Threats of Violence in the Schools Introduction

Mike Kennedy (1) has stated that "the most critical role for schools and universities is to provide a setting conducive to learning." Unfortunately, the American school system has become the center of a wave of violence that ranges from the slaughter at Colorado's Columbine High School to gang fights in inner city schools to bullying. Kennedy (1) reported that in 1992, violent crime victimization rates for students aged 12 to 18 years old were 48 incidents per 1,000 students, a figure that declined to 28 incidents per 1,000 students in 2001. Though this represents a promising trend, school violence remains a priority item on the agendas of many educators and policymakers in the United States.

Overall, there does appear to be a dec

. . .
everal demographic factors are also linked to the likelihood that an individual student will bring a weapon to school. For example, males are more likely than females to carry weapons, older adolescents are more likely than younger adolescents to brig weapons to school, poor students seem more likely to bring weapons to school, and African-American and Hispanic students are more likely to carry weapons to school than white students. There is, therefore, a very real linkage between a number of internal and external variables and violence of the potential for violence on public school campuses. Eitle and Eitle (589) suggest that persistent racial tensions in the American polity must be recognized as directly linked to school violence. Efforts to desegregate schools since the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education have only been partially successful. Many urban schools are breeding grounds for inter-racial tensions that exacerbate rather than reduce hostility between groups. Eitle and Eitle (592) pointed out that the conventional wisdom holds that school violence "is a reflection of violence in the broader social context, that is, violence imported into a school by the students and by intruders from the n
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Eitle Eitle, Columbine School, Malecki Demaray, St Gerard, Conclusions Statistical, , Bucher Manning, Kentucky Austin, Consequently Austin, Ruch-Ross Henry, school violence, school community, weapons school, kennedy 1, st gerard, 1000 students, eitle eitle, st gerard 23, gerard 23, violence schools, violent crime, 2001 percentage students, causes school violence, schools overcrowded poorly, experienced serious violent,
Approximate Word count = 2231
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Threats of Violence in the Schools Introduction