The 1999 assault at Columbine High School by teen gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold served as a wakeup call for Americans about school violence. Harris and Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 23 others before committing suicide.
This was not an isolated incidence of school violence. For example, Patrick Purdy entered the Cleveland School in Stockton, California, and shot five students to death. He wounded 30 more, and then committed suicide.
Kahlil Sumpter, a 15-year-old New York City high school student, shot and killed two fellow students on the same day the Mayor visited the school to talk about school violence.
In the small town of Dalton, Georgia, a 13-year-old went to school with a loaded .22-calibre rifle and took a teacher hostage. After hours of negotiation, he released the teacher and surrendered to police.
In a study of the Oklahoma City Federation of Teachers, 66% of middle school and 52% of high school teachers have considered quitting because of abuse (verbal and physical) they receive from students. Furthermore, a survey by the National School Safety Center found that students have threatened 20% of all teachers.
The Center for Disease Control states that one student in five takes a weapon to school and one in 20 carries a gun. The problem has become so pronounced that one in four of America's school systems use metal detectors to search students for weapons.
The problem of school violent is not new. It came to the forefront of public awareness in the early 1970s. The hearings of the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency and the House Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary and Vocational Education documented the escalating violence in America's schools.
Since 1969, the Gallup Poll has surveyed Americans regarding their attitudes toward public education. School discipline (violence) ranks as the most important problem almost every year, and the public has a right to be concerned. Over the past few decades, violence in America's schools has increased to the highest levels in history. Parents are worried about the safety of their children and question whether schools can protect them.
