Millville High School reported 149 students involved in incidents that triggered police notification during the 2024-25 school year, the highest total of any high school in New Jersey. The figure comes from state data tracking students tied to at least one reportable incident, not necessarily the number of separate police calls or arrests made.
According to NJ.com, the Cumberland County school ranked highest statewide for students involved in police-notification incidents during the 2024-25 school year. Of those 149 students, 66 were tied to violence-related cases, 14 involved weapons-related incidents, and 13 involved substance-abuse-related allegations, per the same report.
The data come from the New Jersey Department of Education's 2024-25 School Performance Reports, which count students involved in at least one school incident leading to police notification. Statewide, nearly 9,000 students were involved in police-related incidents during the 2024-25 school year, according to state Department of Education data cited by NJ.com, while New Jersey schools averaged four students apiece flagged for such notifications. More than half the state's schools — 1,368 of 2,509 — reported no incidents involving police notification at all that year, the outlet's report notes.
How Millville Compares to Other Flagged Schools
Passaic High School No. 12 ranked second-highest in the state, with 130 students involved in police-notification incidents during 2024-25, while Sayreville War Memorial High School ranked third with 99 students, the report states. The state's framework counts students rather than calls, so the figures reflect the scope of who was involved rather than a tally of separate police dispatches.
Earlier data from the 2022-23 school year offer additional context for how these three schools have appeared in police-related statistics before. New Jersey public schools collectively reported 9,637 police calls that year, a more than 23.5 percent increase since 2018-19, according to Patch. That statewide total broke down into 2,743 violence calls, 940 weapons calls, 448 vandalism calls, 3,623 substance calls, 986 harassment calls and 897 other incidents, Patch reported.
In that same 2022-23 dataset, Millville High School recorded 44 police calls for violence, tied for the most among schools Patch listed, along with 15 calls for harassment, intimidation and bullying. Passaic High School No. 12 logged 101 total police calls that year, the second-highest total among schools in that report, while Sayreville War Memorial High School logged 88. Patch also noted that more than 1,360 New Jersey schools reported zero police incidents during 2022-23.
What the Numbers Don't Show
Police-notification counts also may not equal the total number of incidents at a school, since a single call can involve multiple students. Some schools, meanwhile, handle incidents through on-site school resource officers and security teams without necessarily involving local police.
One possible contributing factor floated in the reporting, though unconfirmed, involves several fights broken up by police at a Millville football game in September 2024, followed by a shooting off school grounds — but the connection to the broader 149-student figure remains unclear.
District Points to State Reporting Rules
Millville Superintendent Matt Mazzoni told NJ.com that the figures reflect the district's commitment to complying with state safety rules and reporting obligations. He said that under state protocols, schools must immediately notify law enforcement about specified incident categories to protect safety and ensure accurate data collection, pointing to reportable categories that include threats of serious violence, weapons, illegal substances, and assaults on staff and students.
Mazzoni added that the administration continually reviews safety procedures, student support services, and behavioral interventions to maintain a safe learning environment. The discipline figures are intended as separate measures rather than a single school safety score, according to a state data library cited in the reporting.
