When Charger Academy was closed last year, it was the school with the worst record of trouble in the county.
Charger Academy was formerly known as Jefferson Davis Middle School. The name was changed about four years ago by people who enjoy rewriting history.
It was in the Oak Hill area and only 25 percent of its nearly 1,000 students were proficient in reading.
Early last year, Charger Academy was the subject of several First Coast News articles after a family accused a substitute teacher of verbally and sexually assaulting their 13-year-old grandson. The family called the school’s response inadequate, but the Duval County Public School district claimed that proper protocols were followed. Nevertheless, the school was closed.
Eye on Jacksonville looked at data collected by the state concerning serious incidents in government schools throughout Florida.
Last school year, Charger had more serious incidents than any other school in Duval.
We determined the 20 worst schools based on the total number of incidents and looked at the number of incidents involving drug use, fighting and weapons possession. There are more serious crimes such as homicide, robbery and burglary listed but so few that they are not meaningful.
Close behind Charger in the total number of incidents were Englewood and First Cost high schools.
The kinds of incidents varied. Students in Highlands Middle School had the most fights. More students at White High School carried weapons. Drug use was more prevalent at Atlantic Coast High School.
Two things are paramount to parents when it comes to school. One is getting an education. The other, arguably even more important, is protecting the child from harm.
The School Board currently is busy trying to clean up school libraries and return control to parents. But the board should also take a look at crime in schools and try to find ways to lower the numbers.
One aspect of that would be to consider returning police protection to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office instead of having its own police force.
The data on the local schools is below:
