An Issue to Elucidate

Cases of intimidation and bullying, assault by weapon, and alcohol possession have increased by more than 200%, in recent years, according to a study on school violence in the U.S. school system done by the New York Post. This can be seen with the recent school shootings in Florida and Kentucky. School violence is an issue that needs to be brought to light and stopped, especially since most people don’t seem to know much about it. School violence is best defined as: Any act that threatens or harms a student’s well being on school property, or where ever a student is considered to be under the supervision of the school officials. This includes:
Bullying & Cyber Bullying
School Shootings
Personal threats, even if they are empty.
Rumors
Any kind of harassment.
With this in mind, the information provided should provide some light onto this often ignored subject.

The Threat to All
To start, general threats should be addressed first, as they are the best way to gauge school violence and it’s scale. According to a study done on bullying, more than 7% of 9th through 12th graders reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once in the last year. An additional 6% admitted to bringing a weapon to school for protection. 7% of high schoolers might seem to be very small, but that percentage translates out to more than 1,000,000 students nationwide. Not to mention that nearly as many faculty members are at risk too. It isn’t just the students at risk. A similar study found that violent school threats have increased by 158% from 2010 to 2011. However, the overall percentage of students as victims has been going down, according to a school violence report by the NCES.

The decrease in the overall victimization is because of actions that have been taken to prevent school violence. There can be lesser still victims though, as long as strides are taken to end most of the violence in schools and is helped greatly by learning about school violence, or “knowing the enemy.” Cyberbullying and online harassment should be know about too, since it is more common than ever and can directly affect students and their schools.  While things are being done in real life though, the online world and cyberbullying are different stories.

Cyberbullying to Scale
The online world can be a scary place, as it is so open to anyone and everyone. This allows for potentially more and more anonymous harassment to students in school. In fact, a study found that in 2011, one million students were harassed, threatened, or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying on Facebook alone. There’s plenty more social media sites now, only making that number rise. It should be mentioned that a study on bullying that found that more than 50% of students who have been bullied online do not report the behavior to their parents, leaving their parents with no idea regarding this behavior.

A study found the reasons for and types of bullying. According to this study, cyberbullying is one of the leading methods. This means that online threatening is very real and very threatening to the victims. This harassment can cause a number of issues at school, including making victimized students becoming more closed off and making the perpetrator more likely to keep harassing people when they aren’t punished. Cyberbullying does happen on school grounds and it is very serious. Speaking out about it is important to preventing school violence.

Simple Solutions to the Situation
Now that the issue has properly been addressed, some solutions should be brought to light. Some things that can be done to help prevent school violence include speaking up about issues and paying attention to others emotional states and helping them out. It shouldn’t take much to identify if someone is ticked off or upset about something. A study found that 71% of attackers felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others prior to their respective incidents. In these occasions, speaking up, just talking to the person, being nice, and helping them could have made a world of difference and could have prevented the attackers from choosing to do anything so drastic. Speaking up and talking with other people are great ways to help. Just doing these simple things can lift others spirits and make them feel more secure. Telling a staff member about someone’s issues can help to prevent the student from doing something they’ll regret. Stopping arguments that are intensifying are also important, as stopping arguments stops a potential fight or anything worse. Telling a staff member about a confrontation can help too. The same study found that nearly 1 in 6 school shootings happened because an argument intensified too much. If someone is getting that frustrated, calming them down would help change their mind. Breaking up the argument or pacifying the ones in an argument can also prevent this. All of that can put a close on school violence.

School Violence in Review
With that, any misconceptions about school violence should be cleared up. Despite how terrible it seems, things can be done and this knowledge will help make a difference, even if it is only a small one.  Some things to remember:
Cases of harassment increased by 200%.
Cyberbullying is a very real and very big threat.
Being nice can make all the difference to help prevent school violence.
With all of this information, many positive things can be done to prevent violence in schools. Knowing all of this allows for greater awareness and makes it easier to take action.  An informed student body is a safer, more secure student body after all. Putting this knowledge to good use could potentially end most of school violence. All it takes is a small push in the right direction.