Discusses possible causes of violent behaviors in adolescents, especially psychiatric disorders, and two promising approaches to addressing this behavior: Multisystemic Treatment, involving multiple and active interventions, and a psychological paradigm for analyzing school environments. (PKP)

For students steeped in the culture of violence, classrooms may offer one last chance to experience more constructive ways of relating. Schools must help these students find new identities and increase their capacity for moral reasoning. Authoritarian responses overpower students while failing to relieve their fear, distrust, or physical pain.…

If educators cease trying to teach difficult students, there will be no one left to enculturate them. Violence is unleased in the presence of broken social bonds, unmanageable doses of stress and conflict, our violent culture, and brain abnormalities. Teachers cannot reform society, but can achieve major victories on three fronts: primary…

A California English teacher explores the school safety issue for both innercity and suburban high schools students. Wearing certain sports team jackets can place kids in danger; girls degrade themselves by keeping gang members' drugs and guns in their lockers. Schools can help reclaim the "Great Disconnected" by developing…