Despite the fact that schools remain incredibly safe spaces for children and youth to spend time, the occurrence of mass school shootings, although rare, is a pressing issue for our society. In this paper we discuss the importance of action, advocacy, and research related to mass school shootings. Specifically, we discuss research-based actions…

Background: Although less than 2% of all homicides among young people are school-associated, since 1970 1373 K-12 school gun violence incidents have injured 1403 people and killed another 728. These incidents have changed the education landscape. Informed stakeholders must work together to prevent school gun violence. Methods: We reviewed the…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has indicated that schools are vulnerable to school shootings. Understanding the experience of school members who have experienced such tragedies provides important context for further developing much-needed preventive and responsive measures. Using narrative inquiry, we explored the experience of a…

A rise in the number of school shootings over time has driven increasing attention to school safety. However, school shootings are not the only physical safety threat students may encounter at school. Other types of violence include sexual assault, robbery, physical attack or fights, and threats of physical attack (with or without a weapon). In…

Although fatal shootings on U.S. college campuses are statistically rare, students are routinely confronted with information suggesting that shootings are rampant and unavoidable. Pre-crisis interventions should address the threat of deceptive claims and restore beliefs that universities are capable of protecting students from violence. This…

This article focuses on gun violence in the school setting and the role of the counselor in helping to reduce gun violence. Gun violence in schools has become pervasive for many reasons, including lack of adequate support staff, undiagnosed mental health issues, students who experience isolation, anger, depression, bullying, as well as access to…

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to promote school safety. SSOCS is managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of…

In response to mass gun shooting incidents in schools, some school districts have been hiring additional social workers to help prevent further incidents. This qualitative study will explore the potential roles that school social workers may play, including early identification and intervention, screening, risk assessment, crisis intervention,…

Although school-based youth homicides and student fear of attack or harm at school have slowly decreased over the past two decades (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018), students are not free from worry; violence is still present in schools. School violence refers to acts of physical force, harm, or power that occur on school grounds or at school events…

This article focuses on the topic of campus crime reporting, particularly students' stated likelihood of reporting crime incidents to the college public safety department, municipal police, or a member of the library staff. The survey vignette design involves experimental manipulation of several situational variables in line with the unresponsive…

To continue the nation's progress in creating safe schools, states and school districts need support to implement evidence-based approaches that address student needs. Since 1999, federal discretionary funding to improve student safety has sought to address the underlying factors--students' social and emotional development and mental and…

This article summarizes the accomplishments of research on school safety in the past quarter century, identifies important gaps, and indicates promising directions for further progress. Although closely related, there are distinguishable bodies of research on physical and psychological safety. Physical safety research concerns the prevention of…

Recent incidents of school-based violence have resulted in the widespread implementation of school safety strategies across the United States. While research on these strategies has grown over the past decade, there is little understanding about their collective influence on indicators of school violence. Using data from the 2007-2008 School…

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to promote school safety. SSOCS collects data from public school principals about violent and nonviolent crimes in their schools. The survey also collects…

Campus violence prevention often includes proactively reducing crime through noticing and resolving concerning situations. Within these efforts, interventions aimed at enhancing reporting have been considered necessary. The current study explored several reporting influences on college students' responses to hypothetical and actual campus safety…