"Over the past couple of years, we've made some significant changes," said Clayton Fujie, state deputy schools superintendent. "We are much more confident now than we were two years ago, but still, there's growing pains."

Others say privately that standards can vary from school to school, with some officials reporting relatively minor incidents that others handle informally or never find out about.

The most recent numbers available show that violent incidents increased from 2,710 in the 2001-2002 school year to 3,412 in 2002-2003. Fujie said it's not unusual for figures to fluctuate in cycles as new students from different backgrounds enter the schools.

"It's sort of like a roller coaster as new groups come in," he said. "It's a culture shift for how we have to work with them. We're working to ensure our schools are safe. That is always there."

The method for tracking guns found on school campuses may be more precise, because the numbers are small and there is a mandatory reporting requirement. Six handguns were detected at schools on four islands during 2003-2004, according to an annual statement filed with the state Legislature. It was the highest number of guns seen at Hawai'i schools since 1996, when lawmakers first required an annual disclosure of gun incidents.

Many more pellet guns have been found each year, and pipe-bombs and other explosive devices have often been problems, the reports show.

Few earn label

Of the nation's 91,000 schools, only 26 were deemed "persistently dangerous" this year. All were in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or South Dakota.

The law allowed each state to create its own definition for a dangerous school, and the specifics vary wildly.

"You're comparing apples to oranges, especially if you look state-to-state," said Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based consulting firm that has helped train security personnel in Hawai'i's school system and many other states.

And there is a very strong incentive to avoid earning such a distinction, he said.

"Having a label of 'persistently dangerous' slapped on your school is like receiving the scarlet letter of education today," Trump said. "It's the kiss of death to your career and your school's image to say that you operate a 'persistently dangerous school.' The vast majority of states have set the bar so high that very few schools across the country could meet it even if they wanted to get the label of running a 'persistently dangerous school.' "

Violent deaths

The law requires that parents be notified if their children are assigned to such a school, and that they be given the opportunity to transfer to another school within the same system.

Nationwide, 32 school-age youths died violently on the campus of an elementary or secondary school during the 1999-2000 school year, the most recent for which comprehensive data are available, according to a federal report issued in November.

None of the deaths were in Hawai'i.

The rate of students victimized by crime generally declined nationwide between 1992 and 2002, according to the report, compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics.

Data may be skewed

The report found that violence, theft, bullying, drugs and firearms are still widespread, however. Students were victims of 659,000 violent crimes and 1.1 million theft crimes at U.S. schools during 2002, the report found.

Trump said he has little faith in such numbers, however, since there is no federal law that requires specific tracking of crimes at schools. The information used in the federal report is drawn largely from surveys of students and teachers, and information collected by other agencies.

"Right now there are few carrots for schools that report crime, and absolutely no sticks for schools that don't," Trump said. "To the contrary, those schools that do report crime under 'persistently dangerous' may actually be penalized for identifying, reporting and dealing with problems head-on. It certainly creates a climate of temptation to under-report."

Bullying at school

There's no question Hawai'i's school system has its problems. Lii Naiole said her son was repeatedly bullied at Wai'anae High School, and that she's so concerned she pulled him out and hopes to move to another neighborhood.

"We just moved to Wai'anae from Kane'ohe because this was an opportunity to buy a house, but now we have to sell," Naiole said. "I love this house, but as a mother, you can't be happy if your son is this unhappy."

She said she had initially hoped to transfer her son to nearby Nanakuli High and Intermediate School. But a confrontation between students and police there last week put an end to that idea. Police used pepper spray to disperse an unruly group of students after a fight, and arrested several of them.

Radford High School freshman Jaelene Lizama, 14, said she feels safe at the school, despite a series of widely publicized altercations there two weeks ago, which began with a brawl after a basketball game.

"That just happened out of nowhere," Lizama said. "It was unexpected. But it's over, and I feel safe."

Devonee Bryan, another 14-year-old Radford freshman, said she wasn't too rattled by the recent problems, either.

"I always feel safe, even after that," she said.

The news media spotlight that focused on Radford after the altercations should not give the school a bad name, but problems and tensions shouldn't be ignored or covered up either, Bryan said.