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Reducing School Violence: Building a Framework of School
Safety
Not only does a school's environment affect learning, but more than any other setting
it influences how students. . . conform to society. Schools' internal life influences how
all students behave, often more powerfully than the home or community. It is unlikely that
a student immersed in a school environment of delinquency will form a more responsible
view of society at large.
-J. A. Rapp, F. Carrington, & G. Nicholson,
School Crime and Violence: Victims' Rights, 1992
The Effects of School Violence
Educators witness daily the effects of violence in their schools, and students are
profoundly affected by it. The most obvious effect is the physical harm that can result.
When weapons, especially guns, are brought to school, everyday student conflicts such as
arguments over girlfriends or boyfriends, disputes about possessions, and name-calling can
become fatal interactions. If one student uses a gun to settle an altercation, others will
feel they need guns, too. As Gaustad (1991) notes, a cycle of fear begins,
prompting an arms race where youths seek ever more powerful forms of protection.
A 1993 national survey on violence in public schools found that 23 percent of students and
11 percent of teachers had been victims of violence in and around schools (Metropolitan
Life Survey of the American Teacher, 1993). Another national survey that same year
reported that 12 percent of students responding had carried a weapon on school property in
the month before the survey, and seven percent had been threatened or injured with a
weapon on school property during the previous 12 months (1993 Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance).
Along with guns or violent attacks at schools, there are other types of behavior that may
threaten students and contribute to feelings of fear at school. They include aggressive
behaviors by students toward other students, such as threats, fights, bullying by older
students, and harassment of any type, such as sexual or racial. These types of behaviors
have the potential to be a constant disruptive force. For example, aggressive behaviors
like fighting and harassment made up 32 percent of all reported school incidents in
Florida in the 1993-94 school year, while violent and weapons offenses made up ten percent
of reported incidents.
Vandalism and thefts are also common on campuses; a recent study found that part of what
makes students feel afraid at school is the threat of having possessions stolen. Vandalism
and theft represent about ten percent of reported incidents in Florida, for example, and
approximately one-third of students responding to a national survey had had property
stolen or damaged on school property (1993 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance).
Whether incidents involve theft, harassment, or violent behavior, they may produce fear in
students. The Youth Risk Behavior survey also showed that four percent of students had
missed at least one day of school in the month before the survey because they felt unsafe
at school or traveling to or from school. Students avoid some hallways for fear of sexual
and other harassment or assault, cause themselves discomfort and sometimes pain because
they think bathrooms are unsafe or lack privacy, and do not report threats out of fear of
retaliation.
Wayne and Rubel (1982) point out other effects of student fear:
- Apprehensiveness among students has an obvious impact on the business of
education: it reduces concentration on assigned tasks, creates an atmosphere of mistrust,
and undermines school morale. More subtly, the school administrator's inability to reduce
fear directly tells students that staff are not in control of the school's social
climate-that student disorder is more powerful than the adult call for order. (230-231)
- Students who feel afraid in school are often those who end up committing
acts of aggression or violence. Conversely, aggressive students who are placed in a secure
and contained environment are likely to demonstrate more internal control over their own
actions. Left in an unsafe environment, they develop a mistrust of adults, experience
increased feelings of fear, and demonstrate inappropriate behaviors that become
progressively harder to modify (Ditter, 1988).
- The threat or existence of violence or crime in the school and community
can prevent students from taking advantage of after-school educational, recreational, and
employment opportunities that can be of immense value for their personal and professional
development. Many youths and their parents are persuaded that it is not safe for young
people to attend night school, participate in after-school activities, or work at a job
that requires late hours (Wetzel, 1988, p. 5).
In addition to the risk of physical harm resulting from school violence,
teachers, too, can suffer emotional effects. Studies reveal that some teachers who have
witnessed violent incidents, fear violence, or cope daily with disruptive students,
exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. They can suffer from fatigue,
headaches, stomach pains, and hypertension (Gaustad, 1991). Because teachers are given
limited training on how to deal with aggressive or violent students in their classrooms,
trying to maintain order and teach class at the same time often leads to stress and
feelings of ineffectiveness, thus fueling teacher burnout and high attrition rates
(McKelvey, 1988). Some teachers even fall into the same trap as students and bring weapons
to school to protect themselves.
Establishing a safe and disciplined learning environment is essential to having a
productive school and successful students. This type of environment should be a major
outcome of a comprehensive school improvement plan because if students and teachers do not
feel safe, for whatever reason, learning cannot take place. Strategies that target
violence-such as conflict resolution to reduce fights, aggressive behavior, and other
conflicts-can also enhance other improvement efforts by increasing time spent on learning
or making instructional strategies work better.
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