Introduction
Public schools violence is one of the most prevalent harmful practices and habits that affect pupils and students today. For instance, violence in public schools comprises of physical violence that includes corporal punishment and student-on-student fights, sexual violence that includes sexual harassment and rape, psychological violence that includes verbal abuse and having some lethal and dangerous weapons in schools. In addition, most forms of bullying, such as cyberbullying amongst others, are among the most common forms of violence that are practiced in public schools as Madfis asserts (2012).
School violence is widely said to have recently become a serious concern in most countries and especially in areas where some weapons such as guns or firearms and knives are involved. Public schools violence cases are very disastrous in most cases such that they may even cause serious harms or even death (Madfis, 2012). It may involve violence between the school students and physical attacks on school staff by the students as well. This research paper gives an overview of violence in public schools as well as the facilitating factors that influence the different forms of school violence.
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"Violence in the Public Schools".
Risk factors associated with violence in public schools
Violence in schools is said to be mostly influenced by the internalizing and externalizing behavioral factors. For instance, the internalizing behavior reflects the cases of depression and stress, inhibition, withdrawal, and anxiety. The internalizing behaviors have been common in most youth violence cases, but in some other youth, stress and depression are associated with the substance abuse (Sharkey, Tirado-Strayer, Papachristos, and Raver, 2012). Students that have the internalizing problems often tend to be overlooked by the school health attendants and personnel since they rarely act out. In contrast, the externalizing behaviors involve some externally imitated or copied criminal activities, hyperactivity, and aggression. However, the externalizing behaviors are usually linked to violent episodes directly. The violent externalizing behaviors that include kicking and punching are often learned by observing others either in schools or outside the school settings.
Besides, lack of parental supervision that is home based as well as lack of family involvement in the public schools have reportedly been the highest influencing factors to violence in the public schools. Similarly, interpersonal violence, parental monitoring knowledge, and negative personality traits, as well as the exposure to violence, are the significant factors that affect personal, family and the community basis of violence (Favero & Meier, 2013). The negative personal traits are often the primary risk factors that may result in aggressive behavior leading to school violence. The common negative characteristics of the students, as well as school staff, include anger traits, hostility, attitudes towards the violence, and impulsive control.
The home environment is another contributing factor to public schools violence. The Constitutional Rights Foundation often suggests that the long-term exposure to parental alcoholism, gun violence, physical child abuse, domestic violence, and the child sexual abuse tends to teach the children that violent and criminal activities are apparent and acceptable in the society (Abt, 2017). This may lead to children attempt to practice these home-learned violent activities in schools based on the harsh parental discipline. The exposure to the violent video games and television violence are related to increased children aggressiveness which may be practiced in public schools.
The neighborhood environment is another risk factor that is associated with violence in public schools. Communities and neighborhoods often provide the context for public school violence. The crime activities and drug abuse evident in most communities usually teach young children the violent activities and thus, the children often practice such activities at schools. The exposure to deviant peer groups in the community is increasing leading to aggression cases and violence (Favero & Meier, 2013). Additionally, exposure to gun violence at early adolescence, poverty and high population densities, and dilapidated housing in the school neighborhood increases the cases of violence in schools.
Last but not least, the school environment and leadership are linked to school violence. The academic performance of the students, as well as high levels of the disciplinary problems in schools, is associated with school violence.
Prevention of school violence
School violence prevention is always meant to stop the cases of violent activities from happening in schools. Therefore, violence can be handled at three levels that include the individual level, family level, and community level. This can be done through the use of various prevention and intervention approaches such as society-level, family level, and individual level strategies. According to Matjasko et al., the prevention approaches should reduce the risk factors ultimately and promote the protective factors at all causative levels (2012). The teachers and parents should teach their children about the importance of engagement with moral peers. Youths and students should also be trained on emotional control, social problem solving, teamwork, conflict resolution, and self-esteem as well as positive social skills to reduce the risk of aggressiveness that may cause school violence. Parent involvement in academic and social aspects of children should be enhanced to ensure family cohesion and productive relationships (Patton, Woolley, & Hong, 2012).
Conclusion
The study gives a discussion on school violence and its prevalence in public institutions. Similarly, the risk factors and the influencing factors such as lack of parental supervision and involvement in academic activities of children have been outlined. Different prevention and intervention strategies of violence in the public schools have also been discussed in this paper. Youths and students should be taught on emotional control, social problem solving, teamwork, conflict resolution, and self-esteem as well as positive social skills to reduce the risk of aggressiveness that may cause school violence (Patton, Woolley, & Hong, 2012).
- Abt, T. P. (2017). Towards a framework for preventing community violence among youth. Psychology, health & medicine, 22(sup1), 266-285.
- Favero, N., & Meier, K. J. (2013). Evaluating urban public schools: Parents, teachers, and state assessments. Public Administration Review, 73(3), 401-412.
- Madfis, E. (2012). Averting the unlikely: Fearing, assessing, and preventing threats of rampage violence in American public schools.
- Matjasko, J. L., Vivolo-Kantor, A. M., Massetti, G. M., Holland, K. M., Holt, M. K., & Cruz, J. D. (2012). A systematic meta-review of evaluations of youth violence prevention programs: Common and divergent findings from 25years of meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(6), 540-552.
- Patton, D. U., Woolley, M. E., & Hong, J. S. (2012). Exposure to violence, student fear, and low academic achievement: African American males in the critical transition to high school. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(2), 388-395.
- Sharkey, P. T., Tirado-Strayer, N., Papachristos, A. V., & Raver, C. C. (2012). The effect of local violence on children’s attention and impulse control. American journal of public health, 102(12), 2287-2293.
