In school systems with a zero-tolerance policy, principals must recommend that students who carry weapons on campus be expelled. Some critics say zero-tolerance policies do not allow enough room for exceptions. Describes the Gun-Free Schools Act. (MLF)

Learning how to recognize and anticipate the legal risks associated with student affairs practice is a crucial skill all successful administrators must develop. This can be done by developing a sense for scanning the broad legal environment and being aware of legal issues in other parts of the education enterprise. (Contains 1 figure.)

School violence has been linked to youth not recognizing the finality of death, extreme violence portrayed in the media, availability of guns, student reluctance to "tell," and lack of curriculum that teaches children anger management and problem-solving skills. Recommendations include making prevention programs a priority and…

A pooled cross-section time series model is used to evaluate the effect of the 1977 Canadian firearms legislation on the provincial homicide rate between 1969 and 1989. Results agree with most studies that indicate no significant effect of this legislation on homicide rates. (SLD)

Studies firearms behaviors among 835 criminally active male, mostly urban, youth and 1,653 male and female innercity high school students in 4 states. It is evident that the large urban environment encourages youth to be armed and that enforcement activities alone will not be enough to alleviate the problem. (SLD)

Suburban Chicago middle school teachers designed a month-long unit to foster global education, guided by research on integrated, self-selected, and collaborative learning strategies. Teachers initiated brainstorming activities, grouped students by interest, and demonstrated how to be investigative researchers, informative writers, effective…

Presents an overview of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, a key federal program that provides funding directly to states and local educational agencies to facilitate drug and violence prevention programs. The Gun-Free Schools Act is also examined, and the major challenges communities face in correcting school safety problems are…

Provides an overview and background information on the debate over gun control, as well as several teaching ideas. Handouts include a list of related topics drawn from various disciplines (economics, U.S. history), seven arguments for and against gun control, and a set of policy evaluation guidelines. (MJP)

Questions whether attitudes towards gun control are influenced primarily by exposure to high crime rates, prior victimization, and fear of crime, or result from membership in social groups hostile to gun ownership. Maintains that support for gun control is more a product of culture conflict than a response to crime. (MJP)

Presents an outline for a student-run forum on a proposed federal gun control amendment. Procedures include mandatory reading assignments and researching the issue. Students role-play fictional representative characters and later facilitate discussions. Concludes with a vote on the amendment. (MJP)

Focus group methods for studying opinions and perceptions of school violence are effective for understanding differences among individuals, but cannot report these differences in a concise manner. Traditional quantitative methods for analyzing data from school violence perception surveys allow for the concise reporting of data, but cannot…