Violence in Rural Schools

Abstract

Often considered largely an urban problem, school violence has been found to be unusually high in rural schools near the US-Mexico border. Beyond being a social problem and a public health problem, school violence is an educational problem, limiting the ability of students to learn. Seventh through twelfth graders (n = 2,746) in thirty-eight rural school districts were surveyed regarding their involvement in school violence and victimization. More than half of the boys had fought with fists or weapons in the past year at school. More than half of the boys had carried a knife at school. Eighteen percent of fifteen to seventeen year old boys had carried a handgun at school. In the past year 16 percent of students had been robbed, 37 percent had been threatened, and 15 percent had been attacked (often repeatedly) while at school. Ten percent had someone try to force them to have sex against their will while at school. A constellation of factors was found to be related to involvement in school violence. These provided the basis for recommended prevention strategies.