa Police Department, January 2005 to January 2009
They also resulted in four threat reports and one report each of shots fired, harassment, forgery and embezzlement.
Howe said he has seen elementary school crime firsthand.
“The level of violence that we see in our children today in Oklahoma is staggering,” he said. “We have a high level of parental abuse. We have a high level of drug abuse. We have a high level of alcoholism. What do you think that’s doing to our kids?”
Middle Schools
From 2005 to 2008, police reports at Tulsa middle and high schools decreased 11 percent and 15 percent respectively, according to a Tulsa World analysis. But middle and high schools still see more violent crime than elementary schools, officials said.
Rudick and school safety experts said it’s often in middle schools where violence and crime begin to increase.
“Middle school is where hormones start to rage on kids,” Rudick said. “Sixth, seventh and eighth grade is where what I call the pecking order starts to be established.”
Tulsa middle schools accounted for 51 assault reports, 13 threat reports and seven outside drug-use reports since 2005, police data show.
Top reasons for police reports at Tulsa schools
Sources: Tulsa Police Department, January 2005 to January 2009
Rudick said drug use — particularly the use of marijuana and prescription pills — is always a concern in schools, adding: “It’s a much more serious problem than we know.”
High Schools
Despite the decrease in reports, most school-district crimes still happen at high schools.
And those crimes are often more severe. So far this school year, police have confiscated six firearms from Tulsa students, Rudick said. Most were high-school students.
Police confiscated three firearms from students during the entire 2007-08 year.
“With 40,000 students, I think there are a whole lot more weapons being brought to school than we know of,” Rudick said. “The problem is, students don’t tell.”
Kevin Burr, principal at Will Rogers High School, said schools would be safer if parents were more active in their children’s lives. He also blamed drug use for some school crime.
“The entire drug-trafficking and drug-use issue drives burglaries, and in many cases, it involves gangs,” Burr said. “Everything else kind of radiates from it.”
Students leave the Tulsa School For Science and Technology as a Tulsa Police Department officer works the school grounds Friday, Nov. 1, 2002. A student, Stephon Kelly, 15, was injured in a shooting at the school. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World
Since 2005, police filed three drug-use reports at Will Rogers and six cases of found property, which officers said many times involve drugs.
In all, calls from Will Rogers resulted in police filing about 290 incident reports in the past four years. No other Tulsa school had more than 200 reports in that span.
But Burr said his students are starting to become more respectful, and police data show a change.
Serious crimes reported by Will Rogers decreased from 24 in 2006 to 16 in 2008.
Calls Versus Reports
Tulsa schools with the most assault reports
Sources: Tulsa Police Department, January 2005 to January 2009
In the past four years, Tulsa schools have called police more than six times a day.
But only about 27 percent of calls from schools result in an incident report.
That’s because many calls to police never involve a crime, said Sgt. Gary Stansill, with Tulsa Police Department’s Sex Crimes Unit.
Police respond to hundreds of requests about community relations, suspicious activity and 911 calls.
Many of the 911 calls are pranks, Stansill said.
“Some calls just didn’t rise to a certain level, or they were a disturbance call, or they were too minor that there wasn’t even a crime,” he said.
A Tulsa Police car drives past the front of Booker T. Washington High School during a lockdown Oct. 1, 2008. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
Then there are those calls that simply aren’t accurate or can’t be proven.
For the 20 school-reported rapes since 2005 — six of which allegedly happened on campus — none resulted in an arrest or charges filed.
Of the six said to have taken place at school, two had insufficient evidence, two were declared unfounded, one was dropped because the alleged victim refused to cooperate with police, and one was sent to the juvenile bureau of district court.
“This is typical of what we get day in and day out,” Stansill said.
Peter Blauvelt, president of the National Alliance for Safe Schools, a nonprofit in West Virginia, praised schools that call police often.
He said it’s the schools that try to handle their problems without police help that should worry residents.
“I think it’s a very good use of law enforcement,” Blauvelt said. “Congratulations to the school administrators, because I think they’re using law enforcement appropriately.”
Sources: Tulsa and Broken Arrow police departments, January 2005 to January 2009
Not all calls from schools to police involve a crime. For instance, schools call police for community relations, to check on alarms, to investigate suspicious activity and to respond to traffic accidents. Likewise, not all calls from schools concern matters that happened on school property. Sometimes schools call police to report off-campus concerns, such as fighting or child abuse.
Also, not all police reports involve a crime. For instance, police must simply document some incidents, such as a vehicle crash or biting dog. Other reports are proven to be false.
In Broken Arrow, the calls to police is an easy one
Broken Arrow schools with the most police reports
Sources: Broken Arrow Police Department, January 2005 to January 2009
Despite serving about 25,000 fewer students than Tulsa Public Schools, Broken Arrow schools called police almost as many times as their Tulsa counterparts, data show.
In the past four years, Broken Arrow schools called police more than 8,500 times, according to a Broken Arrow Police Department database of calls to the station. The department also responded to calls from Union School District schools that fall within Broken Arrow’s city limits.
In all, Broken Arrow police receive more than six calls a day from area schools.
“Our sites feel comfortable calling the police even if it’s a gray area or something that the police won’t take a report on,” said Curtis Green, executive director of administrative services for the Broken Arrow School District.
Top reasons for police reports at Broken Arrow schools
Sources: Broken Arrow Police Department, January 2005 to January 2009
Only about 10 percent of all calls from schools resulted in a police incident report, a Tulsa World analysis found.
In addition, sometimes schools alert police to incidents that happened off school property.
Although the majority of calls from Broken Arrow schools simply ask for police presence or involve a minor offense, such as a traffic violation or problem with a juvenile, reasons for other calls are more serious.
Since 2005, calls from schools led Broken Arrow police to file five reports of a man with a gun, 20 threat reports, 58 assault reports and 64 drug investigation reports.
Police cautioned, however, that just because they took a report, that does not mean a crime occurred. Some reports turn out to be false or unfounded.
Catoosa High School police officer Drew Bontrager takes Iivory, the new drug-sniffing police dog, on a random drug check through the school. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World
But Leon Calhoun, a Broken Arrow Police Department school resource officer, acknowledged that drugs in schools are always a concern.
“If any school says we don’t have a drug problem, they’re lying or they’re very naïve,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun has served as a resource officer for eight years. But he said a lack of funds might cut the program and end the department’s tight relationship with the school district.
Although reports after calls from Broken Arrow schools fell to a four-year low in 2008, some schools saw an increase in reports.
Reports filed after calls from Broken Arrow High School, for example, doubled from 2005 to 2008.
Broken Arrow Principal Rob Armstrong said he couldn’t pinpoint the reason for the increase, although he said the school’s large enrollment or its increased effort to report minor problems might have been a catalyst.
“Small things are sometimes gateways to larger things,” he said. “We expect our students to behave when they come here, and we want to treat them like adults.”
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