The Nye County School District strategy of prevention appears to be making its mark.

The number of incidents resulting in expulsion or suspension of students has either gone down or remained comparatively low during the years officers have been on school grounds.

The number of incidents will naturally increase along with the number of students, and since officers are more accessible to them, more incidents are getting reported.

Keeping this in mind, however, the evidence suggests that the special resource officers are effective in maintaining a safe environment for students.

For the 1999-2000 academic year, 26 students were suspended or expelled for possession of a controlled substance. In the 2003-2004 academic year -- the first year the Cops in School program was implemented -- the number dropped to 14.

Last year, the number of students expelled for possession was 15, an increase of only one despite an increase of 218 in the county's student population.

The number of students expelled or suspended for violence to other students during the 2001-2002 school year (the year before Cops in School began) was 271; in 2003 that number dropped to 213.

In 2004 to 2005 it jumped back up to 269 students, and last year there were 274 incidents of violence to other students.

However, these are incidents that incorporate the entire county, and include students from grade and middle school as well.

So it could include a student shoving another student down on the playground.

And an increase of five incidents when compared to the increase in total student population is, if nothing else, evidence of keeping an increase of incidents to a minimum.

The number of students who were expelled for habitual disciplinary problems in the 2002-2003 school year was 59. Last year it was only three.