School safety is a critical issue for school staff, policy makers, and parents. Efforts to promote safety often focus on reducing school violence and disorder, including zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, metal detectors, and police officers in schools. Yet little is known about how safe students feel at school and how safety varies within schools. Using survey data for the population of middle school students in a large urban school district, this article identifies gaps in feelings of safety between Black students, Hispanic students, and their White and Asian peers. Key characteristics of schools and neighborhoods that relate to safety gaps are identified.
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