Over 1.1 million violent victimizations of students occur annually in our schools. Approximately 23% of those assaults were very serious. These 253,000 violent assaults included rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and homicide. During the combined 1992/1993 and 1993/1994 school years there were 105 violent deaths in American schools; of these 29 were non-students. In 1995, about 15% of students aged 12 through 19 reported being the victim of crime at school during the previous six months. In a 1996 study of 12th graders, 22% stated they had been threatened with injury without a weapon and 14% stated they had been threatened with a weapon while at school. 9% of students age 12 to 19 feared that they were going to be attacked or harmed at school. (BJS, 1996)
Students are not the only ones who are the victims of a crime school. Teachers, administrators and support staff are also the targets of violence. Over a five year period from 1992 to 1996, educators were the victims of 619,000 violent crimes. 14%of those were classified as serious violent assaults. These included rape or sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery and homicide. These figures translate into an average of 124,000 violent crimes and 18,000 serious violent crimes against educators each year. Middle- and junior-high school teachers were the most likely to be the victim of violent crime (59 assaults per 1000 teachers), followed by high school teachers (32 assaults per 1000 teachers) and elementary school teachers (17 crimes per 1000 teachers). In the 1993 to 1994 school year, 341,000, or 12 percent, of all elementary and secondary school teachers were threatened with injury at school. (BJS, 1996)
Educators are not only at risk of assault from students; relatives or others associated with the student may direct their anger at the educator. Domestic violence spillovers frequently result in violent assaults in the school workplace. Predatory criminals routinely prey on educators inside and outside school facilities.
Physical security measures are only one component of reducing violence in our schools. School security involves:
educating administrators, teachers and staff of their vulnerabilities
developing institutionalized, team-based violence-prevention strategies
learning and using effective verbal defusing skills, and
assisting staff develop the physical skills to escape and evade an attack at school
And while district administrators are understandably reluctant to sanction school staff to physically intervene in school fights, the reality is that a school staff member will likely intervene to save a student or colleague from death or great bodily harm during an assault. Selected educators, support staff, and campus security can be trained to effectively control assaultive behavior, when they are called upon to do so, in a way that minimizes the risk of injury to employees and students.
The goal of our programs is to assist faculty, staff and students to work together to reduce the potential for violence in schools. Defensive Systems offers several courses designed to educate administrators, educators, staff and students about how to decrease the likelihood of a violent incident and to increase their ability to survive should an assault occur. Each course is tailored to the specific risks and needs of the specific school or school district.
Combative Student ManagementTM
"Combative Student Management" is a