School Violence: Overview

Introduction

The problem of school violence reflects a variety of social, mental health, political, and educational issues. It is within the framework of these issues that debate takes place on how best to solve the problem of violence in schools. School violence includes highly publicized shootings, homicides, rape, and aggravated assault. For the 2019–20 school year, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported twenty-five violent deaths within US elementary and secondary schools, including twenty-three homicides, one suicide, and one legal intervention death. (These figures were lower than previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting school closures.) Many incidents of theft, bullying, racism, and gender discrimination are also reported each year. For the 2019–20 school year, 77 percent of public schools reported one or more incidences of violent crime or theft, for a total of 1.4 million crimes nationwide.

The most heated debate is over gun control. During the 2019–20 school year, seventy-five school shootings with injuries or deaths took place, mostly in high schools, according to the NCES. The federal government has enacted several laws intended to reduce gun violence among youth and on school grounds, including the Gun-Free School Zone Act, but gun control advocates have pushed for more legislation, especially following high-profile school shootings. After the massacre that took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, renewed calls for gun control gained attention, and gun legislation finally began to make progress in the Senate after years of deadlock. Critics of gun restrictions include the National Rifle Association (NRA) and educators who do not believe that tightening gun laws will do much good, especially in light of statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which indicate that knives are used three times as often as guns in school incidents.

Privacy issues are also debated. Perpetrators of school violence such as the Virginia Tech shooter and others were found to have written about violence or violent fantasies, or at some point received psychiatric counseling. Issues involving free speech are also raised when students make comments perceived as threatening. Psychologists debate the effects of violence in song lyrics, video games, and other media on violent behavior, while school counselors consider how best to work with a diverse student population that has economic, intellectual, and racial disparities.

Educators differ on the effectiveness of programs and policies currently being implemented, including D.A.R.E., zero tolerance, mandatory school uniforms, metal detectors, and armed guards. Critics of these programs tend to support increased funding for school mental health staff, anti-bullying curriculum, stronger school-parent programs, and other Safe School Initiatives instead of what they perceive as inflexible, one-size-fits-all solutions.

Understanding the Discussion

D.A.R.E.: Drug Abuse Resistance Education, an alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug abuse prevention program conducted in the majority of US schools in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies. Also used in many other countries.

Gun-Free School Zone Act: Legislation enacted in 1994 that mandates a minimum one-year expulsion from school for possessing a firearm or other weapon on school property. The law is a revision of a 1990 act that was found to be unconstitutional in United States v. Lopez on the grounds that Congress does not have the authority to regulate guns on school property unless the gun is proved to have affected interstate or foreign commerce, a requirement known as the Commerce Clause.

Safe Schools: A term used to describe schools that have implemented curriculum that work to prevent violence, including conflict mediation, team building, and problem-solving skills. The US Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice provide funding for the Safe Schools Initiative.

Zero-tolerance policy: A term that came into use when schools that received federal funding were required to adopt tough policies for all infractions involving weapons, illegal drugs, and violent crimes. Zero-tolerance policies treat all infractions equally, and are often criticized for being inflexible.

History

The first public schools dealt with many of the same types of school violence encountered today: fistfights, bullying, the theft of books, lunches, or money, and other unruly behavior. Throughout the twentieth century, however, school crimes became more serious as gangs, substance abuse, possession of dangerous weapons, and drug dealing increased.

As handguns became widely available, they fell into the hands of many juveniles. Schools in the most troubled communities began to hire guards and install metal detectors. Some schools also began to require mandatory school uniforms after certain colors and styles became associated with gangs and the theft of expensive sneakers and gold chains interrupted education. In 1983, the Los Angeles Police Department collaborated with schools to introduce a new program intended to prevent young children from experimenting with alcohol and drugs and thus decrease violence. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program was heavily promoted and adopted by thousands of schools in the United States and in many other countries. Some experts dispute claims that D.A.R.E. works to decrease substance abuse and violence, believing that funds used for the program could be better spent.

The role of the media in contributing to the growing violence among youth has also been debated. Mental health professionals are divided about whether depictions of violence in media adversely affect youth. In 1990, the federal government took up the gun control issue and enacted the Gun-Free School Zone Act, which mandates a minimum one-year expulsion from school for possessing a firearm or other weapon on school property. The law was found to be unconstitutional, but it was rewritten in 1994 to accommodate the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The Youth Handgun Safety Act, also passed in 1994, prohibits juveniles from possessing a handgun or ammunition, unless the weapon is used for hunting, farming, or other specified purposes.

In 1966, twenty-five-year old ex-Marine and college student Charles Whitman fired a sawed-off shotgun from a tower on the University of Texas, Austin, campus, killing fourteen people and wounding thirty-one. He had also murdered his mother and wife before arriving on campus. After officers killed Whitman, they determined he had previously sought psychiatric help and also had a brain tumor, which may have contributed to his violent behavior.

Since that incident, hundreds of school shootings have occurred, with the more deadly examples gaining significant media exposure. In 1999, seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher and wounded almost two dozen others at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. In addition to shooting firearms, the pair tossed explosives throughout the school, intending to obliterate the entire facility. In response to the Columbine incident, President Bill Clinton set up a task force to study school violence. Congress tightened restrictions on the purchase of firearms at gun shows, where Klebold and Harris were believed to have bought firearms. Some schools installed metal detectors and security cameras, hired guards, and implemented zero-tolerance policies. Zero-tolerance policies have been the subject of debate among educators for their inflexibility. Some children have received harsh punishments for playing innocently with paper guns or for bringing plastic knives in their school lunches. Teenagers have been expelled for accidentally leaving a knife under a seat in the car or for voicing threatening statements that could be considered reasonably normal expressions of anger. In 2006, the American Psychological Association (APA) determined that these “get-tough” policies have done little to make schools safer, and instead, have contributed to an increase in negative behavior and dropout rates in some schools.

In response to several school shootings that were in retaliation for bullying, many schools have been adding anti-bullying curricula that provide sensitivity training, coping strategies, and social skills for all ages. Advocates of such programs hope that changing the social and emotional climate of a school will be more effective in the end than metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies.

School Violence Today

Shootings continued to plague schools into the twenty-first century. In April 2007, the deadliest school shooting in the United States took place at Virginia Tech, when a troubled college student killed thirty-two people and wounded over a dozen others. In December 2012, a twenty-year-old opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing twenty students—all between the ages of six and seven—in addition to six adults and his mother, whom he had shot in her home before arriving at the school. The Sandy Hook shooting set off a storm of public debate over gun control laws, though little progress was made to make laws more stringent.

Another high-profile school shooting occurred on February 14, 2018, when a former student of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, shot and killed seventeen people at the school and wounded fourteen others with an AR-15. Within days of the shooting, Stoneman Douglas survivors and their allies began to lead the Never Again movement and organized a nationwide protest to push for the adoption of tougher gun laws.

Calls for stricter gun laws were renewed in 2022, after an eighteen-year-old gunman attacked an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing nineteen children and two adults. The police response to that attack was starkly criticized for its chaotic nature and law enforcement's hesitancy to enter the classrooms where the gunman was located for over an hour. The following month, the Senate voted to advance a far-reaching gun legislation bill that would enhance background checks and implement other measures to help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the legislation also provided millions of dollars in funding to mental health resources in schools and other school safety measures. The bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden in June 2022.

Despite the increased prevalence of school shootings in the twenty-first century, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that overall school violence in the United States peaked in the early 1990s. Even so, pockets of violence continued and became even more concerning following the school closures that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many schools across the nation reported increased rates of student fighting and sexual assault cases. In Clark County, Nevada, for example, an uptick in violent attacks by students against staff members took place during the 2021–22 school year. Police reported attacks by students wielding scissors, knives, and other weapons, with reports of harassment and threats totaling over 3,200 by April 2022 alone—an increase of 46 percent over the 2018–19 school year in the same county. Many experts linked the rise in violence to stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning in 2022, a disturbing new trend took place across the country in which police departments responded to calls of active shooters on numerous school campuses, believing the threat was real. The hoax, sometimes called "swatting," often targeted multiple schools in the same region at once and served to exacerbate fears already present in American schools over school shootings. Further, the calls greatly disrupted entire communities, as terrified students hid in classrooms, nearby trauma centers prepared for possible victims, and local law enforcement wasted time and resources responding to the calls. The FBI continued to investigate such cases in late 2023.

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