According to The Oregonian (6/16, Dungca), despite the increased attention to school shootings in recent years, “deadly violence in schools is rare, data show.” The article cites a number of statistics which show that the number of students being disciplined for gun possession, the number of child homicides at schools, and the number of serious physical assaults in schools are all very low across Oregon. The article also cites comments by David Esquith, director of the Office of Safe and Healthy Students at the US Education Department, who said that a rise in large-scale attacks in high schools and colleges has reinforced the image that such violence is common. “Those events are so traumatic and horrendous that it skews our perception of what’s going on in schools,” he said. Esquith also commented on the need to reach out to emotionally or mentally troubled students. “So many of these incidents are actually suicides where they are taking other victims with them... If you just kick these kids out of school, their problem isn’t going away,” Esquith said, adding that schools should encourage students to alert others of possible trouble and train teachers to recognize the same.
Despite Shootings, Schools Increasingly Safe
USA Today (11/18, Toppo) reports that in the 11 months since the Sandy Hook shootings, “another school attack or safety scare seems to unfold almost weekly.” It would be “easy to conclude that school has never been a more dangerous place, but for the USA’s 55 million K-12 students and 3.7 million teachers, statistics tell another story: Despite two decades of high-profile shootings, school increasingly has become a safer place.”
Teacher Killings Raise School Safety Questions
The Christian Science Monitor (10/23, Khadaroo) reports that in the aftermath of the killings this week of teachers in Sparks, Nevada and Danvers, Massachusetts, communities are “renewing the national soul-searching about school safety and how to identify and help distressed young people before they turn to violence.”
CNN (10/23, Martinez) reports online that according to the School Improvement Network, the slayings demonstrate “how educators feel schools are less of a traditional safe haven, especially from gun violence.” The piece points to a survey conducted by the group after the Newtown shootings indicating that “almost a third of teachers felt that their school wasn’t safe from gun violence.”