Violence in schools has spread widely throughout the nation. This has caused
many problems among students, families, faculty of schools, and residents of the
areas. In my paper I will discuss the reasons why violence in schools exists and
what could or "should" be done about it. Violence In Schools Violence
in schools has spread widely throughout the nation. This has caused many
problems among students, families, faculty of schools, and residents of the
areas. However, their are many possible ways we can stop all this violence in
schools. Almost three-fourths of the United States teens are afraid of violent
crime amongst their peers(Apfel 23). Violence in schools has become a big
problem in todays society. With all the people being injured or killed in
schools by guns and other weapons, more and more people are getting more weapons
to bring in to schools. Nearly half of all males and one-third of all students
including females said they can easily obtain a handgun if they wanted to(Glazer
14). The cause of violence can be blamed on many things but 1 mainly. And that
one thing is drugs and gangs. Now that more people are selling and buying drugs,
people are making money to buy weapons. Gangs, since they came around violence
has been increasing steadily. The spread of gangs and drugs has also been
implicated in the increasing violence of school youths(Glazer 14). Experts have
also said that most violent conflicts among school-age children can be traced
back to long- simmering disputes(Apfel 21). Carrying guns and other weapons
around schools is becoming more and more popular all around the world. People
think that carrying guns around schools with them will make them cool or fit in
with other people like themselves. They're wrong. More and more people who are
carrying guns around schools today are getting caught and having them taken
away. Since schools have gotten metal detectors and scanners, they have cut down
the rate of having handguns in schools by nearly 58%(Glazer 5). Security experts
have reported that there is no evidence that a metal detector will solve the
problem of violence in schools, even though it offers a highly-visible symbol to
the community(Apfel 22). Even if the schools with all the gun violence in their
schools do put in metal detectors at the front entrances of schools, their are
many ways kids can sneak in weapons to school. In 1990 congress made it a felony
to bring a gun within one-thousand feet of any school under the "Gun-Free
School Zones" provision of the 1990 crime prevention package. This law wont
help very much because of the fact that students can sneak in weapons through
bathroom windows, or an unguarded entrance during recess(Glazer 6). So their
isn't really a safe and reliable way to keep guns away from schools. Security
has become a big part of schools today. More and more schools have been getting
metal detectors installed. The N.Y. city public schools report that since the
introduction to metal detectors in 1988, serious incidents have declined by 58%
in schools with scanners and by 43% without them(Glazer 5). Every school should
start putting in metal detectors and scanners if they want to cut down violence.
Some schools districts that experimented with metal detectors for a short time
found them a bit frustrating(Gordon 27). It has become very easy to obtain a
gun. A survey of Baltimore public-schools students showed that the four most
prevalent places to get guns are street corners, friends, drug dealers, and
thieves(Gordon 29). And kids all over the world are getting guns from all these
places but nobody is doing anything about it. It is very easy for someone to
obtain a handgun. All they have to do is go to one of these four places and buy
one. Where do they get the money to buy these guns you ask? From selling drugs.
If we could stop the selling of drugs just by maybe 20% or even 15%, their would
be a whole less violence due to the lack of money. So nobody would be able to
buy a weapon. Teachers are in as much danger of being killed or attacked as kids
are school. The risk of a teacher being attacked by a student has doubled since
1956(Glazer 20). This is a lot considering that you don't hear about too many
teacher attacks on the news but you do hear about teens being killed.
Approximately 100 teachers have been assaulted annually in the past four school
years(Glazer 8). The big problem involving violence is how we can stop the
violence from spreading and increasing. Not nearly as many teens would have guns
if they didn't get the money from selling drugs(Gordon 30). So if we can stop
the selling of drugs, less people will have money to buy guns and their will be
less violence. We can also blame our parents for violence. When parents buy a
gun and put it away, their kid could get a hold of it and bring it to school and
already your in trouble. This is why parents should lock away their weapons not
just stick it in a draw or on the top shelf of a closet. Parents are responsible
for the conduct and safety of their children and buy keeping a gun where they
can get hold of it their putting them in danger(Glazer 29). Violence has caused
many problems. Many people have been killed or seriously injured because of
violence. What we should do to try and prevent violence in schools from
increasing is teach our children young about this stuff and don't keep a weapon
around the house unless it's necessary. And if you do keep a weapon in your
house. keep it where it can't be found that easily. 
Bibliography
Glazer, Sarah. "Violence In Schools." CQ Researcher(Sept. 11,1992):
787- 818. Ed. Elanor Goldstein. Vol. 14. Boca Raton: Sirs,1992. Art. 78. Witkin,
Gordon. "Kids Who Kill." U.S. News and World Report(April 8,1991):
26-35. Ed. Elanor Goldstein. Vol. 4. Boca Raton: Sirs, 1991. Art. 5. Apfel, Ira.
"Teen Violence: Real or Imagined?" American Demographics (June, 1995).
22-23.