Resources

School Safety Resources

Violence in schools is well documented and paints a disturbing picture, with data and patterns pointing to more acts of violence of an increasingly aggressive nature. SAM has collected many of the statistics concerning school violence to provide better context when making the determination of whether or not SAM is a training program that is right for your school.

Statistics

Violence in Schools

Incidents

April 16, 2007: A student killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech University.
Sept. 29, 2006: 15-year-old Eric Hainstock brought two guns to a school in rural Cazenovia, Wis., and fatally shot the principal a day after the principal gave him a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, police said.
August 24, 2006: Christopher Williams, 27, went to an elementary school in Essex, Vermont, looking for his ex-girlfriend, a teacher. He couldn’t find her and fatally shot one teacher and wounded another, police said. Williams also killed his ex-girlfriend’s mother, according to authorities. After the rampage he was arrested.

National statistics

Each year, 3 million young people in the U.S. fall victim to crimes at school and almost 2 million of these incidents involve some form of violence. (CRF-USA)
In the 2005-2006 school year, among students ages 12-18 there were about 1.5 million victims of nonfatal crimes, including thefts and violent crimes (rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault). (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)
Preliminary data show that among youth ages 5-18, there were 17 school-associated violent deaths. (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)
During 2005-2006, 86 percent of public schools reported one or more serious violent incidents, theft or other crime occurred at their school, amounting to an estimated 2.2 million crimes. This figure translates into a rate of 46 crimes per 1,000 students enrolled in 2005-2006. (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)
In 2003-2004, 10 percent of teachers in city schools were threatened with injury by students, 6 percent of teachers in suburban schools, 5 percent of teachers in town schools and 5 percent of teachers in rural schools. (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)
Recent data shows that 39 out of every 1,000 teachers experience some sort of crime, and the true rate may be much higher since most incidents go unreported. (Department of Health and Human Services. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Violence Against Teachers and School Staff)
The overall rate of violent incidents for all public schools was 31 per 1,000 students. The rate of violent incidents was significantly higher in middle schools (52 incidents per 1,000 students) than in primary schools (25 incidents per 1,000 students) or high schools (26 incidents per 1,000 students). (Department of Education. Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools)
In 2005, 24 percent of students reported gangs in their schools. (Department of Education. Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools)
In 2003-2004, 35 percent of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that student misbehavior interfered with their teaching. (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)

Bullying

In 2005-2006, 24 percent of public schools reported that student bullying was a daily or weekly problem. (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)
Regarding other discipline problems occurring at least once a week, 18 percent of public school principals reported student acts of disrespect for teachers; 9 percent reported student verbal abuse of teachers. (Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007)
While 52 percent of all schools reported at least one student threat of physical attack without a weapon, 9 percent of schools reported such a threat with a weapon. (Department of Education. Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools)

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