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Students testify to vaping, fights and bathroom closures; safety services report shows rising incident reports
Summary
Students at Kentwood High urged tougher discipline and a returning drug‑rehab partnership after repeated vaping, fights and bathroom vandalism. District safety services described campus officers, cameras, an operations center and a year‑to‑year rise in recorded incidents in several categories.
Students from Kentwood High told the board on Wednesday that repeated vaping, drug use and violent incidents in school bathrooms are disrupting learning and creating safety concerns.
Three students who identified themselves as Kentwood students urged the board to increase consequences and to restore programs the students said would help. Zachary Govin and Guy Magno described repeated bathroom closures, alleged widespread vaping and damaged stall locks; student leader Silas Coffey said one assault that broke another student’s nose was not handled in a way that deterred repeat conduct and advocated for a drug‑rehab program to be offered on campus.
The board then heard a district safety services presentation from Assistant Director Tim Kovich and Director of Safety Services staff. Kovich described the safety team structure — 17 campus safety officers (primarily at secondary schools), three patrol officers, a security dispatcher and technology support — and an around‑the‑clock emergency operations center that monitors cameras, radio channels and mutual‑aid communications with local law enforcement.
Kovich presented incident‑report tallies compiled for state reporting that showed increases from 2021‑22 through the most recent reporting period in categories the district tracks: assaults, fights, drugs and alcohol, tobacco, weapons and property crimes. For example, reported fights rose from 91 (2021‑22) to 149 in the most recent period the district presented; assault reports and drug incidents also rose in the multi‑year series Kovich showed. He emphasized those numbers reflect incidents in which safety staff were involved and reported into the district’s system.
Kovich described school safety resources including camera and access control systems, patrol vehicles, a volunteer VIPs program and mobile response toolboxes with AEDs and mapping boards. He said state training requirements for safety staff now include trauma‑informed approaches, de‑escalation, bias‑free practices and restorative practices; he said the district has run similar training in‑house for years.
The board pressed for clarifications: directors asked whether assaults and fights are reported separately (Kovich said assaults are one‑way incidents while fights are mutual) and whether the district is tracking the impact of interventions. Trustees also asked about the connection between special‑education services and student needs in alternate programs such as iGrad; staff said special‑education eligibility and services are individually tied to a student’s IEP and that costs and revenues do not always balance.
Ending: Safety leaders said the district is continuing emergency‑preparedness work with principals, monitoring cameras and communications, and will pursue an outside Inclusive Education evaluation to inform use of contracted services and resource allocation.
