Vilence In Schools Essay, Research Paper

Violence In Schools Violence in schools has spread widely throughout the nation.This has caused many problems among students, families,faculty of schools, and residents of the areas. In my paperI will discuss the reasons why violence in schools existsand what could or “should” be done about it. Violence in schools has spread widely throughout thenation. This has caused many problems among students,families, faculty of schools, and residents of the areas.However, their are many possible ways we can stop all thisviolence in schools. Almost three-fourths of the UnitedStates teens are afraid of violent crime amongst theirpeers(Apfel 23). Violence in schools has become a bigproblem in todays society. With all the people being injuredor killed in schools by guns and other weapons, more andmore people are getting more weapons to bring in to schools.Nearly half of all males and one-third of all studentsincluding females said they can easily obtain a handgun ifthey wanted to(Glazer 14). The cause of violence can be blamed on many things but1 mainly. And that one thing is drugs and gangs. Now thatmore people are selling and buying drugs, people are makingmoney to buy weapons. Gangs, since they came around violencehas been increasing steadily. The spread of gangs and drugshas also been implicated in the increasing violence ofschool youths(Glazer 14). Experts have also said that most violent conflictsamong school-age children can be traced back to long-simmering disputes(Apfel 21). Carrying guns and otherweapons around schools is becoming more and more popular allaround the world. People think that carrying guns aroundschools with them will make them cool or fit in with otherpeople like themselves. They’re wrong. More and more peoplewho are carrying guns around schools today are gettingcaught and having them taken away. Since schools have gottenmetal detectors and scanners, they have cut down the rate ofhaving handguns in schools by nearly 58%(Glazer 5).Security experts have reported that there is no evidencethat a metal detector will solve the problem of violence inschools, even though it offers a highly-visible symbol tothe community(Apfel 22). Even if the schools with all thegun violence in their schools do put in metal detectors atthe front entrances of schools, their are many ways kidscan sneak in weapons to school. In 1990 congress made it a felony to bring a gun withinone-thousand feet of any school under the “Gun-Free SchoolZones” provision of the 1990 crime prevention package. Thislaw wont help very much because of the fact that studentscan sneak in weapons through bathroom windows, or anunguarded entrance during recess(Glazer 6). So their isn’treally a safe and reliable way to keep guns away fromschools. Security has become a big part of schools today. Moreand more schools have been getting metal detectors

installed. The N.Y. city public schools report that sincethe introduction to metal detectors in 1988, seriousincidents have declined by 58% in schools with scanners andby 43% without them(Glazer 5). Every school should startputting in metal detectors and scanners if they want to cutdown violence. Some schools districts that experimented withmetal detectors for a short time found them a bitfrustrating(Gordon 27). It has become very easy to obtain a gun. A survey ofBaltimore public-schools students showed that the four mostprevalent places to get guns are street corners, friends,drug dealers, and thieves(Gordon 29). And kids all over theworld are getting guns from all these places but nobody isdoing anything about it. It is very easy for someone toobtain a handgun. All they have to do is go to one of thesefour places and buy one. Where do they get the money to buythese guns you ask? From selling drugs. If we could stop theselling of drugs just by maybe 20% or even 15%, their wouldbe a whole less violence due to the lack of money. So nobodywould be able to buy a weapon. Teachers are in as much danger of being killed orattacked as kids are school. The risk of a teacher beingattacked by a student has doubled since 1956(Glazer 20).This is a lot considering that you don’t hear about too manyteacher attacks on the news but you do hear about teensbeing killed. Approximately 100 teachers have been assaultedannually in the past four school years(Glazer 8). The big problem involving violence is how we can stopthe violence from spreading and increasing. Not nearly asmany teens would have guns if they didn’t get the money fromselling drugs(Gordon 30). So if we can stop the selling ofdrugs, less people will have money to buy guns and theirwill be less violence. We can also blame our parents for violence. Whenparents buy a gun and put it away, their kid could get ahold of it and bring it to school and already your introuble. This is why parents should lock away their weaponsnot just stick it in a draw or on the top shelf of a closet.Parents are responsible for the conduct and safety of theirchildren and buy keeping a gun where they can get hold of ittheir putting them in danger(Glazer 29). Violence has causedmany problems. Many people have been killed or seriouslyinjured because of violence. What we should do to try andprevent violence in schools from increasing is teach ourchildren young about this stuff and don’t keep a weaponaround the house unless it’s necessary. And if you do keep aweapon in your house. keep it where it can’t be found thateasily.

Glazer, Sarah. “Violence In Schools.” People (Sept. 11,1992): 787- 818. Witkin, Gordon. “Kids Who Kill.” U.S. News and World Report (April 8,1991): 26-35. Apfel, Ira. “Teen Violence: Real or Imagined?” American Demographics (June, 1995). 22-23. Britt, Perry “When Will It End?” U.S News and World Report (October 6,1996). 33-34.