Following the return of most U.S. schoolchildren to full-time in-person learning, anecdotal reports indicate that violence may be rising in K-12 schools.
Sonitrol Great Lakes has been monitoring developments, and found these instances:
In a Maryland high school, a school resource officer was assaulted as three separate fights unfolded in the hallways and one spilled into the student parking lot. And in a large fight at a high school outside Columbus, Ohio, nine teachers were injured. Seven students were charged with aggravated riot.
In Rochester, N.Y., a high school English teacher claims that a student sexually assaulted her while she tried to break up a fight, repeatedly groping her after she told the student not to.
Much of the attention around the return to school after months of remote learning has focused on academic losses, but educators also feared emotional damage and behavioral unrest as students who have seen their lives upended by the pandemic adjust to being in school buildings again.
Those fears now appear to be materializing, in big ways and small. The National Association of School Resource Officers reports that from Aug. 1 to Oct. 1 this year, there were 97 reported gun-related incidents in schools. During the same span in 2019, there were 29.
Similarly, Everytown for Gun Safety, a lobby group for gun restrictions, tallies 56 instances of gunfire on school grounds in August and September of 2021. That is higher for those two months than any year since the group began tracking incidents in 2013, and more than double the previous high of 22 in 2019. It also found record numbers of deaths, at eight, and injuries, with 35.
“School violence has risen to levels that we haven’t seen quite frankly,” said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. “I don’t think it took a genius to see this coming.”
There is no national data on less-serious instances of violence in schools, but teachers and school administrators across the country say they are seeing a rise in everything from minor misbehaviors to fighting in the hallways.
With these incidents increasing, it’s important that schools review their safety and security procedures to determine if monitoring systems and upgrades might be in order. Our Sonitrol Great Lakes Education Market experts can help locate and analyze weak points and provide options for improvements. Contact us to learn more.