$10 Billion Later – How Much Safer Are Our Schools?Though the shootings at Columbine High School in April of 1999 were actually the 25th incident of targeted school violence to occur in the United States since 1990, they sent shock waves through the American psyche and evoked far-reaching changes in school safety policies and practices. Federal and state legislators immediately drafted bills about school violence and allocated additional funds to address safety and security issues. Federal, state, and local educational and law enforcement agencies issued mandates, wrote additional rules, revised policies, and instituted new programs… all with a single goal: ensure that no one would ever be able to enter a school building with weapons and kill others. Since 1999 more than $10 billion has been invested in the safety and security of US schools. Schools have employed a variety of strategies:
All this can generally be characterized as an “outside-in” approach, one that is focused on security, driven by adults and based on rules and policies. Some contend that schools are safer, citing the reduction of the crime victimization rate (nonfatal violent crimes and theft) of students, ages 12-18, which the National Crime Victimization Survey shows did decline between 1992 and 2005. Yet, trends from a majority of national surveys and studies tell a much different story.
It has also had a very negligible effect on the less visible forms of mistreatment – the exclusion, put-downs, and bullying that students see but adults typically don’t. Metal detectors allow security officers to check the guns at the door, but the students pass right through and bring with them their attitudes, prejudices, and grudges. Despite rules to the contrary, students create social norms that say “it’s cool to be cruel.” Consequently, these less visible incidents of mistreatment keep the social climate of the school simmering with unease until it boils over in a more visible incident that breaks a school’s rules. This eruption triggers the school’s “react and discipline” strategy: catch those who break the rules and discipline them with detentions, suspensions, or expulsions. Since these responses don’t address the underlying causes of the eruptions, it is only a matter of time before more eruptions occur and the cycle continues. Breaking this cycle requires a new approach to solving the problem of mistreatment, a complementary “inside-out” approach that is focused on relationships (not security), driven by students (not adults) and based on norms (rather than rules). See full report.
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