The number of Richmond County students who got in trouble in 2007-08 fell for the first time in at least five years.

Last school year, 9,802 students were disciplined, down from 10,292 a year before, according to The Augusta Chronicle's analysis of more than a million student records recently released by the Georgia Department of Education.

The number of students misbehaving in Columbia County declined also, down to 3,475. It was the second consecutive decline for Columbia County.

Repeat offenders account for most of these numbers. In Richmond County, 423 students were disciplined 10 or more times, and in Columbia County there were 222 students who were in trouble as often.

In both counties, students who violated school rules averaged three infractions each.

Richmond County Superintendent Dana Bedden said he will reserve excitement until the improvements become a trend, but he said there has been more staff training, greater connections with the community and stronger instruction, which improve student behavior.

Richmond County's students fought less last year. Fights were down 10 percent, from 2,503 in 2006-07 to 2,252. The more serious rule violation of battery, an assault on another person serious enough to involve the police, was also down, falling drastically since 2004. Batteries have fallen 92.3 percent, from 117 violations to just nine in 2008.

"We're trying to be more proactive," Dr. Bedden said.

Richmond County's program to reward good behavior is beginning to show results, he said.

"We get these successes, but we need consistency across the district," the superintendent said.

Elsewhere in the region, Burke County High School had more discipline incidents than any other Georgia school for the second consecutive year.

Its 5,406 discipline reports average out to four incidents for every student at the school.

Most of those incidents were tardies and dress code violations, Principal Wayne Hickman said.

Burke County school system spokeswoman Amy Nunnally said the numbers look worse than they are.

"We report everything, so it makes us look bad," she said.

The school also had the third most cases of threats and intimidation, with 187.

Other findings of note from The Chronicle's analysis of the 2007-08 school year:

- Josey High School had the most handgun violations of any school in Georgia, with eight.

- For fights, Tubman Middle School was No. 10 in the state with 229 and Glenn Hills Middle School was No. 13 with 223.

- Evans High School was tied for 10th with 10 alcohol violations.

- Hains Elementary School was tied for 11th in the state for larcenies and thefts with 22, and Greenbrier High School was tied for 14th with 21.

RICHMOND COUNTY

INCIDENT TYPE	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Continuation of Incident	993	924	1294	1340	987
Alcohol	10	16	10	6	22
Arson	6	0	2	5	1
Battery	117	59	30	33	9
Burglary	3	0	7	3	1
Computer Trespass	2	6	3	12	8
Disorderly Conduct	4,944	2,959	3,369	2,642	2,074
Drugs, except alcohol	90	76	88	81	89
Fighting	2,121	2,194	2,498	2,503	2,252
Homicide	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	0
Larceny/Theft	56	24	49	69	65
Motor Vehicle Theft	0	0	0	2	0
Robbery	2	0	2	0	0
Sexual Battery	0	0	1	0	0
Sexual Harassment	73	53	32	24	16
Sex Offenses	16	29	8	21	8
Threat/Intimidation	628	659	529	417	409
Tobacco	85	88	173	111	121
Trespassing	22	13	14	16	19
Vandalism	75	50	69	50	46
Weapons-Knife	53	52	64	58	50
Weapons-Other	35	32	57	44	27
Other Discipline Incident	15,671	19,398	24,528	25,158	23,256
Weapons-Handgun	0	0	5	6	9
Weapons-Rifle	0	0	1	0	0
Serious Bodily Injury	0	0	0	0	4
TOTALS	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Infractions	25,002	26,632	32,833	32,601	29,473
Students in trouble	8,164	8,462	9,737	10,292	9,802

COLUMBIA COUNTY

INCIDENT TYPE	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Continuation of Incident	752	613	1120	1126	738
Alcohol	25	9	27	19	29
Arson	0	0	0	1	1
Battery	27	18	20	17	10
Burglary	0	2	2	0	0
Computer Trespass	23	22	52	102	57
Disorderly Conduct	49	119	62	61	46
Drugs	76	92	120	94	82
Fighting	267	314	211	268	246
Homicide	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	0
Larceny/Theft	15	27	47	51	67
Motor Vehicle Theft	0	0	0	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0	1	0
Sexual Battery	1	6	11	2	5
Sexual Harassment	6	8	9	11	8
Sex Offenses	10	4	10	6	3
Threat/Intimidation	70	58	83	71	79
Tobacco	188	233	208	184	164
Trespassing	0	2	4	1	1
Vandalism	20	17	36	35	32
Weapons-Knife	38	42	38	29	37
Weapons-Other	2	8	12	9	15
Other Discipline Incident	7,491	8,439	9,792	9,935	9,345
Weapons-Handgun	0	0	0	1	1
Weapons-Rifle	0	0	0	1	0
Serious Bodily Injury	0	0	0	0	0
TOTALS	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Infractions	9,060	10,033	11,864	12,025	10,966
Students in trouble	2,965	3,217	3,598	3,533	3,475

Source: The Augusta Chronicle analysis of Georgia Department of Education data