The slaying last week of high school football coach, Ed Thomas, prompted me to write this week’s blog on school violence – toward students and teachers.
A former player shot several rounds into the Iowa football coach in front of several students who were in the high school weight room with him. This rural mid-western community has only 1,800 residents. This is very similar to communities in ND, so it immediately struck a chord for me.
One of Thomas’s former athletes, Jacksonville Jaguars center Brad Meester said he revered Thomas almost as a father figure, and that Thomas got the most out of each of his players. “It’s just the stuff that he taught every one of us, stuff that I'll never forget," Meester said. "The value of hard work, pride in what you do and just caring about the guy beside you and that's what he did. He cared for each and every one of us that went through that program."
So after this heartfelt testimonial I had to ask myself, “Is school violence the exception or is it becoming the rule?”
According to the Nemours Foundation school violence is rare. Although it may not seem that way, the rate of crime involving physical harm has been declining at U.S. schools since the early 1990s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the vast majority of students will never experience violence at school or in college.
So what about teachers as the victims of school violence like Coach Thomas? What’s the status on that? The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center says, on average, in each year, about 3 out of every 1,000 teachers were the victims of serious violent crime at school. This is down from the early 1990’s when NYVPRC reported 12 percent of all teachers were threatened with injury by a student from their school, and 4 percent were physically attacked by a student. This site also stated that male teachers are more than twice as likely to be victims, and teachers at middle/junior high schools are at greater risk than those in elementary or senior high schools.
But,what shocked me, absolutely shocked me the most was the fact that this issue has been written about for 40 years! I came upon a Time News article dated Friday, November 14, 1969 whose headline read “New Violence Against Teachers”. Can you believe that? 1969?
It cited story summaries: During a dance at Gwynn Park High School in Brandywine, Md., an assistant principal had his throat slashed by a former student who came to make trouble; A sixth-grade teacher was stabbed with a knife thrown by a twelve-year-old boy who had been spanked for attacking the teacher with a broken bottle. All this in 1969, so our situation isn’t new…maybe it wasn’t even “new” in 1969.
What I think we can say is different, is that with 24 hour news on several different stations ,the focus on school violence is greater.
Do you think the violence is worse? Do you think teachers feel more threatened today? Is this because there is more real danger or because we hear more about the violence that occurs?
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I love topics that seem on their face to be so obvious but on further study are so much more complex. You've picked on of those subjects, Kirsten.
ReplyDeleteFirst the questions that the majority of folks will assume is a no-brainer - is there more violence in schools today. Most would say yes, but the statistics you site say no. I think there are three main reasons for this misconception.
First, the news gets to us much faster. A shooting occurs and it is on CNN, Fox, or the internet almost as it happens. We are not on a 24 hour news cycle. We are on a 24 second news cycle.
Second, the news business isn't about news anymore, it's about money. Viewers/listeners mean dollars and they aren't going to listen to your boring but highly accurate and relevant news when the other guy has on something splashy and violent. I worked in radio for 24 years - believe me, this is the way they think. So the last week the death of a washed up entertainer has been bigger news than the war in Iraq, the vote on cap and trade, or the health care battle. The last three are far more important and have the potential to effect the entire country in substantial ways for decades. So why are we concentrating on Michael Jackson? Because he was odd, potentially a child molester, possibly died of drugs, and basically a circus side show on two legs. His death, however, in real terms is almost meaningless. Yet we concentrate on that instead of whats important. Weird, sensational, violent things lead. School shootings while incredibly rare, fit the same bill so the make national news every time they happen.
Third, and this one is a guess on my part but I am pretty sure I am right, the nature of the violence kids commit has changed. I went to school in the 60's and 70's and I can tell you my school experiance was WAY more violent than what kids go through today. There were fights practically every day. Today, two kids exchange harsh words and the teachers are one them. And teachers were far more violent. Hitting kids happened all of the time too. I was punched myself by a teacher or two. We had an assistant teacher who used to pin kids to the wall by their throats and pick them up off the floor...in the hallway in front of everybody. So I think as far as sheer numbers of violent events, today isn't even close. However, I think the nature of what happens is far different. Despite all of the fights and other things, the use of weapons was very rare and bringing a gun much less firing it was unheard of. There was violence but there was a line and it didn't get crossed very often. If you had an issue, you went to that specific person and settled it and that was that. Today, kids fight less but they go to very violent means far more readily and they take out their issues on entire schools or the symbols of the schools - teachers. I would bet that overall violence is down but shootings are way up.
Kirsten,
ReplyDeleteI am an assistant football coach. Fosston is almost exactly the same size as Aplington-Parkersburg, Iowa. Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7 a.m., our head coach and I are in the weight room. I immediately thought of him. Could this type of thing happen to us? We have had our share of parental complaints and even an incident or two. I know the murderer was mentally deranged but you can’t help but put yourself there. It makes me sick to my stomach when I think of Coach Thomas’s influence, male role model presence, and selflessness to that community.
The U.S. Secret Service has also reported that school violence has steadily declined. What about unreported crimes? I think we have to wait until the research catches up with cell phone cyberbullying and harassment induced bullycides. I guess bullycides are when a harassed student is driven to suicide
The twenty-four seven news cultural has exaggerated many phenomenon. There definitely could be some truth to that.
There are probably a lot of theories to explain school violence. Any of the following have been suggested; bullying, absentee parents, addiction, violent television, computer, and video games.
It is a tragedy. A great man was slain. He helped untold numbers of people. More are deprived of a chance to learn from him.
Kristen, What a scary subject! Growing up in North Dakota I think that sometimes we are think that things like this can't happen around here. We read about all of these topics but tell ourselves that we live in a safe community where these people don't live. In actuality we probably should be more ready. As a teacher I know the routines we should follow should someone come in the building but what is the first thing that gets tossed aside if we don't have time to practice. All of these practice drills. As a teacher it really scares me how students are taking their views into their hands and becoming violent. I don't know if it is enough for me to say that I teach lower elementary and that my kids would not do that. What about parents that are upset? In today's society it is hard to not be afraid. School is not as safe as it was.
ReplyDeleteI still think that a lot of this has to do with the way a lot of parents are raising their children. Many of our students we have in our classrooms today have parents who feel they can do no wrong. I think parents need to toughen up on their kids and start to crack down on some of their antics they allow their children to do. I don't think a student is going to bring a gun to school just because he was disobedient to an educator, but I do think they will have no respect for a teacher if the student’s parents don't punish them in some way. I think we will have this problem as long as we have parents that feel their child can do no wrong. Anybody is capable of doing something inappropriate; helping prevent it is the first step to stopping it in the future.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I am one of the teachers that has been threatened with violence. As I was reading your blog I noticed that I am in that category of teacher most likely to get threatened. I am male and I work at a middle school. Although I never really felt worried that the student would act on it, it did trouble me because he had obviously thought about it and how many other times had he before he vocalized it?
ReplyDeleteThe other statistic that bothered me is that 3 out of every 1000 teachers report serious violence every year. This number does not seem high but over time it gets troubling. If I expect to teach 35 years or more that number starts to change. If my math is right, that puts me at roughly around a 10% chance. I also have to assume that because of my personality and my desire to have a very disciplined classroom that this number is even higher. Also, add the fact that I am male and teach in a middle school (as stated before) the number goes even higher yet! I hope my math is wrong.