NCJ Number
78097
Journal
American School Board Journal Dated: (January 1975) Pages: 27-37
Date Published
1975
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Crime and violence in American schools is discussed, with emphasis on case examples of successful efforts to deal with the problem and on solutions recommended by school board members, superintendents, teachers, parents, and principals.
Abstract
School crime and violence costs about $500 million annually. The leading school crimes are theft, vandalism, assaults, and the illicit use of drugs including alcohol. Although one California study indicates that school districts with the greatest crime problems are those with multiracial student populations, crime is also a problem in wealthy suburbs and in isolated rural areas. School leaders polled by the American School Board Journal voted on five potential solutions to school crime and violence. A total of 28 percent of those voting favored making discipline stricter, while 25 percent felt that no sweeping policy changes are needed because student behavior is a reflection of our violent times. One-fifth of those voting felt that students should be treated with compassion and allowed more freedom. The ending of compulsory education after age 14 received 17 percent of the vote, while only 5 percent felt that the school crime crisis was a creation of the mass media. Parents interviewed for this report strongly felt that teachers must maintain more effective classroom discipline. Other subsections of the report focus on teachers' views regarding the need to reshape student attitudes, Federal legislation and efforts, the use of behavior modification, a Chicago Police Department program to deal with gangs, and an effort in Cleveland to redesign libraries and cafeterias. Other sections deal with environmental design and the use of full-time security professionals in school systems, a principal's views on the need for discipline and order, a Chicago high school's program to promote greater student participation and positive attitudes, and a successful program in a previously crime-ridden Chicago elementary school. No references are supplied.