Techniques for Reducing School Violence

Are there successful strategies and techniques to reduce school violence? Every year three million young people in the United States fall victim to crime at school. Almost two million of these incidents involve some degree of violence (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1999). Although most school violence takes the form of minor assaults, some episodes are far more serious. Some end in bodily injury and even death. For example, in two recent academic years, a total of eighty five young people died violently in U.S schools (Dewey, 2000). A great deal of media attention has been directed to school shootings in recent years. This topic is important because our educational institutions play a very important role in shaping the minds of our children and is the training ground for tomorrow leaders.

Therefore, it is important that its environment should be conducive to learning and not be disrupted by violent acts. In the 1998-1999 less than two percent of murders of children and youth in the United Stated were school related (Dewey, 2000). A total of thirty eight related school-related homicides occurred that year, and thirty three of those deaths were homicides of school-aged children and youth. School associates student homicide rates have increased since the 1994-1995 school year, however, due to the rise in multiple-victim homicide. School related homicides are most like

d on race, religion, ethnicity, physical appearance, social class, sexual orientation, disability, gender, etc. Information on how to make explosive devices and unsupervised access to firearms. Excessive exposure to violence in television programming, movies, and video games. Drug or alcohol abuse. Lack of conflict resolution skills. Lack of quality role models and the availability of inappropriate role models. Perceived lack of opportunity to be successful through legitimate means. Failure to detect and treat children exhibiting warning signs of being troubled. Lack of adult supervision of, and positive interaction with, children after-school. Negative student self-image. IACP further argued that schools have a unique opportunity to intervene in this problem, identifying children at-risk for being violent or becoming victims of violence. IACP (2005, p. 4) stated: To be effective, violence prevention programs require community-wide collaborative efforts that include students, families, teachers, administrators, staff, social and mental health professionals, law enforcement, emergency response personnel, security professionals, school board members, parents, the business community, etc. School administrators sh