In an effort to assess students' perceptions of victimization in their schools, as well as their schools' safety, over 1,900 students from elementary, middle, high, and alternative schools were administered a 154-item questionnaire. The responses on the items were used to establish the psychometric properties of 19 theoretically driven scales and…

Many view the problem of violence as not merely a school problem, but as a much larger community problem that is finding its way into the schools. As a society, in addition to teaching our children how to be violent, we are giving them the tools of violence. There are steps that school board members can take to establish and maintain control of…

A study funded by the National Institute of Justice finds that one in five inner-city students surveyed (one in three males) had been shot at, stabbed, or otherwise injured with a weapon at or in transit to or from school in the past few years. Dangers of the environment outside the school were more obviously related to the rate of adolescent…

The Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA) requires that each state or outlying area receiving federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) have a law that requires all local educational agencies (LEAs) in the state or outlying area to expel from school for at least one year any student found bringing a firearm to school. Their…

This "Emergency Planning and Procedures Guide for Schools" is a complete revision of "Emergency/Disaster Preparedness: A Planning Guide for Schools," published in November, 1999. These materials are intended for use by Minnesota schools to help them develop emergency procedures and crisis management policies. It should be used…

State legislatures and school boards are adopting a growing number of zero-tolerance polices toward weapons, guns, and violence. Zero-tolerance polices are rules intended to address specific school-safety issues. They have arisen in part as a response to the threat of the withdrawal of federal funds under the 1994 Gun-Free Schools Act, and…

Summarizes several articles on safety in the science laboratory, an article on the science and history of chocolate, and an article on teaching nuclear physics from an historical perspective. (WRM)

This article explores psychometric characteristics of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), one of the most widely used instruments to assess the prevalence of violent and other high-risk behaviors in secondary school settings. Response patterns were analyzed for a subset of 414 youths who indicated that they had carried a weapon to…

A study examined student perceptions of the school environment in a small, rural high school in southeastern North Carolina. Surveys returned by 417 students in grades 9-12 suggested that the presence of gangs and unsafe or hidden areas were not major problems. The fact that 46 percent indicated that vandalism was a problem suggests that vandalism…

While violence in Texas schools is unacceptably frequent, some types of school violence have declined in recent years--most likely because of programs designed to improve safety in schools and in the community. This report examines data on juvenile violent crime in Texas as well as the incidence of violence in the schools over recent years.…

Providing the latest data, this report on school safety presents a mixed picture: while overall crime has declined, violence, gangs, and drugs remain at some schools. Victimization at school declined from 1995-99, though rates for fighting and weapon threats remain steady. Students seem more secure, and gang activity decreased; however, in grades…

This report provides the most recent national indicators on school crime and safety. Some of these indicators document that student safety has improved. For example, the victimization rate of students ages 12-18 at school declined from 73 victimizations per 1,000 students in 2003 to 55 per 1,000 students victimizations in 2004. However, other…

The Commissioner's annual report provides the Legislature with information reported by school districts concerning incidents of serious student misconduct grouped into the following four major reporting categories: violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse. An analysis of trends yields indications of progress and of ongoing concern, and…

The law has developed extensive rights and procedural safeguards that allow for the removal of overly disruptive and dangerous students while also protecting students from arbitrary and wrongful disciplinary action. This report describes New Jersey legislation intended to support fairness in discipline. Part 1 examines: sources of authority for…

Secondary analysis of the 1993 Metlife survey of teachers' perceptions of and experiences with violence examined the issue in more detail. Most teachers felt safe and had not experienced violence. They perceived violence as more likely in secondary schools, urban schools, and schools with predominantly minority student populations. (SM)