A recent incident involving two Reading High School students prompted an emotional school board discussion Wednesday about safety improvements and what more can be done to prevent violence.<\/p>\n
School board President Noahleen Betts invited Jessica Di Blasi, high school principal, and Shawn Stiver, assistant director of safe schools, to present a report following the incident, which district officials classified as an assault under state reporting guidelines.<\/p>\n
Betts said the incident was especially troubling given the progress the school has made in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had come such a long way,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened. I don\u2019t know where we failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Khalid N. Mumin, superintendent, cautioned against viewing the incident as evidence of a broader safety crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a crisis,\u201d he said, emphasizing that reported incidents have declined significantly in recent years.<\/p>\n
Di Blasi presented five years of state-reported disciplinary data showing a 25.4% decline in referrals, from 5,601 in 2021-22 to 4,177 in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
Building-level data showed similar improvements, she said, noting fighting incidents declined 48.1% over the past four years, while vaping incidents dropped 21.1%.<\/p>\n
She also noted first-quarter fighting incidents fell from 18 in 2023-24 to three this school year.<\/p>\n
Further, no weapons or controlled-substance possession incidents have been reported during the current quarter, the principal said.<\/p>\n
Di Blasi also surveyed staff and students following the recent incident.<\/p>\n
Of 161 staff respondents, 92% agreed or were neutral about feeling safe at the high school. Among 458 students surveyed, 96% agreed or were neutral about feeling safe in classrooms.<\/p>\n
However, the surveys revealed concerns about hallway supervision, crowded transitions between classes, bathroom safety and inconsistent discipline.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of the students surveyed, 48%, disagreed that discipline was applied consistently.<\/p>\n
Di Blasi said visible security personnel, improved communication, entry screening and the district\u2019s cellphone restrictions have contributed to a calmer school environment.<\/p>\n
But staffing remains a challenge.<\/p>\n
Stiver reported that the high school has 22 authorized safe-schools guard positions, with 14 guards currently assigned and one on medical leave. Transfers, pending bids and new hires undergoing background checks could increase staffing to approximately 19.<\/p>\n
Board member Yajaira Stone questioned whether the full complement of 22 guards would be sufficient.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about only 22 guards for a building that massive,\u201d she said, suggesting the district consider increasing staffing.<\/p>\n
Di Blasi said the building has more than five miles of hallways, while Stiver reported that its security system includes 317 interior and exterior camera views.<\/p>\n
One guard monitors camera feeds, selecting views as circumstances require, he noted.<\/p>\n
Mumin said administrators are already considering additional security personnel, with staffing needs to be evaluated against building size, incident patterns and student movement.<\/p>\n
Another concern was the disproportionate number of disciplinary referrals involving ninth graders.<\/p>\n
Board member Shaykayarira Delrio-Gonzalez urged administrators to consider the neighborhood conflicts and personal histories students bring with them when they enter high school from the district\u2019s five middle schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening in the streets is important because that\u2019s why the retaliation happens in the schools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mumin said the district is exploring smaller learning communities, additional educational pathways and more individualized attention for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to get smaller within this big building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to freshman success coordinators who monitor attendance, behavior and academic progress to identify students needing intervention.<\/p>\n
Betts and other board members acknowledged the significant improvements in school safety and commended Di Blasi, Stiver and their teams for their efforts.<\/p>\n
While emphasizing that more work remains, they praised the progress made in reducing disciplinary incidents and creating a safer environment for students and staff.<\/p>\n
Despite the encouraging statistics, Betts repeatedly returned to the incident that prompted the presentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot forget the victim, and that\u2019s why you\u2019re here this evening,\u201d she told Di Blasi and Stiver.<\/p>\n
Di Blasi responded emotionally, saying she has developed a close relationship with the victim and her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, this happened on my watch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The incident weighs heavily on her, Di Blasi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never forget the victim,\u201d she said. \u201cI will always take care of the kids the best that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board took no formal action on the safety presentation, but administrators agreed to continue evaluating security staffing and strategies for supporting students, particularly ninth graders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent incident involving two Reading High School students prompted an emotional school board discussion Wednesday about safety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,227,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-311863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-education","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}