Newsletter

New Rochelle Schools Reporting App Documented 280 Incidents Over 5 Years

17% are sexually-involved incidents

Robert Cox

19 May 2023 — 7 min read

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (May 19, 2023) — Following a rash of student-on-student violence in January 2018, the City School District of New Rochelle took numerous steps to improve safety and security, especially at New Rochelle High School. Among them, increasing training for security staff, police officers stationed around the high school and the introduction of Anonymous Alerts, an anti-bullying app that went live on May 7, 2018.

The app has proven increasingly popular.

The app documents far more than bullying, harassment, and teasing, and includes threats to person or campus, drugs or alcohol use or dealing, vaping and sexual harassment or assault, among others. The app provides a platform for students and community members to report concerns they may have and help create a safer environment. The system has been set up to allow students, parents, and others to anonymously report bullying and other potential troubles that impact students in the District.

Talk of the Sound obtained and analyzed data provided by the City School District of New Rochelle under a Freedom of Information Request. The data covers a five-year period, and includes pre-launch incidents going back to March 2018, and up to last month, April 2023.

According to the data provided, there have been a total of 280 incidents reported since the app went live on May 7, 2018.

Based on a school year starting on July 1 and ending June 30, the number of incidents reported for each school year are as follows:

2017-2018 School Year: 31
2018-2019 School Year: 27
2019-2020 School Year: 8
2020-2021 School Year: 25
2021-2022 School Year: 102
2022-2023 School Year: 87

The data only begins in March 2018, so the number of incidents for 2017-2018 only covers the last 4 months of that year; the data provided for 2022-2023 only goes up until April 13, 2023, so the number of incidents 2022-2023 is not yet complete.

Not surprisingly, the number of incidents reported per year during the peak COVID period (2019-2020 and 2020-2021) is well below the annual average.

Post-COVID, the number of incidents jumped to 102 for the 2021-2022 School Year and are on pace to exceed that number for the 2022-2023 School Year (105)

The number of incidents reported by type from March 2018 to April 2023 are as follows:

Bullying 92
Threats 45
StudentTeacher 27
SexualHarassment 21
Cyberbullying 20
DrugAlcohol 19
Safety 17
Vaping 16
DomesticViolence 7
Weapon 7
Assault 4
SelfHarm 4
Fighting 1

While all reported threats are concerning, one number jumps out: 27 reports of student – teacher relationships. Coupled with 21 incidents of sexual harassment which includes sexual assault, 17% of the reports indicate inappropriate sexual conduct or contact including student-on-student rape and teacher-on-student rape.

Interestingly, for an app billed as an anti-bullying app less than one-third of the complaints relate to bullying.

Many of the incident type descriptions in the system were similar, so were grouped as follows:

Bullying = Bullying, Harassment, Teasing

DomesticViolence = Dating Violence, Abuse, or Domestic Violence, Abuse

DrugAlcohol = Drugs or Alcohol Use, Dealing, or Alcohol Related Issues

Safety = Safety Concerns

SelfHarm = Suicide Threats, Cutting or Other Self-Harm

SexHarassment = Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault

StudentTeacher= Student - Teacher Relationships

Threats = Threat to Person or Campus, Violent Behavior or Threats

Weapons = Weapons on Campus, Weapons (Brought to School or Discussion About Using Them), Gun Violence, Threats of Gun Violence

The app is available for download in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store or the Chrome store. To gain access to the School District’s reporting system, enter login: newrochelleps and password: newrochelleps. Reports can still be made via the website www.anonymousalerts.com/newrochelleps.

Raw Data:

IncidentDate / IncidentType

3/5/2018 Bullying

3/8/2018 Bullying

3/11/2018 Fighting

3/12/2018 Harassment

3/13/2018 DrugAlcohol

3/15/2018 Threats

3/20/2018 DrugAlcohol

3/27/2018 Bullying

4/8/2018 Threats

4/10/2018 Threats

4/11/2018 Safety

4/12/2018 Cyberbullying

4/19/2018 Cyberbullying

4/26/2018 Bullying

5/2/2018 Safety

5/4/2018 Safety

5/12/2018 Bullying

5/17/2018 Threats

5/17/2018 Bullying

5/23/2018 Bullying

5/23/2018 Threats

5/25/2018 Threats

6/4/2018 Safety

6/4/2018 Threats

6/7/2018 Bullying

7/29/2018 Safety

8/29/2018 Safety

9/6/2018 Weapon

9/8/2018 Safety

9/18/2018 Safety

9/18/2018 Threats

10/2/2018 DrugAlcohol

10/20/2018 Bullying

10/29/2018 Safety

10/30/2018 Assault

10/31/2018 Bullying

11/5/2018 Safety

11/19/2018 Safety

11/30/2018 Bullying

1/3/2019 Bullying

1/3/2019 Threats

1/27/2019 Safety

4/5/2019 Bullying

4/30/2019 Bullying

6/11/2019 Safety

6/13/2019 Bullying

6/14/2019 Weapon

8/20/2019 DrugAlcohol

8/21/2019 Threats

8/21/2019 Safety

4/18/2020 Cyberbullying

6/9/2020 Bullying

6/9/2020 Cyberbullying

6/22/2020 SexualHarassment

9/3/2020 StudentTeacher

9/14/2020 StudentTeacher

9/29/2020 DrugAlcohol

10/18/2020 SexualHarassment

11/2/2020 Threats

11/6/2020 Cyberbullying

12/2/2020 Bullying

1/13/2021 Vaping

1/31/2021 Threats

2/8/2021 Cyberbullying

2/11/2021 Cyberbullying

2/22/2021 StudentTeacher

3/5/2021 Vaping

3/21/2021 Cyberbullying

4/19/2021 SexualHarassment

4/20/2021 SexualHarassment

4/21/2021 SexualHarassment

4/22/2021 SexualHarassment

4/22/2021 Bullying

4/23/2021 SexualHarassment

6/28/2021 Cyberbullying

8/17/2021 DomesticViolence

9/9/2021 Threats

9/22/2021 Threats

9/23/2021 Bullying

9/27/2021 Threats

9/27/2021 StudentTeacher

9/28/2021 Threats

10/4/2021 Bullying

10/6/2021 StudentTeacher

10/7/2021 Threats

10/18/2021 StudentTeacher

10/20/2021 SexualHarassment

10/20/2021 Bullying

10/26/2021 DrugAlcohol

11/4/2021 SexualHarassment

11/5/2021 Bullying

11/12/2021 Vaping

11/22/2021 Vaping

11/22/2021 Threats

11/22/2021 Vaping

11/23/2021 Threats

11/27/2021 Cyberbullying

11/30/2021 Threats

12/5/2021 Cyberbullying

12/8/2021 DomesticViolence

12/16/2021 Threats

12/21/2021 Cyberbullying

1/4/2022 SelfHarm

1/10/2022 Cyberbullying

1/10/2022 Bullying

1/11/2022 StudentTeacher

1/11/2022 Bullying

1/13/2022 Bullying

1/14/2022 Cyberbullying

1/19/2022 Bullying

1/20/2022 Bullying

1/21/2022 StudentTeacher

1/23/2022 DrugAlcohol

1/23/2022 Bullying

1/24/2022 Bullying

1/25/2022 Bullying

1/26/2022 Cyberbullying

1/26/2022 Bullying

1/27/2022 Threats

1/29/2022 Bullying

1/31/2022 Bullying

2/7/2022 Bullying

2/9/2022 StudentTeacher

2/11/2022 StudentTeacher

2/13/2022 StudentTeacher

2/15/2022 Threats

2/15/2022 SexualHarassment

2/16/2022 Threats

2/18/2022 StudentTeacher

3/4/2022 SelfHarm

3/8/2022 Cyberbullying

3/9/2022 StudentTeacher

3/9/2022 Bullying

3/10/2022 Threats

3/10/2022 Bullying

3/11/2022 SelfHarm

3/15/2022 Weapon

3/15/2022 DrugAlcohol

3/17/2022 Vaping

3/23/2022 StudentTeacher

3/29/2022 StudentTeacher

3/31/2022 Vaping

4/5/2022 SexualHarassment

4/8/2022 SexualHarassment

4/8/2022 DrugAlcohol

4/19/2022 SexualHarassment

4/28/2022 Bullying

5/2/2022 StudentTeacher

5/14/2022 Weapon

5/18/2022 Bullying

5/19/2022 Bullying

5/21/2022 Bullying

5/21/2022 DrugAlcohol

5/21/2022 Vaping

6/1/2022 Vaping

6/14/2022 Bullying

6/17/2022 StudentTeacher

6/19/2022 Cyberbullying

6/28/2022 StudentTeacher

8/1/2022 Cyberbullying

8/3/2022 DomesticViolence

8/14/2022 Bullying

8/24/2022 Weapon

9/21/2022 DrugAlcohol

9/21/2022 StudentTeacher

9/23/2022 SexualHarassment

9/29/2022 Weapon

10/16/2022 Bullying

10/18/2022 Bullying

11/2/2022 Bullying

11/14/2022 Bullying

11/15/2022 Bullying

11/16/2022 Bullying

11/17/2022 Bullying

11/18/2022 Bullying

11/19/2022 Bullying

12/1/2022 Bullying

12/1/2022 Vaping

12/6/2022 StudentTeacher

12/6/2022 Bullying

12/7/2022 Bullying

12/11/2022 SexualHarassment

12/12/2022 Bullying

12/13/2022 Bullying

12/15/2022 Threats

12/16/2022 Cyberbullying

12/19/2022 Threats

12/20/2022 Bullying

12/20/2022 StudentTeacher

1/19/2023 Bullying

2/1/2023 Bullying

2/3/2023 Bullying

2/11/2023 Bullying

2/28/2023 Bullying

3/7/2023 Vaping

3/8/2023 Bullying

3/13/2023 Bullying

3/13/2023 Threats

3/30/2023 DrugAlcohol

4/1/2023 SelfHarm

4/1/2023 Weapon

4/4/2023 Bullying

4/5/2023 DomesticViolence

4/11/2023 DrugAlcohol

4/13/2023 Threats

Recommended Reading, December 22, 2024

The New Rochelle Thimblerig — Part XV

WOO HOO! Upgraded Comments Section for Words in Edgewise (robertcox.ie)

The New Rochelle Thimblerig — Part XIV

Raw Data:

Read more

Recommended Reading, December 22, 2024

The New Rochelle Thimblerig — Part XV

WOO HOO! Upgraded Comments Section for Words in Edgewise (robertcox.ie)

The New Rochelle Thimblerig — Part XIV