Furthermore, African American youths between the ages of fourteen and seventeen are five times more likely to be killed than whites of the same age.
Teachers that are strict and demand high academic standards are most likely to be victimized. Thirty-eight percent of teachers and fifty-seven percent of students rank strict teachers as more of a risk of victimization than any other members of the teaching staff. This is quite scary, because teachers who are aware of this statistic are afraid to demand a good education for their students by being somewhat hard on them. If teachers are afraid of being attacked, they cannot make their students meet new academic standards. The will also be afraid to intervene with conflicts among students, because they also believe that the parents, school officials, or the community will not support their efforts.
There are two kinds of violence that should be distinguished. One is violence by trespassers who enter school building to steal, rob, or assault someone. The other type of violence is committed against teachers, administrators, other staff members, or fellow classmates by students enrolled in the school. So how do are these violent acts going to be stopped from occurring?.
In order for school violence to be stopped, classroom and school wide strategies must be developed. This task is getting harder and harder with the increased amount of weapons available to students, especially guns. More than 50,000 kids were killed with firearms between 1976 and 1991. In response to this, many schools are starting random checks of book bags and lockers. Some schools have also increased the use of metal detectors to try and stop the importing of weapons into school. Nearly fifteen percent of all schools have installed metal detectors, and thirty-nine percent of urban schools have had them installed. Some other school wide strategies that are being developed include staff monitoring and guards and extending school hours to offer extra-curricular activities.
