Prevention of Violence in Schools Essay Example

the media, legislators and the general public.

Causes of School Violence

Access to weapons; in the early 1980s and 1990s teen, gun violence had increased very dramatically in the United States. More teens continued to have access to guns and carry them around and thus increasing gun injuries and deaths (Gerdes). According to an interview that was carried out into one thousand, two hundred and nineteen students it was found that forty-two percent of them claimed that they could easily access a gun if they wanted to.

Twenty-Eight percent stated that they have handled a gun without an adult’s supervision or knowledge, and seventeen percent confessed to having had a concealed a gun at some point (Garrett). According to the report that was issued by the University of Southern California school of medicine, close to 35% of families with children who were aged below eighteen years own at least one or more firearms. This gives an indication that roughly eleven million young people live in homes with guns. The very you ten can be in a position to buy handguns from illegal sales of weapons which exist in the street without a comprehensive knowledge of the government. Media violence; According to a study carried out, by the time an American child reaches the seventh grade, they will have witness close to eight thousand murders on more than a hundred thousand acts of violence on the television.

The research was carried out in 1956 on twenty-four children who watched either a non-violent cartoon or a violent cartoon. The subsequent observations that were made during the interaction showed that the children who watch a violent cartoon on the television

were more likely to break toys and hit other children than those who watched non-violent cartoons. In 1963, D. Ross, S.A Ross, and Professor A. Badura conducted a study on the effects of television violence, real-world violence and cartoon violence.

They made four groups from a hundred preschool children. One group was set to watch a real person hurl insults to an inflatable doll while at the same time hitting it with a mallet. Group two watch that incident ion a television. The third group watches the same cartoon version on television while the fourth group was set to watch nothing at all. When all the four groups were subjected to a frustrating situation in real life, it was observed that the three groups responded with more violence and aggression than the fourth group which watched nothing. A recently published journal by the psychological science institute in 2004 revealed and confirmed that violent films, video games, and music showed an equivocal fact that the media violence have the effect of increasing the likelihood of violent behaviour and aggression.

Cyber Abuse. Since the advent of the internet in the early 1990s, violent, internet based video games have been witness to be gaining popularity while at the same time cyber technology has been becoming more sophisticated. A psychologist in the Ohio state university conducted research that focused on the effects of exposure of violent video games to children and adolescents. According to the research, it was observed that the high school students that had a more exposure to these violent video games had more hostile personalities, pro-violet attitudes, believed violence to be an ordinary thing, were less forgiving and

were aggressive in their everyday lives.

Environmental Impact

a) School environment. Many young children in school have been seen to have formed gangs that help the members serve their common interest.

The majority of these groping have been reported to be violent. When a member of their group is treated badly, they are seen to respond and revenge as a group. His groups comprised of bullies are usually feared by other and students tend to keep away from such groups. The population of the school has also got an impact on the level of violence in the school.

The school with very high population have been seen to have difficulties in disciplinary issues than small populated schools. The school with more than a thousand students have been seen to have more than 34% of cases of disrespecting and assaulting a teacher at least once per week (MacKay).Analysis done at the middle school found that at least seven percent of the eighth grade stay at home almost a month to avoid bullying from a colleague. A seventh grade is a victim of a typical robbery or attack at school who has been bullied by a boy of his age. b) Community environment. When the community is not responsive to the needs of children and families, the negligence develops to school violence. Juvenile statistics indicate that due to lack of after-school supervision, youth violence tends to rise to above average in the late evening.

Such case where the violence of a child develops is when it starts and the school breaks for the holiday where there is an unsupervised and unstructured time (Netshitangani). Transformation of communities has also been linked

with school violence. A constant shift in the demographics off schools often results in larger upheavals since the community undergo changes in economic well-being, racial and ethnic mix and changes in community size. c) Family environments. The culture expects the parents to be the instrument to mould the behaviour of the children.

With the current economic conditions, he parents are involved more in meeting the daily needs of the family to the expense of having the time to teach the children (Netshitangani). Such failures have resulted in children adopting bad behaviour unnoticed, and eventually, some incidences of violence occur due to lack of healthy habits (Ncontsa and Shumba).

What School Can Do to Prevent School Violence?

Weapons; the school committee should set rules and regulation that limits the carrying of weapons to school. The student should be taught by examples the dangers of having weapons to school. Students should be encouraged to report those who happen to have any weapon inside the school (Jekielek).

The school should be fitted with metal detectors at every entrance of the school to ensure that the arms such as guns, knives and metal bars do not enter into the school compound. The school should liaise with the government in fighting the sale of illegal arms in the streets where students can access them. By the fact that many homes have been seen to be having, at least, a form of weapons, the teachers and the administration should encourage the parents to keep such weapons out of the reach and access of their children (Shuffelton). Video games and the internet; the internet access in school should be limited to the sites that

are academically helpful to the children. The teachers in charge should carefully monitor the computer laboratory in the school with the help of the lab technicians to ensure that the students are limited to what they access (Shuffelton).

The teacher should take the initiative of inculcating a culture of responsive use of the internet and advice on the games that the students should avoid where possible. This should be carried to ensure that at least the students can be responsible when the access such technological services in the absence of any supervision. The parents should be advised on the television and the general media programs and shows that they should check on what children watch. This should be done using well-structured methodologies since there are the psychological tendencies of people wanting more of what has been illegalized. Counselling in school; the school should have a department of psychologists and counsellors who ought to be utilized maximally to the advantage of the children.

These professionals have received train on the behaviour of children and can be very helpful in reducing the incidence of violence. They can be very instrumental in helping children with violent issues before the problems escalate to higher levels. The teachers and the counsellors should be vigilant to study the students that are likely to have potentials of causing violence. Such students should be offered with counselling and guidance so that they do not become violent in future. When the students are seen to be involved in fights with others, destruction of property, intense anger for petty reasons and suicidal threats are seen, an immediate action should be taken as they are an imminent warning

of violence potential (Murtonen et al.). Extra curriculum activities; making the children read all day long may lead to damage of the brains.

Parents and teachers should make efforts in organizing other educating activities to give the children to balance education. It has been seen in the past people choosing a career from their hobbies. These activities are useful in filling the voids that would be otherwise be used for causing violence. During the school sponsored event, the movement to and from such activities should be kept in check.

Elder student should be mandated to maintain order to other to ensure cases of fights and violence do no crop up during such occasions (Wondemaghen). Parental Involvement; as far as culture is regarded, the parent serves as first person to modify the behaviour of the child. The school should be at the forefront to encourage the parent to spend time with their children so that they can know their morals. This should be done despite the harsh economic pressure that is on the parents, during the holiday the parent should engage the children to ensure thy have limited time to be exposed to violent circumstances. Parents should be encouraged to take their responsibilities seriously. If timely l support, love, care and guidance are given by the parent, the likelihood of a child going astray is very minimal (Shuffelton).

Comprehensive admissions; the schools should only ensure that they admit the number of students that they can handle. Having too many students in the same compounds is hard to maintain the discipline to the young people. The student -teacher ratio should be standardizing so that the teachers do not have a

hard time in handling the children.

References

1. Almond, Lucinda. School Violence. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Print.
2. Daniels, Peggy. School Violence. Detroit, Mich.: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print.
3. Garrett, Anne G. Bullying In American Schools. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2003.

   Print.

4. Gerdes, Louise I. The Columbine School Shooting. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Print.
5. Jekielek, Susan.

   Public School Practices For Violence Prevention And Reduction, 2003-04. Jessup, MD: National Center for Education

6. Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Dept. of Education, 2007. Print.
7. MacKay, Jenny. The Columbine School Shooting.

   Detroit, MI: Lucent Books, 2010. Print.

8. Murtonen, Kalle et al. "Adolescents' Experiences Of Psychosocial Support After Traumatisation In A School Shooting". Child and
9. Adolescent Mental Health 17.1 (2011): 23-30. Web.
10. Ncontsa, Vusumzi Nelson, and Almon Shumba.

    "The Nature, Causes And Effects Of School Violence In South African High Schools". SAJE 33.3 (2013): 1-15. Web.

11. Netshitangani, T. "Causes Of School-Based Violence In South African Public Schools: Application Of Normalisation Theory To Understand The Phenomenon Through Educators’ Perspectives".

    MJSS (2014): n. pag. Web.

12. Shaver, Phillip R, and Mario Mikulincer. Human Aggression And Violence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2011.

    Print.

13. Shuffelton, Amy. "Theorizing Gun Violence In Schools: Philosophy, Not Silver Bullets". Educational Theory 65.4 (2015): 363-369. Web.
14. Teasley, M.

    L. "School Violence Reduction And Related Services Personnel". Children & Schools 35.4 (2013): 195-198. Web.

15. Wondemaghen, M. "Media Construction Of A School Shooting As A Social Problem".

    Journalism 15.6 (2013): 696-712. Web.