School Violence By Roshni Patel

The vast majority of schools in the United States are safe places, and in recent years they have become even safer. Safe schools are essential to young people's ability to learn and develop healthy relationships. The overall rates of violence in schools have fallen, and students feel safer in schools today than they have for several years. In fact, students are much less likely to come to harm at school than away from school. However, some schools do have serious crime and violence problems, and many students, teachers, and parents continue to have grave concerns about safety in schools. As teachers, parents and students prepare and begin this new school year, hopefully fears of school violence such as the Columbine shootings will not be their major concern. What is sad is that school violence needs to be a concern at all. The fact is violence of one sort or another is part of many schools today. Fortunately, this usually involves a small group of people fighting amongst themselves.