The Rise in School Violence

 As we begin the school year, teachers, leaders, and schools have a certain amount of emergency drills that need to be conducted each year.  As a teacher, one of the first things that I do when I enter a new classroom is look at safe places to hide my students in case of an emergency situation, such as a school shooting.  I look for specific furniture that I would put in front of the doors and windows to protect the students.  I look for the best place to put my keys for easy access to them to quickly lock the doors.  I am not a law enforcement professional, but it has become part of my job to make sure I protect my students to the best of my ability.


The number of school shootings has continued to rise over the years.  An article written by Donna St. George (2022) from the Washington Post stated, “A Washington Post analysis showed more than 311,000 children at 331 schools experienced gun violence since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.”  (Para. 7)  That is a very large number of students that have experienced trauma in a building and setting where they are being sent to feel safe and learn.  The Columbine massacre occurred over 20 years ago, and that violence has only increased.  Does this not alarm school leaders and government officials to act and create change in schools, so that this violence doesn’t continue?  No child should have to go to school and fear that they will not come home.  We hear about the shootings on the news and then a few days later, it is quickly forgotten, until another shooting occurs.  The media interviews leaders and officials and discuss ways to prevent these events from occurring and then there is no action.  School systems need a larger budget for more mental health care providers who are able to speak with students.  In secondary schools, a counselor is assigned to several hundred students.  They need to increase the number of counselors to allow for them to have more of a positive impact on their students, as they will have more time to spend with them.  Classroom sizes are another part of the problem as well.  If a class period is 50 minutes and there are 30 students in that class, the teacher can spend less than 2 minutes with each child in that class.  A 2 minute conversation is not long enough when a student is in crisis and needs help.   


Last year coming back to in person school from the pandemic, it was alarming to experience so many physical altercations in school.  Many of these altercations stemmed from social media posts or students not having the coping skills or communication skills to express their feelings.  Our schools have implemented Social Emotional Lessons during advisory classes, which is a great place to begin the education process, but there also needs to be time to actively engage with these lessons.  For example, restorative justice has been mentioned in schools, but each school seems to incorporate it differently.  Restorative justice allows students the opportunity to express their feelings in a safe way to another student or staff member, and another person is present to ensure that the conversation is productive, and all sides are allowed to share.  These conversations could lead to less altercations and other acts of violence, if they are done frequently and effectively.  Are these conversations occurring on a regular basis?  Who is leading them?  Is that person effective in creating an environment where all parties feel safe to share their truth?  What further actions are occurring after the conversation to ensure that the problem has truly been resolved?  How do we end violence in schools?


References


St. George, D. (2002, June 28). School Shootings Rose to Highest Number in 20 Years Federal Data Says. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/28/school-shootings-crime-report/

Comments

  1. KylieSheappOctober 15, 2022 at 2:01 PM

    Thank you for sharing. This is also something that I think about daily. I am at a holding school right now with close to 40 portable classrooms. The majority of our school is outside of the physical building, which creates a whole different dynamic to the physical safety at school. I have also seen an increase in negative student behavior. Similar to you, we are implementing social emotional lessons, which do support students, however, I am concerned with there sometimes being a lack of structured discipline from many different stakeholders.

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