The U.S. Dept. of Education just released a survey on violence in the nation’s public schools.
Canvassed in 2000 were principals of 2,270 elementary, middle and high schools. Among the findings:
– 71% of schools–including 92% of high schools–had at least one violent incident that school year, including rape; sexual battery other than rape; physical attacks, threats of attacks and fights– all with a weapon and without; and robbery with a weapon and without. All told, 1,466,000 such incidents were reported.
– 20% of schools reported at least one ‘serious’ violent incident– defined as all of the above except that physical attacks, threats of attack and fights involved weapons.
– Schools with more than 15% of students below the 15th percentile on standardized tests were more likely to experience violence than schools with 0 to 5% of students below that percentile.
– 7% of schools accounted for 50% of total violent incidents. traits of these schools: larger enrollment; higher neighborhood crime; more classroom changes per day; larger number of discipline problems.
