School Violence, Research Paper Example

Introduction

It is hard fact that violence is common in US schools. It can take many forms including bullying/cyberbullying, gender-based/teen dating violence, violence against teachers and school staff, gang-related violence, drug-related violence, violence from external aggressors (shootings), and crime-related violence (theft, assault). School violence is the subject of great concern at all levels of society and government. The causes of school violence in all its forms have been studied for several years, and plans and programs have been implemented with mixed results.

This paper provides a brief analysis of violence in schools together with a review of the effectiveness or otherwise of violence prevention programs. Contrary to public opinion, school violence is not on the increase but is in fact declining.

Types of Violence

Theft, bullying and other types of victimization of students and school staff are often accompanied with threatening behaviour or actual injury with or without a weapon. Cyber-bullying is becoming more prevalent especially since the rise in popularity of social media. This sometimes elevates to actual physical assault, as well as violence in the form of student suicide resulting from the victimization of students and the effect on the victim’s mental state.

Violence in all its forms is often used in gang- and drug-related incidents that spill into schools from the local environment. Other types of violence include gender-based violence such as sexual assault and rape, including teenage date-rape. Whilst not usually committed in school, they may originate in behaviors seen within school environments.

Current Situation

A 2011 study provides some recent statistics. It was published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on the incidence of crime in schools. The 2011 publication is the 14^th edition of this annual listing of indicators of all school crime, including those involving violence. According to the key findings drawn from statistics on the 2009/10 school year, there were 25 homicides of students and staff, 3 people were killed during legal interventions, and 5 students committed suicide – a total of 33 violent deaths. In the previous year the figures was 17. (NCES, 2013)

However, in 2010 the rate of violent victimizations of 12 to 18 year old students fell from 43 incidents for each 1,000 students in 2009 to 32 per 1,000 students. (Violent victimization is defined as serious violent crimes and simple assault.) It is interesting to note that public school students were victimized twice as often (4%) as private school students (2%); this perhaps being a reflection of the environment surrounding public schools compared to areas in which private schools are located. The percentage of physical attacks on teachers in schools located in cities was 4% in 2007/08, compared to 3% in rural locations.

Eight percent of students in grades 9 to 12 received threats or injuries using weapons in 2009, many of them on multiple occasions, and approximately 10% of boys reported being incidents of this type, compared to 5% of girls.

The NCES provide fifteen further indicators relating to the incidence of school violence categorized as relating to environment issues (disruption, gangs, bullying, harassment, behavior towards teachers, tardiness), as well as reports on levels of fighting, weapon use, drug-related crime, and security measures. (NCES, 2013)

What is being done?

In order to try and resolve all the types of crime in schools, state legislatures have enacted a variety of laws. These include higher penalties for crimes on school premises, firearm-free school safety zones, course content promoting non-violence, the establishment of telephone numbers for students and school staff to use for anonymous crime-reporting. (NCJRS, 2013)

Many states (e.g. Illinois, Nebraska, Texas, Virginia) have enacted legislation requiring schools to report criminal acts to the police, and these are backed up with enforcement provisions that make it a criminal offense not to report violence incidents in schools. (NCJRS, 2013)

Similarly, many states have legislation requiring law enforcement agencies or prosecutors to notify schools when students are arrested and the outcome of their adjudication, although this information is subject to privacy protections (i.e. the information the school receives has to be kept confidential and records retained in locked cabinets). The purposes of this information is meant to provide the student with appropriate education and to maintain a safe school environment for all students and school staff. (NCJRS, 2013)

The Gun-Free School Act, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act, 2001 (Public Law 107/110) requires that each state or area with schools funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 1965 enacts law that requires all education authorities to expel (for a minimum of one year) all students that bring guns to school. Expulsions in 2005/06 reached 3,028 and in 2006/07, the figure was 2,695 (a rate of 6.1 students and 5.5 students for every 100,000, respectively). (NCES, 2013)

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security provides resources (including funding) and education to support school security in the event of an emergency. In 2002, the US Secret Service and the Department of Education, established the Safe School Initiative which studied school shootings from 1974 to 2000. The intention was to provide information on how to identify behaviors leading up to a school shooting in order that schools could try and prevent further similar violent attacks. The study indicated that school shootings were rarely carried out impulsively but were planned well ahead of the attack, and other students often knew of the threat but had not alerted their teachers or parents. In addition, nearly all attacker behavior had caused at least one teacher/parent serious concern, which went unreported. (USSS, 2013)

All the research and discussion over school violence has given rise to some helpful resources that schools can utilize to tackle the problem. One of those is a body called National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (the NCSSLE) which is funded by the US Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services. Its focus is the safety and health of staff and students in order to create an improved working and learning environment. It provides training and support to schools, their staff and students, and it also offers models for schools to measure the success of relevant programs in support of improving school environments and learning cultures. These measurements are then used to create national and state reports on the state of school environments and learning. (NCSSLE, 2013)

The training offered by the NCSSLE is in the form of training toolkits for teachers and staff, as well as webinar presentations and events such as national conferences and other in-person training events. The NCSSLE is also the body through which federal government grants are provided to schools to implement programs to tackle the adverse effects of school violence and measure their effectiveness on the learning environment. (NCSSLE, 2013)

Schools have implemented several different models to tackle school violence. Many schools have implemented programs where students themselves are involved in the resolution of school violence issues, and the NCES reports that in 2009/10, more schools with student populations greater than 1,000, involved students in this way. Other measures include zero-tolerance policies to violence in schools, controlling access to school buildings or grounds during school hours, the hiring of security staff, the implementation of student/bag searches, the installation of security cameras and telephones in classrooms, and student uniforms and staff ID badges. (NCES, 2013)

Approximately half of all schools have created a written action plan and for dealing with and taking refuge from incidents of violence, and they organize regular practices of their plan. Students that bring weapons other than guns into school are often subjected to disciplinary action such as detentions or suspensions for varying periods (e.g. less than five days, the remainder of the academic year.) Some students are transferred to special schools.

Issues that affect the ability of schools to tackle school violence are insufficient funding, a lack of alternative places for disruptive kids, and impractical policies on how to discipline students with special needs.

Success of Measures

Despite all this apparently negative data and high-profile media reports, studies have indicated that school violence is declining. After reaching a peak in 1993, the statistics show a continuing reduction in reported incidents. However, this may not be a result of the safe school programs and measures implemented in since the early 1990’s, but rather a reflection of the reduction in overall national rates of violent crime. (Neuman, 2013)

Some schools in poor neighborhoods still undoubtedly have major problems, but that is attributed to their location in a community with high crime rates. There is also criticism of zero-tolerance policies, which push many students causing reasonably minor incidents of violence being unnecessarily excluded from school. (Neuman, 2013)

Recent shooting incidents such as Sandy Hook continue to raise the issue of violence in schools, but skew public opinion by the fact that these types of violence are perpetrated by external assailants who often have mental issues but nevertheless have easy access to weapons. The government’s recent attempts to further limit access to firearms and large quantities of ammunition are admirable but not necessarily helpful in further reducing violence in schools. The National Rifle Association is attempting to defend the constitutional right to bear arms by, amongst other things, re-focussing gun reforms on improved screening of potential gun purchasers.

Conclusion

It is clear that being able to assess the rates of violence and criminal behaviour in schools is pre-requisite for addressing the problem. The persistent presence of gang culture and the associated drug issues, as well as recent examples of violence in schools highlighted in the media all contribute to school staff, students, their families and communities displaying a siege mentality when it comes to maintaining safe and supportive learning environments. To address what appears to be a situation that is out of control, federal and state governments, criminal justice enforcement agencies, and educational and teaching associations, are joining forces to gather together as much information and analysis as possible, in order to put in place effective law enforcement, and student education and teacher training programs. The overall reduction in violent crime in schools over the last 15 years is not widely recognized, owing to wide media coverage of school shooting incidents, and the public debate that follows.

References

NCES. (2013, March 23). Fast Facts. Retrieved from National Center for Education Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=49

NCJRS. (2013, March 25). Retrieved from US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office for Victims of Crime: https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/bulletins/legalseries/bulletin2/ncj189191.pdf

NCSSLE. (2013, March 23). Mission and Goals. Retrieved from National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments: http://safesupportiveschools.ed.gov/index.php?id=46

Neuman, S. (2013, March 25). Violence In Schools: How Big A Problem Is It? Retrieved from National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/16/148758783/violence-in-schools-how-big-a-problem-is-it

USSS. (2013, March 25). Secret Service Safe School Initiative. Retrieved from United States Secret Service: http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac_ssi.shtml