Talk:School violence

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[edit] Article focus

I know this woamiation the content I posted is PD, it's an executive summary, and may serve as a point of departure for the next draft. Here is the DOJ page for the full report: Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2004 --68.227.221.254 07:21, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Maybe this should be over at Wikisource or something? If it's just excerpts from a report, I don't really know if it meets Wikipedia's article requirements. But maybe I'm wrong. -- Dpark 17:06, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think that the article should focus more on school violence itself rather than the statistics. I also think the article is too U.S. specific (because of the statistics).--84.26.109.69 15:59, 20 January 2006.
I agree completely. Also see the policy on Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Added {{wikify}} in the mean time; I think this is a good candidate for Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive. GChriss 06:45, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nonfatal Student Victimization—Student Reports. Where?

Does anybody know any sources to this, or if it refers to American or international reports? No one really wants any of this to happen and someone had to stand up for it. Parents need to talk to their kids and ask them what is going on in their life and ask them why they are doing that to kinds that have not done anything to them. The cause of most tof this school violence is coming from home and stuff that is happening there.

Those statements are vague, and are in the current revision of the article. We could disagree and say that people do want it to happen, else it would not happen in the first place. Obviously, these incidents of violence are occuring, and saying that nobody wants it to happen is not going to make it go away. "The cause of most of this school violence is coming from home and stuff that is happening there", no. Let's try something along the lines of reporting about studies of children that talk with their parents versus those who do not, or some other studies that identifies factors more specifically than "stuff". Remember, this is an encyclopedia and not a blog.Eferybody don't have to be around that person or like them they will do anything in the dark. --kanzure 19:11, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blatant Copyright violation

This whole article appears to have been copied directly from the DOJ link posted in the first comment on this page, quoting statistics is one thing but it appears to have been copied verbatim. This is definitely a topic worthy of an article, but if nothing is done to improve it it'll have to be deleted. --D Elkington 11:34, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Threat assessment for safer schools

I work in the public school system in Florida as a school psychologist. I have published and present nationally on threat assessment and the mitigation of school violence. I maintain a site on the web at www.psych-insight.com as professional resource addressing the application of threat assessment for mental health professionals working in middle and high schools. I hope that you find it a useful resource. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.118.67.138 (talk) 22:06, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Beginnings of a rewrite

This article was previously copied verbatim from here, and while that appears to be a public domain US government source, and thus not a copyvio, it's still not what an article ought to consist of. I've dramatically slashed that section, and expansion should be based on a range of sources, particularly ones dealing with more than one year at a time.

I've also merged some content from another article that relates to a Polish incident, this is under the "Poland" section.

Some ideas for expansion:

  • cover more countries
  • add a section on causes of school violence

--bainer (talk) 08:21, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't recommend to add a section on causes of school violence. Germans did that and it looks very miserable, something like that: kids in school tend to violence because they watch too many violent movies on TV and play too many violent computer games, done by some psychologist amateur. At least, that Polish case previously titled Anna Halman, you helped to delete, doesn't fit in any category proposed in German version of this article. Just like Nicole Brown Simpson wouldn't fit in general category of domestic violence. Now, after you dumped this high potential Anna Halman case into the same bag with all those small time offenders, you look for a fool to label it as an every day occurance under some flag or another? Not a very smart move, I gather. You've only made a huge favor to Polish corrupted politicians, who make everything possible to cover up this story and to keep it under hat. greg park avenue 21:03, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
There's the important decision of Jimbo Wales on Talk:2006 Gdansk school suicide incident#moving and merging. —Zacheus Talk • Contributions • Edit counter 06:49, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category

Change [[Category:Education]] to [[Category:Education issues]] see {{catdiffuse}} on Category:Education page Dbiel (Talk) 11:08, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Done. For reference, you can link to category pages without adding the page you are editing to the category by putting a colon at the start of the link before the word "Category", for example, [[:Category:Education]] produces Category:Education. --bainer (talk) 11:38, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for making the change. In this case I used nowiki on the entire block as it was easier and I was not sure if the colon would work on the template entry, but I forgot to think that leaving a link to the category would be helpful. Thanks again. Dbiel (Talk) 06:19, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Safety- In School vs. Out of School

I'm looking for information on relative safety. It seems to me that kids are most often victims of crime or violence outside of school rather than in school. I'm not having much luck reading the national data, though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.213.57.50 (talk) 15:20, August 22, 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Violence Against Teachers

Attention to violence and maltreatment of teachers is much needed.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/crime03/9.asp

9. Nonfatal teacher victimization at school

This indicator has been updated to include 2001 data.

From 1997 to 2001, teachers were the victims of approximately 1.3 million nonfatal crimes at school, including 817,000 thefts and 473,000 violent crimes.

Students are not the only victims of crime at school. Teachers are also targets of violence and theft in schools. In addition to the personal toll that violence may take on teachers, those who worry about their safety may have difficulty teaching and may leave the profession altogether (Elliott, Hamburg, and Williams 1998). Information on the number of crimes against teachers at school can help show the extent of the problem. Estimates of teacher victimization are drawn from the National Crime Victimization Survey, which obtains information about the occupation of survey respondents. These events are not limited to offenses committed by students; offenses committed by others against teachers at school are also included.

Over the 5-year period from 1997 to 2001, teachers were the victims of approximately 1.3 million nonfatal crimes at school, including 817,000 thefts and 473,000 violent crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault)(table 9.1). Among the violent crimes against teachers during this 5-year period, there were about 48,000 serious violent crimes (accounting for 10 percent of the violent crimes), including rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. On average, these figures translate into a rate of 21 violent crimes per 1,000 teachers, and 2 serious violent crimes per 1,000 teachers annually.4

During the 5-year period, the annual rate of violent victimization for teachers varied according to their sex and their instructional level (figure 9.1 and table 9.1). Over the 5- year period from 1997 to 2001, male teachers were more likely than female teachers to be victims of violent crimes (39 vs. 16 crimes per 1,000 teachers). Also, senior high school and middle/junior high school teachers were more likely than elementary school teachers to be victims of violent crimes (31 and 33 vs. 12 violent crimes per 1,000 teachers, respectively).

Teachers in urban areas were more vulnerable to violent crime victimization at school than others. For example, annually over the 5-year period, urban teachers were more likely than rural and suburban teachers to be victims of violent crimes (28 vs.13 and 16 crimes, respectively, per 1,000 teachers). Teachers in urban areas were more likely than those in rural areas to experience theft at school (42 and 26 crimes per 1,000 teachers, respectively).


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59900

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS LA teacher battles opponent tougher than gangs District still hasn't approved benefits, months after being attacked in class

Posted: January 26, 2008 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily.com Los Angeles school Supt. David L. Brewer III

Migdia Chinea, a Cuban-American screenwriter and actress who has writing credits for the TV series "The Incredible Hulk" and "Superboy," recently documented how she was attacked and injured by students while she served as a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Now she's reporting that the students who attacked her, body-slammed her to the floor in front of witnesses who documented the attack, and left her with a concussion and possibly long-term injuries were the easy ones to deal with; the system that is supposed to provide care for injuries on the job is a harder opponent to beat.

"Despite my being injured by students while working, with a teacher as a witness and a police report, Sedgwick, the LAUSD's insurance has not yet 'accepted' my disability claim, and perhaps won't pay in the end, until a deposition is taken three months from now. Meantime, as a woman alone, I wonder how am I going meet my financial responsibilities without incurring further debt?" Chinea told WND.

"How am I going to pay my mortgage and eat?" she asked.

In an earlier commentary for WND, she described how, as a UCLA-educated graduate with a "Googleable" career as a professional screenwriter, economic conditions forced her to seek employment as a substitute teacher in order to obtain health insurance benefits.

She described the violence in the L.A. schools, how there was no teaching at the school to which she was assigned, only "confinement." She told of the classrooms being left in shreds, teaching materials stolen, vandalism to her car, and the verbal and physical assaults.

One such school, she said, "is surrounded by criminal street gangs and is widely considered one of the most dangerous campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The South Side Village Boys, South Side Watts Varrio Grape, Grape Street Crips, East Side Village Bloods, Hacienda Bloods, Circle City Piru and Bounty Hunters street gangs all claim turf in that area, and frequent flare-ups of gang violence are common."

She also told about being hurt on the job, with witnesses and a police report that documented the circumstances.

"On Oct. 5, 2007, at another notorious middle school, I was deliberately body-slammed on the head by two to three large young men in a P.E. class of 53 students, while another teacher (someone I had never met before) was decent enough to give a formal declaration to school and police authorities of what he had witnessed. I sustained a concussion and sciatica nerve damage as a result of this personal attack intended to 'terrorize [me].' I have memory lapses and continued head and leg pain. I'm told by the local police that this sort of physical abuse on teachers occurs with disturbing regularity. The LAUSD case nurse assigned to my case labeled my attack 'boys will be boys.'" she wrote.

In going through the process of seeking to have her medical claim paid and her injuries addressed by a district that lists local police station telephone numbers on its website, she has discovered something even worse than a body-slam. The district for which she worked, and left her injured, is the one deciding on her treatment and ultimate disability, since the school district is exempt from state-mandated worker's compensation requirements and provides its own coverage.

"I've been told by another teacher (still working as such) who has been through this hell, that LAUSD will be willing to 'kill me' to protect and cover-up their corruption – which is, in turn, not reported nor investigated by the press. I have reported this 'murderous intent or potential' to the LAPD and I'm supposed to get a call from their organized crime unit – but not so far," she told WND.

"Meanwhile, the LAUSD continues to call me three times every morning and as I hear the names of the schools to which they wish to send me to 'substitute,' they're the worst schools in the district. Therefore, I believe they want to finish me off," she said.

Officials with the school district declined to answer messages left by WND requesting a comment on Chinea's allegations. The district now is being run by David L. Brewer III, who was appointed a little over a year ago to replace former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, who ran the district for several years.

She also reported that neither school officials nor the school district's physician will have a conversation with her, even though she's continue to try to obtain information about her situation, including an unanswered e-mail just days ago.

The district had her "released" to return to work, but the doctor who made the decision didn't notify her, then "refused my phone calls," she said.

"I have requested a meeting with the LAUSD Board of Education, to no avail. I have asked them to, please, explain to me what constitutes an 'act of violence' because only a small percentage of teachers who are seriously assaulted qualify under their own definition. But there's no response," she said.

"On Jan. 5, 2008, the same day that the city held a conference hailing a citywide drop in crime, an L.A. Times columnist wrote that 60 LAUSD schools were vandalized while grim-faced teachers swept up the mess," she continued.

"To be in this situation, after having achieved certain things and pulled myself up by my bootstraps and have my own home, is horrible," she told WND. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Migdiachinea (talk • contribs) 00:01, 28 January 2008 --Mig 04:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)