Broadening the Definition of School Violence

School safety has been a top priority in most United States schools for close to a decade. This is likely not to change. Schools continue to be places where students turn to guns, knives, and other instruments of destruction to vent their anger. Anger that is often fueled by revenge or hatred.

Each new incident of violence reminds us that no school is immune and why we must look closer at what lies behind the bloodshed. Without an answer to this question the best proactive procedures will likely do little to prevent the next act of school violence.

Many schools have turned to student profiling as a way to prevent violence. Profiling is a term used to refer to a checklist of behaviors and attitudes that seem to be associated with those who have committed acts of violence. The checklists try to predict a student's chances for being violent. As much as all schools would like to have a simple checklist to identify potential perpetrators of violence the FBI recently said that there is no instrument that can reliably distinguish school shooters from other students.

The Clearinghouse on Educational Management has an article that focuses on the reliability of student profiling and offers other options that can help schools prevent violence such as helping students develop competence in social and emotional skills that will foster a caring and cooperative school environment. Learn more at their website: The Clearinghouse on Educational Management.

In a June article in the Bulletin sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, authors Lenhardt and Willert provide recommendations for ways to involve the school and community in developing school safety plans. The full article can be found at NASSP's website.

Their recommendations were built on several premises. One of which was the need to expand the definition of school violence. When Lenhardt and Willert first began their work on school violence they thought that school violence was a clearly definable entity. They soon realized that violence is a complex phenomena and that it takes many forms many of which are difficult to detect. "Violence encompasses far more than physical assaults in schools: it involves subtle and insidious acts of peer pressure, put-downs, verbal intimidations, teasing, bullying, and harassment. Physical violence is just one type of aggression." These less acknowledged forms of violence are widespread and need the attention of educators.

Students in the Lenhardt and Willert participation group suggested that teachers should adopt a broader definition of violence to include nonphysical aggression. These students also said that the number one form of nonphysical aggression was peer pressure which often showed up in the form of bullying.

The Advantage Press has developed a new set of discipline packets that focus on bully behaviors. Packets cause students to think through their unacceptable actions and develop goals to help them improve the way they relate to others. You can find more information about our bully packets at our website.