The Growing Problem of Violence in Our Schools

By Lucille Carr-Kaffashan, Ph.D.

Since the fall of 2021, when most districts around the country had fully returned to in-person learning, educators have been sounding the alarm about an uptick in school-based violence. This violence has taken many forms and has affected all members of the school community: students and their families, teachers, support staff, administrators, and school board members. A handful of schools have experienced the unthinkable, a school-shooting incident. Many others have reported frequent brawls, physical bullying, and other forms of student-on-student aggression, including verbal and sexual intimidation and cyber-bullying. An alarming number of students have been caught with guns and other weapons on school grounds.

Teachers and other staff have also been targeted, either directly or because of their efforts to break up fights or otherwise de-escalate tense situations. Teachers, administrators, and board members have been subjected to verbal abuse, and sometimes to threats of physical violence.

According to a survey of 15,000 school personnel conducted by the American Psychological Association from July 2020 to June 2021, 59% of teachers, 58% of administrators, 48% of support staff, and 38% of school psychologists and social workers have reported being victimized in some way while at work. Support staff, e.g., school resource officers, aides, and bus drivers, were the most likely to report physical aggression, with more than 99% of the aggressors being students.

As reported by The Psychiatric Times, “The nation’s public school system is now in a fragile and precarious position. Although every profession suffered during the pandemic, teachers are confronted daily with the threat of school shootings, lagging student performance, political agendas, curriculum wars, book bans, and more. In many ways, these are not new problems, but they do appear to be compounding.”

Long Covid — Not Just a Physical Condition?

Many observers of the nation’s schools have noted that the myriad problems that were reported during the past school year are not new: they existed before the pandemic, and yet have been either exacerbated or highlighted because of it. The hopes of school professionals, parents, and students to “get back to normal” this past year have not been realized as we continue to experience the aftermath of Covid-related illness, school disruption, and economic hardship along with the social unrest and political discord that has fueled an atmosphere of anger and intolerance. Many students are expressing frustration and anger as they come to terms with lost learning and the prolonged disconnection from peers and supportive adults in the school community. This social-emotional “Long Covid” is certainly one factor contributing to school violence.

Criminologists have noted that violence is up all over the country, likely attributable to the pandemic and the social unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. They have hypothesized that these trends have affected not only adults, but also have inevitably trickled down to our nation’s K-12 students. According to James A. Densley, a professor of criminal justice at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, “The global pandemic has exacerbated risk factors for violence in general, like loneliness, isolation, and economic instability. Violence also tends to rise at times of uncertainty, especially when distrust in public institutions is high. And social media serves as an accelerant, whipping up anger and frenzy… It’s a combination of the pandemic; a lack of trust in our institutions, particularly law enforcement; the presence of guns; the toxic, divisive, contentious times we live in. They’re all interacting together.”

In a September 2021 Washington Post article, Sherman Dorn, a historian of education at Arizona State University, reminded readers that recent episodes of chaos and violence may appear to be exceptional and unprecedented. “But”, he says, “there’s a long history of public schools serving as ideological and physical battlegrounds, particularly when it comes to conflicts over citizenship and civil rights” and when there have been “efforts to broaden the reach and mission of schools.” In other words, public schools have often been the “figurative and literal battlegrounds in the fight over American identity and rights.”

At the same time, school professionals have noted that the increase in school violence roughly coincided with the return of most students to in-person learning. Many students struggled with the return to the classroom and the resumption of full schedules given the prolonged lack of structure and academic rigor, the inability to practice social and self-regulation skills, and the surge in anxiety and other mental health problems triggered by the pandemic. Children often act out physically when their needs are not being met or when they are traumatized, especially if their verbal skills are not yet developed or are impaired in some way. Students rarely choose to be violent, but rather might respond with aggression when feeling threatened, even if the perceived threats are not obvious to adults in their lives.

Data from districts in smaller towns and rural areas support the hypothesis that the return to the classroom played a significant role in the increase of school violence. These schools, where students returned to the classroom much earlier and had mostly in person instruction, have reported much lower increases in violence than larger districts and those in urban/suburban areas where remote or hybrid instruction persisted for a year or more.

Another factor that might play a role in the increase of school violence is that some districts may have overcompensated for the very real concerns about turning schools into punitive, police driven environments by severely cutting back or eliminating altogether security personnel. The presence of School Resource Officers (SROs) and other security personnel may serve as a deterrent to violent acting out and give staff and students a greater sense of safety. Their absence, on the other hand, may contribute to an “anything goes” environment.

And finally, a factor that cannot be underestimated is that many schools are understaffed, and the existing staff are weary and, in some cases, traumatized. It is difficult enough under the best of circumstances to maintain a trauma-informed approach with students and to effectively use de-escalation techniques. It can be next to impossible if the staff member(s) in any given scenario is as exhausted and traumatized as the struggling student(s).

The Impact on the School Community

As mentioned above, increased violence in schools affects everyone in the school community. Students are feeling less safe and more anxious and might seek to avoid school altogether. Besides the possibility of physical injuries from physical assaults, exposure to violence impacts children’s overall health and makes them more vulnerable to substance abuse and suicidality. Anxiety and depression make students less available for learning, further exacerbating the pandemic-related learning loss that is now well documented.

Students who are struggling both academically and emotionally require more intellectual and emotional engagement from their caregivers and from school professionals, two groups of individuals who have been especially drained by the challenges of the pandemic. Add to this parents’ legitimate fears for their children — “will my child be safe at school?” — and disagreements about priorities and how resources should be allocated, and one has the perfect recipe for a highly strained and even toxic school environment.

The impact of violence and other pandemic-related stressors on educators themselves has been profound. As noted in a recent Psychiatric Times article, “At 44%, K-12 teachers have the highest levels of burnout compared to any other profession in the United States, according to a June 2022 Gallup poll. College and university teachers came in second at 35%, while health care and law enforcement each reported burnout rates of 31%. The burnout gap between teachers and other professions has only widened since 2020, an indication that their problems may be escalating.”

Compounding the problem are the numbers of individuals leaving the profession: “Between February 2020 and May 2022, 300,000 teachers and staff at public schools left their posts, representing about 3% of the workforce. When classes resumed this fall, schools scrambled to fill vacancies with office staff, retired teachers, and bus drivers. In a survey released in February 2022, 55% of teachers indicated that they would likely leave their jobs earlier than planned, up from 37% the previous year.” In addition, enrollment for teacher training programs has decreased. Staffing shortages, therefore, will likely not be resolved anytime soon without some dramatic changes in everything from teachers’ salaries to working conditions to the public perception of their worth. Many teachers, when speaking about their profession, describe it as a “calling”. Yet, despite the heroic acts of those who have literally sacrificed their lives to protect their students, it is unlikely that most educators signed on for the roles being asked of them in today’s world.

What Can Schools Do Differently?

While any discussion of the factors that contribute to school violence may sound rather dire, that does not mean that districts are helpless in the face of this wave of unrest. There are best practices that can guide districts in their quest to make their schools safer and more welcoming, many of which they are already doing in some shape or form:

1. First and foremost, Effective School Solutions (ESS) recommends that districts prioritize the strengthening of each tier of their school-based mental health Multi-Tier System of Support (MTSS). On-site mental health programming that is designed to address the needs of all students regardless of their risk level is paramount. This includes:

• Revisiting and revising as necessary protocols for Crisis Assessment and Re-entry with an emphasis on identifying traumatized students and getting them the help that they need. Helping students with trauma-related behaviors will not only help these students but also can protect the entire community. This process should be built around a strength-based approach that does not over-pathologize youngsters but rather acknowledges the context that gives rise to and maintains problem behaviors.
• It is also important for districts to bolster other prevention-oriented Tier 1 interventions such as Universal Screening with evidence-based tools. Screenings can identify students with trauma histories and symptoms, anxiety, depression, and suicidality, and other symptoms that might increase the risk of aggression. These screenings are typically done twice per year and offer the potential for identifying students in need, and thereby possibly offsetting aggressive behaviors in the future.
• Tier 1 also includes mental health education and the development of social-emotional skills. Students with strong communication and self-regulation skills are better able to express their needs and navigate complicated peer relationships.

2. The next priority should be offering professional development opportunities for staff at all levels that are ongoing and focused on the myriad issues that contribute to a safe and positive school environment. For example, all staff should participate in training on how to adopt and maintain a trauma-informed approach. Many teachers need help with classroom management techniques and with recognizing and minimizing potential triggers for easily dysregulated students. Reviews and drills on de-escalation techniques are critical. Clearly written safety protocols and frequent practice drills are necessary to make it more likely that staff will know what to do in high-emotion, crisis situations. District leaders might consider initiating a “Grand Rounds” process during which teachers and administrators come together in a clinician-led group to discuss troubled students and how to help them. These discussions can go a long way to foster a school-wide trauma-informed approach and to develop critical thinking skills when it comes to intervention strategies.

3. Efficient systems for identifying children’s academic and developmental needs in a timely manner and for arranging special education services are critical.

4. Visible signs of security should be evaluated and put in place where appropriate: locked doors, restricted entry points, hallway monitoring, video cameras, security resource officers, etc.

5. The consequences for bullying and other acts of violence should be clear-cut and applied swiftly and consistently, with an emphasis on BOTH getting help for the perpetrating students and requiring that they make restitution to the school community for their bad behaviors. Security officers and those responsible for student discipline should work together to pursue this dual goal, with an emphasis on avoiding wherever possible suspensions, arrests, or referrals to the juvenile justice system, and taking care to not disproportionally react punitively with students of color.

6. Parent-Teacher Organizations should be tasked with thinking outside the box to plan and conduct activities that foster civil, cooperative, and mutually supportive parent-teacher relationships.

7. All staff, students, and parents should be reminded on a regular basis that the school safety literature consistently emphasizes that safety is tied to a positive school culture, which in turn hinges on strong relationships between adults and students. PTOs, clubs, individual classrooms, teacher committees, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, etc. should all be tasked with identifying their roles in contributing to a positive school culture, and they should be challenged on a regular basis to recommit to these roles and to articulate how they are fulfilling them. “Citizenship” and all that it entails can be woven into the daily life of the school.

8. The health and well-being of teachers and other school staff must also be addressed. Staff who are exhausted and feel chronically undervalued will not be able to fully participate in creating a safe and welcoming school environment.

9. Lastly, community partnerships are essential, with local law enforcement, healthcare providers, youth groups, houses of worship, social groups, etc. A task force comprised of representatives from these various constituencies can share information, participate in threat assessments, and be the eyes and ears that scan the community for signs that a youth is in trouble.

Resources:

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/violence-seems-to-be-increasing-in-schools-why/2021/11

https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/teachers-on-edge

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/qa-role-teachers-preventing-and-addressing-school-violence

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087137571/school-violence-teachers-covid

Teachers, other school personnel, experience violence, threats, harassment during pandemic (apa.org)

Violence over schools is nothing new in America — The Washington Post

Q&A: The role of teachers in preventing and addressing school violence | UNESCO