Update at 5:19 p.m.: Dahlander provides some additional context for the numbers:
Apparently OPR had not received the campus incident reports previously, which can be as minor as an injury on the playground to an upset parent in the office. Now that they receive them and review each one to determine if more investigation is needed (and 99%--at least--do not), they simply add it to the overall total.
The graph above represents the number of incidents reported to DISD's Office of Professional Responsibility, the arm of the district's administration tasked with internal investigations of employee misconduct, among other things. It was presented to the Board of Trustees last week.
Note the trajectory. The line bounces calmly along between September 2010 through December 2011, then shit hits the fan. The number of reported incidents jumps from 70-something in December to a tad over 310 in April. Sure, school's out for half of December so that number's pretty low, but still: Did the district's employees revolt when they heard Superintendent Mike Miles and performance pay might be on the way from Colorado? What's going on?
Turns out, not as much as the numbers indicate. DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander writes:
There is actually no real spike in the number of incidents. The increase in incidents on the graph is due to tracking of campus incident reports and CPS reports submitted to OPR's child abuse office. This was not done before October 2011 for CPS reports and February for campus incidents. Normal incident reports received via hotline have increased by 10 percent.
Phew. That's a relief. No word yet on why DISD began tracking those reports only now, but a more immediate question: Hasn't anyone at DISD heard of an asterisk?
