School violence
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Introduction
Ensuring safer schools requires establishing good indicators of the current state of school crime and safety across the nation and periodically monitoring and updating these indicators. Indicators of School Crime and Safety is designed to provide an annual snapshot of specific crime and safety indicators, covering topics such as victimization, fights, bullying, classroom disorder, teacher injury, weapons, and student perceptions of school safety. In addition to covering a wide range of topics, the indicators are based on information drawn from a wide range of sources, including surveys of students, teachers, and principals, and data collections by federal departments and agencies such as the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The key findings of the report are presented below.
Violent Deaths at School
From July 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000, there were 32 school-associated violent deaths in the United States (Indicator 1). Twenty-four of these violent deaths were homicides and 8 were suicides. Sixteen of the 24 school-associated homicides involved school-aged children. These 16 homicides are a relatively small percentage (1 %) of the total of 2,124 children ages 5–19 who were victims of homicide over the same period. Six of the 8 school-associated suicides from July 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000, involved school-aged children. Away from school, there were a total of 1,922 suicides of children ages 5–19 during the 2000 calendar year.
Nonfatal Student Victimization—Student Reports
The victimization rate for students ages 12–18 generally declined both at school and away from school between 1992 and 2002; this was true for the total crime rate as well as for thefts, serious violent crimes (including rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault), and violent crimes (that is, serious violent crime plus simple assault) (Indicator 2). While this overall trend indicates a decline during this time frame, no difference was detected between 2001 and 2002 in the total crime rate, the rate of theft, or the rate of violent victimization either at or away from school.
- In 2002, students ages 12–18 were more likely to be victims of nonfatal serious violent crime away from school than at school (Indicator 2).1 Students in this age range were victims of about 309,000 serious violent crimes away from school, compared with about 88,000 at school.
- In 2002, younger students (ages 12–14) were more likely than older students (ages 15–18) to be victims of crime at school, while older students were more likely than younger students to be victims away from school (Indicator 2).
- In 2003, 5 % of students ages 12–18 reported being victims of nonfatal crimes, 4 % reported being victims of theft, and 1 % reported being victims of violent incidents (Indicator 3).
- The percentage of students in grades 9–12 who have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property fluctuated between 1993 and 2003, but without a clear trend (Indicator 4). In all survey years from 1993 to 2003, 7–9 % of students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club on school property in the preceding 12 months.
- Between 1993 and 2003, the percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported being in a fight anywhere declined from 42 % to 33 % (Indicator 5). Similarly, the percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported fighting on school property declined over this period, from 16 % to 13 %.
- In 2003, 7 % of students ages 12–18 reported that they had been bullied at school. The percentage of students in this age range who had been bullied increased from 5 % in 1999 to 8 % in 2001, but no differences were detected between 2001 and 2003 (Indicator 6).
- In 2003, public school students were more likely than private school students to report being bullied (7 vs. 5 %) (Indicator 6). In the same year, rural students were more likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to report being bullied (10 % of rural students vs. 7 % each of urban and suburban students).
Violence and Crime at School—Public School Reports
In 1999–2000, 20 % of all public schools experienced one or more serious violent crimes such as rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Seventyone percent of public schools reported violent incidents and 46 % reported thefts (Indicator 7). This report also provides the number of disciplinary actions taken by school principals for reasons not related to academics. About 54 % of public schools reported taking a serious disciplinary action in the 1999–2000 school year. Of those disciplinary actions, 83 % were suspensions lasting 5 days or more, 11 % were removals with no services (i.e., expulsions), and 7 % were transfers to specialized schools (Indicator 8).
- Secondary schools were more likely than other schools to experience a violent incident during the 1999–2000 school year (92 vs. 61–87 % for elementary, middle, and combined schools) (Indicator 7).
- Two percent of public schools took a serious disciplinary action for the use of a firearm or explosive device, and 4 % did so for the possession of a firearm or explosive device (Indicator 8).
Nonfatal Teacher Victimization at School—Teacher Reports
Annually, over the 5-year period from 1998 to 2002, teachers were the victims of approximately 234,000 total nonfatal crimes at school, including 144,000 thefts and 90,000 violent crimes (rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) (Indicator 9).
- Over the 5-year period from 1998 to 2002, senior high school and middle/junior high school teachers were more likely than elementary school teachers to be victims of violent crimes (most of which were simple assaults) (30 and 26 crimes, respectively, vs. 12 crimes per 1,000 teachers) (Indicator 9).
- Teachers were differentially victimized by violent crimes at school according to where they taught (Indicator 9). Over the 5-year period from 1998 to 2002, urban teachers were more likely than rural and suburban teachers to be victims of violent crimes.
- In the 1999–2000 school year, 9 % of all elementary and secondary school teachers were threatened with injury by a student, and 4 % were physically attacked by a student (Indicator 10).
School Environment
The percentage of students who reported being afraid of being attacked at school or on the way to and from school decreased from 12 % in 1995 to 6 % in 2001. No difference was detected between the most recent survey years, 2001 and 2003, in the percentage of students who feared such an attack (Indicator 12). In 1999 and 2001, students were more likely to be afraid of being attacked at school or on the way to and from school than away from school; however, in 2003, no difference was detected in the percentage of students who reported fear of an attack at school and those fearing an attack away from school.
- Between 1993 and 2003, the percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported carrying a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club on school property within the previous 30 days declined—from 12 % to 6 % (Indicator 11).
- In 2003, 4 % of students ages 12–18 reported that they had avoided one or more places in school (Indicator 13). Between 1995 and 1999, the percentage of students ages 12–18 who avoided one or more places in school decreased from 9 to 5 %, but no difference was detected in the percentage of students who did so in 1999, 2001, and 2003 (between 4 and 5 % in each year).
- In 2003, 12 % of students ages 12–18 reported that someone at school had used hate-related words against them (Indicator 14). That is, in the previous 6 months, someone at school had called them a derogatory word related to race, religion, ethnicity, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. During the same period, about 36 % of students ages 12–18 saw hate-related graffiti at school.
- In 2003, 21 % of students ages 12–18 reported that street gangs were present at their schools (Indicator 15). Students in urban schools were the most likely to report the presence of street gangs at their school (31 %), followed by suburban students and rural students, who were the least likely to do so (18 and 12 %, respectively).
- In 1999–2000, public school principals were asked to report how often certain disciplinary problems occurred at their schools. Twenty-nine percent reported that student bullying occurred on a daily or weekly basis and 19 % reported that student acts of disrespect for teachers occurred at the same frequency (Indicator 16). Additionally, 13 % reported student verbal abuse of teachers, 3 % reported occurrences of student racial tensions, and 3 % reported widespread disorder in the classrooms on a daily or weekly basis.
- In 2003, 5 % of students in grades 9–12 had at least one drink of alcohol on school property in the 30 days prior to the survey, and 45 % of students had at least one drink anywhere (Indicator 17).
- In 2003, 22 % of students in grades 9–12 reported using marijuana anywhere during the previous 30 days, and 6 % reported using marijuana on school property (Indicator 18).
- In 2003, 29 % of students in grades 9–12 reported that someone had offered, sold, or given them an illegal drug on school property in the 12 months prior to the survey (Indicator 19).
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