Arrests Decrease Dramatically at Manchester High

This time last year, the community was shocked to discover that since the start of the 2011 school year. This year, those arrest numbers have dropped dramatically, as school administrators and police personnel attribute the severely reduced arrest figures to a systematic change in culture at the high school. 

Police Chief Marc Montminy told Patch Tuesday that he still had not finished compiling the total arrest numbers at the school through the end of December, but that it appears that only about eight students have been arrested due to disciplinary incidents at the high school since the start of the school year. 

"I think it's even more dramatic than that," Montminy said of the final arrest figures, which he plans to provide to the Board of Education as part of a detailed report on security at the high school during next Monday's school board meeting. He said the majority of the arrests this year are for breach of peace or fighting incidents. 

Montminy attributed the change to "a combination of things" that have improved communication between school administrators, high school staff and his department since last winter. He said many minor behavioral incidents that School Resource Officers - police officers who work in schools - would have been called on to handle previously are now being being handled by school staff instead. 

"We've tried to work out solutions other than arrests for students who basically have behavioral issues in school," Montminy said. "We've taken a step back and asked the school personnel to step forward and really take the lead on things…only when they get outside of their comfort zones do they contact the police for these things."

This time last year, many in town were still reeling from the shock caused by a in mid-December of 2010 that resulted in 20 arrests; several weeks later, the news broke of the exceedingly high arrest totals at the high school since the start of the school year. Shortly thereafter, former , and school administrators, the Manchester Police Department, and members of the community began that could be made to change the cultural at the high school. 

Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel, who replaced Ouellette in late October and said he followed much of the negative news about the Manchester school system last winter, said that when he first visited Manchester High School shortly before accepting the interim position he found the school to be a "very quiet, organized place." 

"That impressed me based on what I would read in the papers last December versus what I encountered now," Kisiel told Patch Tuesday. "I said to myself 'it can't be the same place.'"

Kisiel attributed the change, and the drop in arrest figures, to greater communication between the various agencies that have a stake in the high school, as well as an increased community involvement. 

"It's not surprising to me. The town has pulled together and it's not costing a lot of money to bring people in the community together and talk about how we respond to it," he said. 

Board of Education Chairman Chris Pattacini also said he has noticed a difference at the high school since last winter, and attributed it to an overall change in culture at the school that he said has been the result of the entire Manchester community coming together to focus on the problem. 

"It's as much about the overall climate of the high school than it is about arrests in particular," Pattacini said. "I think that the culture has changed to support education. Parents are more engaged, staff are engaged, the administration is more engaged."