II. The Context for Considering School Violence

Prevalence of Youth Violence in Schools

How much of the problem of youth violence is in our schools? What types of incidents are considered school violence? How often do schools experience incidents of violence? How does violence affect the learning environment?

We remain stunned by the horrific shootings that occurred in the last eighteen months in schools in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and elsewhere. "In eight separate incidents since February 1996, 19 students and teachers across the United States have been killed by students with guns."20 These shootings have made Americans worry about the vulnerability of their own schools and communities. Recent school shootings in rural communities have forced us, sadly, to confront the loss of security and innocence here in Vermont. If such tragedies can occur in such far-flung places as Jonesboro, Arkansas, West Paducah, Kentucky, and Springfield, Oregon, we can no longer insist they can't happen here.

As tragic as these incidents are, their occurrence is somewhat rare. What is not unusual is the atmosphere of potential violence that exists in the communities and schools. The devastation caused by child shooters reflects unchecked violent tendencies that may have been preventable.

A proper understanding of school violence requires examination of the whole spectrum of violent incidents that do or could occur in the classroom or the schoolyard. Threats as well as actual violent behavior disrupt the school environment. "School violence includes all behaviors that create an environment in which students, teachers, and administrators feel fear or intimidation in addition to being victimized by physical assault, theft, or vandalism."21

How common is school violence on the national level? Here is some of what we know:

• 57% of public elementary and secondary school principals reported one or more incidents of crime/violence in their school to the police or other law enforcement officials during the 1996-1997 school year.

• 10% of all public schools experienced one or more serious violent crimes (murder, rape or other type of sexual battery, suicide, physical attack or fight with a weapon, or robbery) that were reported to police or other law enforcement officials during the 1996-1997 school year.

• Physical attacks or fights without a weapon led the list of reported crimes in public schools in 1996-1997 with about 190,000 reported incidents.

• While 43% of public schools reported no incidents of crime in 1996-1997, 37% reported from one to five crimes and about 20% reported six crimes or more.22

• About three million thefts and violent crimes happen on or near school campuses each year (one incident every six seconds); 1.9 million of those events are violent in nature.

• Each school day about 150,000 students stay home because they fear being shot, stabbed, or beaten.

• 100,000 teenagers take weapons (guns, knives, and clubs) to school every day.

• About 3,700 students are assaulted every day.

• 14% of all assaults and 8% of all rapes reported in the United States occur on school property.23

What we know about school violence in Vermont is much more limited. Very little data is collected at the state level. The Vermont Department of Education collects school surveys, but these reports have not been verified. (See Appendix A)

Based on self-reporting in 1997, the Vermont Department of Health reports:

• 19% of all male students and 5% of all female students in grades 8-12 carried a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club onto school property during the preceding 30 days.

• 4% of students in grades 8-12 did not go to school because they felt unsafe during the preceding 30 days.

• 8% of students in grades 8-12 were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the preceding 12 months.24

A sampling of last year's notable incidents of school violence or threatened school violence also give some idea of what we are experiencing in Vermont:

• A Poultney High School teacher received an anonymous threat in the form of a handwritten note on a newspaper clipping about a 14-year-old boy who shot a teacher at a school dance in Pennsylvania. It read, "One of your ninth grade teachers will be next."

• Three students were removed this spring from Green Mountain Union High School in Chester: one after he was caught with four knives; one after he threatened to take to the roof with a gun; and one after he spoke of bringing a .9mm handgun into the school.

• Bomb threats became so commonplace at high schools around the state that the state Department of Education, assisted by the Department of Public Safety and various education organizations, drafted a policy on coping with them.

• There were reported incidents of student hazing in Essex and Brattleboro.

· Many schools reported allegations of sexual harassment.25

While the incidence of school violence in Vermont may very well be far less than in most other states, we do know it exists here, and where it exists it impedes our ability to educate our students. "Studies show that children who are afraid do not perform well in school.26 Children must first feel safe in order to learn and perform to their potential."27 Threats of violence, actual violence, and the presence of guns28 in our schools have a corrosive effect.