Scholars theorize that the nature of school gun violence varies across school settings. Yet, there is a lack of statistical research testing this idea. This study investigates contextual factors associated with six forms of school gun incidents (N = 1,238) over a 40-year period (1980-2019) in the United States. To conduct the analyses, school,…

This study determined the perceptions of school administrators who work at rural schools in Illinois classified as distant and remote on whether they need to be allowed to carry concealed weapons in order to protect themselves and their students by responding against armed intruders with deadly force. An existential conceptual/theoretical…

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…

In this quantitative study, the perceptions of safety and preparedness of Missouri's high school administrators after participating in active shooter training as mandated by Missouri's Senate Bill No. 75 were analyzed. As school shootings continue, states have passed legislation to prepare schools to provide safety for students and faculty members…

Ensuring that children are safe is imperative for any educational institution. This case presents a realistic scenario of the safety concerns of leaders and staff in a middle school concerned with potential gang activity. Inspired by actual events, this case illustrates burdens that many middle school leaders across the nation face on a daily…

This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2007-08 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2008). SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools by asking school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and…

School superintendents in 60 public school systems in Georgia were surveyed to describe strategies being pursued to prevent school violence and promote a safe learning environment. Results from the present study were compared with results from a survey of superintendents conducted by one of the authors in 1995 to determine the extent of change in…

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…

Despite the fact that many incidents of extreme violence have taken place in rural areas there is still some resistance on the part of rural school administrators to admit that violence is a problem in their schools. This article provides a comparison of rural and urban student and staff self-report of school violence (perpetration, victimization…