Legal Commentary

From the front page of Easter Sunday's The Dallas Morning News:

Assaults ? which range from threats to physical altercations ? by students on Dallas Independent School District employees and volunteers have more than doubled in the last five years, from 147 incidents in 2002-03 to 312 in 2006-07, according to district statistics.

Most of the incidents were minor, such as a student shoving a teacher or threatening to hurt one. But some were serious, such as a student hitting and seriously injuring a school employee. Serious assaults ? in which students intentionally or recklessly caused injury ? also have increased, from seven in 2003-04 to 29 last school year, according to the district.

"Obviously, we need to do something to correct this," said DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. "Anytime those numbers go up, we need to make sure that our employees are safe. For whatever reasons, the numbers are up; we've got to get them down."

He said he plans to have staff look into the matter.

He's done more than "look into the matter. " He's hired a new Director of Security, who late this evening, held an extremely brief press conference.