Of the 31 acts reported, 16 were committed at Person High School, and 11 of those incidents involved possession of a weapon.

Carol Townsend, director of Student Services and Federal Programs for Person County Schools, said none of the incidents, however, involved possession of a gun. She said pocket knives and other instruments considered possibly dangerous count as weapons under the state’s reporting system.

“Possession of a weapon,” said Townsend, “is one of our more constant problems.” But, she added, most incidents involve the students’ misunderstanding about what is considered a weapon.

Also last year, the high school reported three incidents of controlled substance possession, one incident of assault on school personnel and one instance of alcoholic beverage possession.

Townsend said the school system had placed an additional student resource officer (SRO) at the high school this year, and had also placed child and family teams of social workers, counselors and nurses at Northern and Southern Middle.

The teams are the result of grants from the governor’s office funded through the General Assembly, Townsend said. The grant funds programs with the intent of improving “outcomes for our families,” she explained.

At Northern Middle School, three acts of possession of a controlled substance and three of possession of a weapon were reported last year. There was also one report of burning of a school building, but, explained Townsend, that was a misunderstanding as well.

Noting that a report of this type of incident is “unusual,” Townsend said the fire, which actually happened at Person County Learning Academy, involved papers that were ignited behind a bookcase, quickly extinguished, and “no problems” were noted otherwise.

The incident report showed up on Northern Middle’s record because it is the “home” school of the student involved.

Southern Middle experienced five reportable incidents; two of which were for possession of alcohol. The school also reported two incidents of possession of a weapon last year and one of assault on school personnel.

South Elementary had two reports of possession of a weapon last year and one of possession of a firearm, which Townsend said was a BB gun.

No other elementary schools in the county reported any acts of crime or violence during the 2006-07 school year. Bethel Hill Charter School and Roxboro Community School reported no violent or criminal acts last year.

The rate of acts of crime and violence reported per 1,000 students in North Carolina public schools decreased by 0.13 percentage ponts in 2006-07 although the total number of incidents increased by 0.5 percent, or 54 acts, from 2005-06, according to the Annual Report on School Crime and Violence released last week.

During last school year, North Carolina schools reported 11,013 acts of crime and violence among the system's 1.4 million students. This total correlates to 7.77 acts per 1,000 students, a decrease from 2005-06 when that number was 7.90 acts per 1,000 students. Forty percent, or 1,004 schools, of all schools reported no acts of crime or violence and 72 percent, or 1,812 schools, of all schools reported five or fewer acts last year.

As has been reported in previous years, the majority of incidents reported were in categories considered non-violent: possession of a controlled substance in violation of law, possession of a weapon excluding firearms and powerful explosives, possession of an alcoholic beverage, and assault on school personnel not resulting in serious injury.