Schools are designed to provide education and a supportive climate for students’ development. Therefore, to ensure students’ safety administration of schools utilizes different violence prevention measures. Students’ violent acts can include bullying, fighting, gang-related activities, and weapon use. According to CDC (2021), school violence threatens students’ safety: one in five students is bullied on the school grounds, and 8% percent of students reported being in a physical fight. Thus, school violence presents a significant issue in the development of future generations.
School violence prevention measures perceive violence as a result of a combination of risk factors in early childhood, such as parental neglect, abuse, and poor supervision. Therefore, prevention strategies focus on improving students’ adaptive behavior skills by promoting a supportive family environment, providing positive examples of adult role models, and encouraging positive interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, schools can take additional measures to protect students from exposure to violence. For example, school violence associated with gang activities is higher in larger cities; in such areas, schools can ban gang-related clothing and symbols from limiting students’ exposure to violence (Meadows, 2018).
While prevention strategies present a primary source of a school’s contribution against youth violence, their implementation is challenged by the limitations of the school’s interference in students’ life. For example, school policies do not extend to the online space, which results in cyberbullying. In my opinion, the current approach suggesting that youth violence is sourced in internal problems from early childhood can be expanded to the whole education cycle to ensure timely management of violent issues. Thus, by emphasizing the elimination of students’ violent tendencies at an early age, schools can focus on solving violence issues in individual students.
References
CDC. (2021). Fast fact: Preventing school violence.
Meadows, R. J. (2018). Understanding violence and victimization (7th ed.). Pearson Education.