Well, we have never had a homicide here at school, thank goodness. We have had some of our kids go off campus and gotten killed. We had one of out student that was shot in a drive-by on U.S. 75, but really, we don't see that type of crime.

As far as violence goes, school is school. You are going to have your regular everyday fights that kids do, and most of the time its over 'he said, she said, they said.' But we really haven't seen a real increase in violence. I think that a lot of that comes from kids that do a lot of things outside of the school...schools are no more unsafe than they were 10 years ago.

I think that this is more real. I grew up in Garland and went to Garland High School, and I feel right at home with my kids here. I look at these kids like they are my kids. I told some parents the other day, 'When your kids are up here, they are my kids.' That the way I feel about it.

These kids have grown up together, and they see that all races get along well together. We don't see any black on white, white on black, Hispanic on black. Most of ours is them fighting each other -- black on black, white on white, Hispanic on Hispanic -- more than we have any other. We don't have a lot of racial issues here.

Your thefts, which are probably my biggest crime, then vandalism to cars or school desks or rooms. But what I call violent crimes like rape, murder, you don't see that inside our schools.

I get back two times from what I give to the kids. You do start relationships with the young people that are lifelong.