Supt. Randy Weseman expects some people to get angry about certain events in the Lawrence public school district.

He understands if a handful blow off steam at his expense.

But he won’t tolerate threats of physical violence against himself or employees in the district.

“If you threaten to shoot me, beat me up or blow me up, that’s where I draw the line,” Weseman said.

He called in Lawrence Police on Dec. 18, when a 47-year-old mother of a student threatened Weseman during a telephone conversation with a secretary at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive. The information was forwarded to the district attorney’s office for possible charges.

While menacing remarks could be considered a common event by school administrators, Weseman said, it’s rare for people to follow through with violent acts against teachers and students.

The Kansas Department of Education compiles information on violence in Kansas schools. In the 2002-2003 school year, the 900 teachers in the Lawrence district were the victim of violence 21 times. The 10,000 students in the district were subjected to violent acts 158 times.

‘Schools are safe’

Wayne Kruse, who represents Lawrence teachers as president of the Lawrence Education Assn., said he had never been threatened by a student, parent or community member.

However, the sixth-grade teacher at Quail Run School does hear periodic reports of violence against teachers. A teacher was assaulted by a student recently at a Lawrence junior high school, Kruse said.

“I think our schools are safe and I think our teachers feel safe,” he said.

Leni Salkind, vice president of the Lawrence school board, said she had never been directly threatened by someone during more than six years on the board. But people are often blunt in electronic mail when commenting on district affairs, she said.

“There were a couple times I was uncomfortable about what people said in an e-mail,” she said.

She said she understood that parents and community members care deeply about public education in Lawrence but no situation justified violence.

“People get very emotional about schools, obviously their kids, their teacher. They get possessive,” she said.

Post-Columbine era

Kruse said teachers, counselors and other people working in Lawrence schools had devoted more attention to preventing violent behavior after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a rampage in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. The two killed themselves, 12 other students and one teacher.

“Our level of awareness has been raised,” Kruse said. “We’re trying to be more proactive.”

In 1999-2000, according to state reports, acts of violence against students in the Lawrence district hit the lowest level in 10 years. There were 108 incidents that year, but the totals have been 135, 114 and 158 in the three years since.

Violence against teachers in the Lawrence district also dipped in 1999-2000 to 14 acts. There have been 20, 17 and 21 acts of violence against Lawrence teachers in the three subsequent years, the state reported.

Steve Nilhas, principal at Lawrence High School, said violence in the district’s schools most frequently equated to fistfights.

“We’re not talking a knife or gun,” he said. “We’re talking about punching and shoving.”

Nilhas said public school administrators in Lawrence and elsewhere were working to prevent violence by building stronger ties between students and adults in the schools.

Students need to feel they can communicate with somebody at school and they need assurances that they won’t be picked on or harassed, he said. Promoting school culture that doesn’t split students into groups is useful, he said.

He said transforming schools into fortresses wouldn’t help.

“Putting bars on windows and locks on the doors, I’m not sure it’s going to do anything,” Nilhas said.