Adopting school resource officers (SROs) is a popular response to school shootings. Using the advocacy coalition and multiple streams frameworks, we explore how school districts in one county formed a coalition with the Sheriff's Department, adopting SROs in elementary schools following the Sandy Hook shooting. We describe how this coalition was…

The overarching goal of schools is to create a safe, supportive environment where students can thrive and learn. This begins with a dedication to students' social and emotional well-being, and effective policies and programs that create a culture of trust. Such a culture provides an optimal learning environment, and is also a proactive step…

Weapons at school pose a danger to students as well as faculty. Educational administrators have attempted to reduce their prevalence by implementing random weapons searches in schools. This article examines the effectiveness of this approach using data from two geographically adjacent school districts in Florida (Miami-Dade and Broward). In the…

Media reports have detailed the growing prevalence of incidents of racism and racial violence in K-12 schools and districts throughout the United States. The public nature of these incidents often requires a formal response from school and district leadership in the form of a press release, letter, or public statement. This study is an analysis of…

In less than 2 years, nine young people within one Minnesota school district committed suicide. As such, the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth in the Anoka-Hennepin School District continues to be an example of how embedded ideologies of some individuals can substantially impact the treatment of marginalized…

As the focus on bullying has grown, attention to incidents of and concern about sexual harassment has diminished. It is easy to understand that sexual harassment can be a form of bullying, especially when it is used to intimidate, but it is also a form of discrimination prohibited by federal and state laws. Effective implementation and enforcement…

Educators can prevent much of the sexual misconduct in schools if they know how to recognize and respond to suspicious patterns and if administrators enforce an environment of high expectations for behavior. School districts can assess their schools and the district for being at risk of educator sexual misconduct and then can develop and enforce…

This qualitative phenomenological study employed narrative inquiry to describe the decision-making processes that Texas school districts followed in enacting firearms policies that allow school employees to carry concealed weapons on district property. Exploration of the lived experiences of eight Texas superintendents in such schools contributed…

The number of school police officers, School Resource Officers (SROs), is increasing on school campuses to assist in preventing school violence, and in particular bullying. This mixed-methods study was conducted to compare the knowledge and perceptions of SROs (N = 184) hired by independent school districts (ISD SROs) and those contracted from law…

Public school districts in Buffalo, USA and Toronto, Canada reviewed their safe schools policies in 2008. Revised Codes of Conduct are compared to earlier versions and each other, and a conceptual policy web is used to understand how local, state/provincial, national, and international influences affect local safe school policies. The comparison…

The purpose of this study was to examine if school safety and security can be maximized without reducing student rights and freedoms. A review of school violence literature supports the early research on how schools should respond to school violence. An analysis of court cases that have arisen from legislative and school responses to school…

With every new case of school violence, district leaders are urged to be proactive in hopes of averting potential violence. Experts say part of that proactive work comes from a threat assessment plan that every district should have. While every district that receives funds from the U.S. Department of Education for school safety is required to have…

Many researchers around the world point out that bullying in schools is aimed towards others, in many cases against students with disabilities. Bullying is a serious issue, which involves many students and is, by far, the biggest violence problem in schools in many countries. The researchers investigated how provincial legislation and…

This report summarizes evaluation results for AISD's federally-funded Title IV safe and drug-free schools program activities for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.

The "Code of Virginia" (Section 22.1-279.3:1) requires school divisions statewide to submit data annually to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) on incidents of discipline, crime, and violence (DCV). School divisions began reporting data on discipline, crime, and violence to the VDOE in 1991. The federal "Gun-Free Schools…