School Violence

The public's concern about violence in schools has been manifested in media stories, congressional testimony, and numerous studies and reports that vividly underscore the pervasiveness of the problem. Nowhere, however, is the magnitude of the nation's concern about school violence reflected more urgently than in Goal 6 of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act adopted by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in March 1994. Goal 6 states that "by the year 2000, every school in America will be free of drugs and violence and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning." The supporting narrative for this goal states that "no child or youth should be fearful on the way to school, be afraid while there, or have to cope with pressures to make unhealthy choices."

The best way to illustrate teachers' perceptions of school violence is through a vignette: The tardy bell has just rung, signaling that students should be in their homeroom or first-period class. It is also the signal for Mrs. Johnson and the other teachers standing near their classroom doors to prepare for another day with the approximately one thousand students who attend North Lakes Middle School . The school is located in a bedroom community called North Lakes , which is just outside a large urban center in one of the nation's midwestern states.

The North Lakes community does not believe it has a serious school violence problem like those described by teachers in other school districts throughout the state. For the most part, discipline problems have been minor infractions such as being tardy, failing to complete assignments, talking in class, or smoking in undesignated areas. Although a few instances of verbal abuse toward faculty and students have been reported, major incidents of physical violence at North Lakes Middle School are few.

The situation described in this vignette is being faced by an increasing number of schools today. The issue of school violence, however, is not a new phenomenon. "Discipline in the Public Schools: A Problem of Perception?," an article that appeared in the January 1979 edition of Phi Delta Kappan traces the problem back to the 1950s, when the problem was not discipline but juvenile delinquency. John W. Williams , author of the article, wrote that in the 1950s "there seemed to be a marked increase in both the serious and less serious antisocial behavior on the part of our youth."

School violence is not unique either to the public schools or to the nation's urban centers. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, public, private, and nonsectarian schools have all experienced an increase in school violence. Nine percent of public, 7 percent of private, and 6 percent of nonsectarian school students reported being victims of violent acts or property crimes in 1989. 6 Furthermore, media reports indicate that the issue of violence in school is a national problem that has seeped into the very heartland of America . No geographic region is excluded anymore. The findings of a National School Boards Association survey, "Violence in the Schools," of 1,216 administrators indicated that 54 percent of suburban and 64 percent of urban school officials reported more violent acts in their school in 1993 than five years earlier. Newspaper articles report that communities large and small, urban, suburban, and rural-from Chicago , Illinois , to Little Rock , Arkansas , to Walton , New York , to Lorain , Ohio , to Lindhurst , California , to Butte , Montana , to Washington , D.C.-are struggling with the issue of school violence.

Factors contributing to school violence are numerous, complex, and, for the most part, community related. For example, teachers perceive that the major factors contributing to student violence are lack of parental supervision at home (71 percent), lack of family involvement with the school (66 percent), and exposure to violence in the mass media (55 percent).