This paper is an examination of a serious community problem that has had a particular impact on public education, that of violence in the schools. A number of recent shootings, especially the Littleton, Colorado, massacre in which two students planned a systematic attack on Columbine High School, ultimately killing 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives, has brought the problem into sharp focus. Such events call into question school security, adolescent rage, and the availability of guns, all parts of a problem that appears to be uniquely American. This paper discusses the problem and proposed solutions to eliminating or at least minimizing the disruptive influences of violence within the public school system. Because the problem is complex and specific causes remain controversial and subjective, this paper does not attempt to suggest simple alternatives but instead looks at many different aspects of violence, why it seems to be on the rise in schools, and what might be done to deal with its root causes. It examines potential solutions that tend to be either nurturing, such as early identification and building an inclusionary atmosphere, or attempts at cracking down, including increased security, stronger gun control, zero tolerance policies, and greater public reporting, and considers how each alternative might help deal schools with this serious social issue.
Violence in America is currently on the decline, and serious in-school violence is also going down. According to the National School Safety Center, 42 deaths occurred during the 1997-98 school year, while only 22 occurred in the 1998-99 year, and 13 of these happened in the single incident in the Littleton, Colorado, shootings (Cloud "What Can the Schools Do?" 38). However, violence in the schools takes many other forms, and the U. S. Department of Education notes that, in the last year for which statistics are available, 1996-97, public schools in t...