A district presenter identified as Miss Melissa presented the South Plainfield School District’s State Student Safety Data System (SSDS) Period 1 report at the Jan. 7 Board of Education meeting, detailing the number of incident reports and how many were confirmed at each school.

Miss Melissa said the report covered incidents “between September through the end of the calendar year of 2024” and read summary counts for each building. She said the high school had eight incident reports with three confirmed; the middle school had 11 reports with four confirmed; Grant ("grad") School had seven reports with four confirmed; Franklin had four reports with one confirmed; Kennedy had one report that was confirmed; Anna Riley had none; and Roosevelt had two reports. Miss Melissa identified types of confirmed incidents by category (for example, gender, race/ancestry, disability, sexual orientation and other distinguishing characteristics) and named the district investigators assigned to each building’s cases.

Why it matters: SSDS/period reporting is a state-required summary used to document harassment, intimidation and bullying and related investigations; the board receives these summaries so members and the public can see counts and the categories of confirmed incidents at each school.

Details provided to the board: Miss Melissa read that the high school’s three confirmed incidents included categories listed as gender and race/ancestry and were investigated by Sean Platt. She said the middle school’s four confirmed incidents included three involving mental, physical or sensory disability and one involving sexual orientation/gender and were investigated by Geras Gregor. Grant School’s four confirmed incidents included two for race/ancestry, one for sexual orientation and one for other distinguishing characteristics; those were investigated by Aliyah Aziz. Franklin had one confirmed incident for race/color investigated by Romeo Wu. Kennedy had one confirmed incident for gender investigated by Lauren Krause. Anna Riley had no confirmed incidents; Roosevelt had two incidents (types not specified in the summary).

Board response and next steps: Miss Melissa closed the presentation and reminded families of a parent/guardian Zoom meeting scheduled for the next evening at 6 p.m.; registration was required via a link emailed to families. The board moved into an executive session later in the meeting to discuss student and personnel matters; the transcript notes that no action would be taken at that time.

Ending: the SSDS Period 1 counts were recorded in district minutes and no board vote was taken on the report itself at the Jan. 7 meeting.