Most parents want to believe that they'll be informed of every incident involving weapons or violence in their child's school. But aside from a report in the local newspaper -- or the occasional note sent home by a principal or superintendent - there is not a comprehensive source to check to find out what is going on.
That shouldn't be the case. For years, the Illinois State Board of Education has maintained a little-known database called the School Incident Reporting System, or SIRS, where - by law - parents are supposed to be able find out about every incident of assaults, weapons and drugs in every school in Illinois.
It was true for Allison Reid-Neimiec, a mother of three small children in northwest-suburban Belvidere, Illinois.
Two years ago she began researching her neighborhood schools as she prepared to send her oldest daughter to kindergarten. She discovered a news item about a child who brought a gun into a nearby elementary school, and she wanted to get more information. She sought information through the School Incident Reporting System - but found nothing from Belvidere.
"My reaction was -- What? Did I find it wrong? Have I missed it somewhere?" Reid-Neimiec said. "And then it was kind of outrage: This is a law and we're not following the law?"
In fact the law itself may be part of the problem: Illinois law clearly states that schools must report all incidents of weapons, assaults and drugs to both local police and Illinois State Police. The law also mandates that this information should be available to the public. The School Incident Reporting System is supposed to help serve both of those purposes - but only if a school chooses to use it.
And, as Reid-Neimiec discovered, the Belvidere School District hasn't reported to SIRS for years. (NBC5 Investigates left several messages seeking a response from the Belvidere School District, but the superintendent did not return any calls.)
"Everybody ought to know exactly what is going on in their school, so if there is a problem - or if there is a pattern - it can be solved," said Susan Garrett. Garrett is a former state senator - and now chairman of the board of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. In 2012 she introduced legislation to strengthen and clarify the laws that require schools to report these incidents. The bill did not pass - so the law continues to be unclear for schools.
"Every parent wants to know that their schools are as safe as possible," Garrett said, "and really what this bill did, was to find a way to ensure that every step was being taken to make sure that if there are issues, we're going to find out about them and we're going to share those issues with people who need to know."
"It's the parents that can lean on those legislators to create consequences when the law isn't followed," said Reid-Niemiec. "It's the parents that can lean on their school boards when they're up for election, to ask 'what are you going to do to keep our children safe?'"
"I would like to see another legislator pick up this proposal and do something with it," said Garrett. "If it passes the Senate with everybody voting yes, we should be able to get this done
If you wish to check School Incident Reporting System go to: http://www.isbe.state.il.us/research/htmls/sch_incident.htm and you we see the following:
Click on the “Student Incident Report by Month and Year”. Using “2014” you will find that Rockford District 205, Hononegah, Harvard, DeKalb and City of Chicago Schools all reported incidents.
Grand Total of all schools reporting:
Attacks Against School Personnel------------------------280
Incidents Involving Drugs--------------------------------1507
Incidents Involving Weapons-----------------------------540
Some monthly reports for nearby schools:
August 2013
Harvard---------------1----Incident Involving Weapons
September 2013
Rockford District 205---1---Incident Involving Drugs
Harvard------4----Attacks Against School Personnel ---1—Incident involving drugs
Hononegah, Rockton---3-----Incidents Involving Drugs
Woodstock --------------3-----Incidents Involving Drugs
October 2013
DeKalb------------------3------Incidents Involving Drugs
Harvard-----------------1-----Incident Involving Drugs
Hononegah--------------5-----Incidents Involving Drugs
Woodstock--------------3-----Incidents Involving Drugs
November 2013
DeKalb-------------------3-----Incidents Involving Drugs
Hononegah--------------4-----Incidents Involving Drugs
Woodstock--------------3-----Incidents involving Drugs
