By Derrick ForsytheRecord Staff WriterA safety evaluation presented to the Wright City R-II School Board at its March meeting revealed 618 infractions in the district over the past 18 months.The report, compiled in a new format, included information reflecting students’ safety in a variety of formats, including both preventative and disciplinary.The evaluation included a breakdown of incidents related to student safety. Seventeen of those 618 incidents were violent acts that resulted in injuries.Two infractions involved a weapon — a small pocketknife in each incident, according to Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines.Five incidents were drug related and 594 occurrences were categorized as other incidents.The high school reported the highest numbers of infractions with 335, while the middle school had 172. Recorded safety issues varied between the elementary schools. Wright City East Elementary reported just 14 total infractions, while East Elementary had substantially more with 97.Gaines said the difference can be derived from a higher number of repeat offenders in that building.“If you look across the board at some of our discipline and incidents, a lot of it is concentrated in a very small population,” said Gaines. “It’s a small number of kids who have repeated infractions. Our concern is we’re getting more young kids with significant behavior challenges.”He said there are a number of measures in place to ensure the students’ safety, including the addition of an SRO (Student Resource Officer) this school year. Wright City Police Officer Jeff Catron has been serving in that role, operating out of an office at Wright City Middle School.“We’ve now got him on-site all the time, and he responds to a variety of things,” said Gaines. “He’ll deal with some of the discipline incidents that could escalate into a legal matter. If he’s in one building, he’s quick to respond to another when we need him.”He said the role may see an increase in responsibility due to the district no longer having a truancy officer on staff.“We’ll probably leverage the truancy part a little bit more in the future,” said Gaines.The safety evaluation also discussed the use of the schools’ surveillance cameras, which Gaines says are on a replacement schedule to keep them functioning and deter misconduct.Additionally, the district has changed its intruder drill policy from “lockout and hide” to “run, hide and fight.”In the past during the threat of an intruder the school would lock the doors in an attempt to keep the individual out. But teachers are now being taught to take a more aggressive approach, trying to disrupt or distract the intruder.“They passed a new law a couple years ago, so now we have to have a law enforcement officer come in and train our teachers on the drills,” said Gaines.That procedure is led by Catron and typically takes place during summer orientation.Also addressed during the evaluation were the evacuation drills related to earthquake, fire and tornadoes, which are scheduled by the district and practiced routinely each school year.Wright City R-II School District