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What's being done to combat violence in America's schools? What can school administrators and teachers do? Should disruptive students be expelled? These are some of the problems educators, lawmakers, and other experts are tackling today.

• A 14-year-old Edinboro, Penn., boy shoots and kills a teacher at a school prom; three others are injured.
• Two boys, 11 and 13 years old, kill four students and a teacher in a Jonesboro, Ark., school.
• In Daly City, Calif., a 13-year-old boy is accused of shooting at his principal.
• A 10-year-old in Florida brings a gun to school.
• A 16-year-old in Texas cuts three teachers with a knife.

That these acts of violence take place at all shocks America. That they happen in schools is even more disturbing.

While statistics show overall crime in schools decreasing, violent crime in schools is on the rise. Since 1992, there have been 201 homicides on school campuses nationwide, according to Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center (NSSC), which collects statistics on school violence.

Despite school violence, our schools, experts point out, are decidedly safer than our streets. As Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University, told the San Francisco Examiner: The presence of metal detectors at certain schools, searches of students and lockers, and other security moves have helped combat crime in our nation's schools.

KEEPING SCHOOLS SAFE

Given the recent spate of violent acts in schools, what can administrators, teachers, and staff members do to keep their schools as safe as possible?

"First," said Ronald Stephens of NSSC, "every school should develop a safe school plan. Eighteen states require it, and developing such a plan indicates that educators are placing school safety on the education agenda. Safety is a minimum requirement for children to be properly educated."

"Next, minimize the number of entrance and exit points in a school," Stephens continued, "to gain control of access to the school. Have a policy that all visitors to the campus must be screened."

"And," Stephens said, "mandate a crime tracking and recordkeeping system within the school. Just keeping track of the number of violent incidents, including fighting between students, is an incredibly effective way to help lower violence in a school. "

One simple action parents can take to help keep a school safe, Stephens suggested, is to "invest time in talking to their children about school, in asking them about their day every day." Students who have been bullied or assaulted in school sometimes will tell an adult only if their parents ask them what's happening in school, Stephens said.

SHOULD DISRUPTIVE STUDENTS BE EXPELLED?

Whether expelling disruptive students should play a part in keeping schools safe is a subject of considerable debate. When Massachusetts increased its expulsion rate for students, state Education Commissioner Robert Antonucci said, as quoted in the Daily Report Card, "Suspending and expelling some disruptive students will strengthen the climate of learning. Safe schools are a top priority."

Some child advocates, however, disagreed. "Society is not doing itself a favor by taking kids we see as the most troubled and removing them from the one institution we have established to deal with children," said Ray Wallace, a lawyer for several expelled children in Massachusetts school districts.

Where do teachers stand on the topic of school violence? There is evidence that teachers find school violence threatening. According to the American Federation of Teachers, nearly one-third of teachers have pondered leaving the profession because of violence and intimidation.

TALKING ABOUT SCHOOL SAFETY WITH STUDENTS

Students attending a school where violence occurs, experts say, clearly will need crisis and grief counseling and other forms of intervention to cope with tragedy. So will many students who find out about the act of violence from the media, family, or friends.

"How much this news item is a topic in your school puts a proportionally difficult instructional obligation on you," Rick Larios, an Edison Project administrator, told Project teachers. "What do you tell students who are affected by this story, who are made more vulnerable, more fearful, insecure, worried, or depressed...?

"The first thing has to be to assure them of their safety, that such eruptions of senseless violence are in fact more rare than our attention and shock lead us to believe when confronted with days of disturbing headlines -- some of them irresponsibly sensational, as the New York Daily News's headline, ... "Born to Kill," was. While no one is perfectly safe from bad things happening, none of us are more vulnerable to them because of what happened...."

ADDITIONAL STATS ON SCHOOL VIOLENCE

Alarmed by recent school carnage, President Bill Clinton has asked Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate whether the recent killings at schools signify a growing trend.

Statistics on school safety for 1996-97, released by the Education Department's National Center for Educational Statistics, reveal that:

• 43 percent of U.S. elementary and secondary school principals reported no crime in their schools;
• 47 percent reported incidents such as theft/larceny, vandalism, physical attacks, and/or fights without a weapon; and
• 10 percent reported one or more serious violent crimes, such as physical attacks, fights with a weapon, rape or sexual battery, suicide, or robbery.

The survey counted only crimes at school or school-sponsored events that were reported to the police. The percentage of crimes was higher at large schools and urban schools, the survey showed. Based on responses from more than 1,200 elementary, middle, and high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the survey numbers are estimates for all 79,000 public schools in the United States, extrapolated from the survey sample.

Although President Bill Clinton said the NCES survey demonstrates that most schools are safe, he continued, "It also shows, however, that too many of our students face a far more frightening reality every time they walk through the school door."

"We cannot let violence, guns, and drugs stand between our children and the education they need," Clinton added.

USA Today reported that Clinton -- in remarks to education leaders, law enforcement officials, and Congressional members -- also said $17.5 million in new financing would be set aside for school safety projects. The funds will pay for anticrime programs involving law enforcement agencies, schools, and community groups.

Related Sites

ADDITIONAL LINKS TO INFORMATION ABOUT SCHOOL VIOLENCE

• NSSC: "Making a Difference" The site for the National School Safety Center, which in addition to collecting statistics on school violence, offers information on keeping schools safe.
• Two recent government reports on violence, crime and discipline in U.S. schools: How do they compare? A comparison of two government reports, the one mentioned in our article, "Violence and Discipline Problems in U.S. Public Schools: 1996-97" and "Students' Reports of School Crime: 1989 and 1995." The first was released in March; the latter was released in April.
• Students' Reports of School Crime: 1989 and 1995 Hot off the press (released 4/12/98), this report comes from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Among other facts the report reveals that the percent of students reporting street gang presence at school nearly doubled between 1989 and 1995, from 15.3 percent to 28.4 percent. The percentage of students reporting that they'd been victims of a violent crime increased from 3.4 percent to 4.2 percent. The percentage of students who reported seeing another student with a gun at school and who reported knowing another student who brought a gun to school was 5.3 percent and 12.7 percent (1995 only). Read the full report for more statistics.
• Guns + Kids = Tragedy An online conversation explores what's behind the tragedy of kids and violence.
• An Urban High School With No Violence An Education Week editorial looks at an Oakland, Calif., high school that has fostered a safe environment. (Type the above headline into the search engine to locate the article.)
• Rise in Classroom Violence Alarms Educators An Associated Press story from the Charlotte (N.C.) News & Observer presents teachers' fears of violence in schools.

Article by Sharon Cromwell
Education World®
Copyright © 2006 Education World

05/04/1998