Student arrests in Cedar Rapids schools up this fall

CEDAR RAPIDS — More students from the Cedar Rapids Community School District have faced criminal charges at school so far this academic year than in last year’s first semester, and police say it’s because of the seriousness of the offenses students are committing.

In response, the school district and the city’s police department will be piloting a new group violence intervention program.

Cedar Rapids Police Capt. Charlie Fields presented updated data Monday about criminal charges and diversion efforts in the schools to the Cedar Rapids City Council’s Public Safety and Youth Services Committee, which is made up of council members Dale Todd, Scott Overland and Ashley Vanorny.

From the start of the school year in August through Monday, school resource officers in Cedar Rapids schools had performed eight diversions and issued 34 criminal charges, Fields told the committee.

Diversions happen when students are not charged in a criminal incident, but instead are referred to the school for consequences and support.

In comparison, during the first semester of the 2022-2023 academic year — which ran through December 2022 — there were 24 arrests and 28 diversions

“You’re going to ask me why, why that many, and why weren’t they diversions? My answer to that is the seriousness of the crimes that were being committed,” Fields said in the meeting.

“I’ll give you a quick snapshot of some of the charges that were filed. Some disorderly (conduct), but we’ve had robberies, thefts, assault causing bodily injuries, possession of controlled substances, carrying weapons, bomb threats, assault of peace officer, harassment and burglaries.”

When a crime committed by a student involves a victim, the victim and parents are given a say in whether the student can be referred for a diversion or whether charges should be pressed. Fields said that meant that many of the cases seen so far this year weren’t able to be diverted.

Fields said some of the things that have been diverted this fall included disorderly conduct charges and minor theft charges.

Fields also provided numbers from the College Community School District, in which Cedar Rapids school resource officers have filed 19 charges and referred 16 diversions so far this school year.

The Cedar Rapids Community School District and the Cedar Rapids Police Department are going to begin a program next week to integrate the city’s recent work with group violence intervention with the work police are doing to prevent violence in schools, Fields said.

The program will involve biweekly meetings — one on Monday mornings and one on Thursday afternoons — among police and district staff to discuss how violence that happens in and out of schools may be affecting students and how to respond to their needs.

“This is not just going to be carte blanche. We’re going to be talking about those people that we’ve identified through the (Group Violence Intervention) program that are at risk for serious offenses. So we’re going to focus on them, like we have been. We’re just bringing that focus from the street into the school, because we start seeing that bleed into the school,” Fields said.

The district and the department also are working to create videos that will be specific to each school and will discuss violence and threats at schools.

“We’re going to be bringing the group violence intervention partners in on that, and they’re going to do messaging at the end on what services they can offer. So it’s going to be a message about, not just violence, but it’s going to be an overall message about threats in schools,” Fields told the committee.

Two teens have been arrested this year after police say they made threats against Cedar Rapids schools.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com