Report Examines Number of Students Arrested in West Hartford and Connecticut

By BRIAN MCCREADY (Patch Staff)

With the new school year almost set to begin, Trend CT, a Connecticut News Project publication, created an interactive map showing how many students were arrested in your community since the 2011-12 school year and exactly what the charges were.

The ambitious data project comes after a report released earlier this year by Connecticut Voices For Children that states the total number of students from elementary through high school arrested in Connecticut has declined by 35 percent from 2008 to 2013, which is the most recent year the data is available for.

Also, 31 percent fewer students in Connecticut were expelled over the same five-year period and 47 percent fewer students received out-of-school suspensions, the report noted.

According to the state Department of Education, the number of suspensions and expulsions of students was reduced by 17 percent from 127,700 in 2009-10 to 105,000 in 2013-14.

However, the data revealed several significant issues, including that minority students, special education, and students from poorer districts are more likely to be suspended, expelled or even arrested, according to the Connecticut Voices report.

For example, in 2013, black students were 4.7 times more likely to be arrested, 4.9 times more likely to be expelled, and 6.5 times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than white students.

Hispanics and special education students also had much higher rates across the board than white students, the report notes.

The state found that the reason for in-school and out-of-school suspensions and expulsions is largely attributable to school policy violations, or 66 percent. Students are also likely to get into trouble at school for fighting (12 percent), physical/verbal confrontation (9 percent), and threatening behavior (6 percent).

West Hartford’s Breakdown

In 2011, 43 out of 10,207 West Hartford students were arrested, 13 students were expelled, and there were 95 out-of-school suspensions and 390 in-school suspensions.

By way of comparison, in 2013, 32 out of 9,996 West Hartford students were arrested, none were expelled, and there were 66 out-of-school suspensions and 258 in-school suspensions.

To view how many arrests were made in the schools in your town since the 2011-12 school year, including the most recently completed school year of 2014-15, please click here to view the Trend CT interactive map.

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