|
STUDENTS AGAINST VIOLENCE EVERYWHERE AND CHEVROLET RELEASE NATIONAL SURVEY
MEDIA ADVISORY:
Students Against Violence Everywhere and Chevrolet School Violence Survey:
Survey Finds Teens More Willing To Break "Code Of Silence"
When There Is A Threat To School Safety
Teens More Likely to Report Threats
By Tamara Henry, USA TODAY,
April 11, 2002
Today's teens, fed up with random student shootings and
pervasive fear on school campuses, are increasingly likely to report peers who
carry weapons or plan violence, says a new report.
Eighty-one percent of teens surveyed by the Opinion Research
Corp. International say they are more willing than in the past to report students
if they believe that there is a threat to school safety. Only 26% say they would
tell a parent if they learned of a school violence threat that they thought
was real, but 43% would turn to a teacher and 42% to a principal.
Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), a group based
in Raleigh, N.C., with 88,000 student members, mainly in schools and youth clubs,
commissioned the survey of 501 teens Feb. 28-March 4. The margin of error was
+/- 4 percentage points.
Results are to be released at a teen summit Saturday —
one week before the third anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.
On April 20, 1999, two teens fatally shot 12 students and a teacher before killing
themselves at the Colorado school.
"It doesn't surprise me, but it gratifies me" that students
are more willing to break the "code of silence," says Bill Bond, former principal
of a high school in West Paducah, Ky., where a 14-year-old killed three students
Dec. 1, 1997.
He now travels the country for the National Association
of Secondary School Principals to work on school safety with administrators.
His advice to principals? Make yourself accessible and make students key players.
He says the personal relationships a principal builds with students are better
protection than metal detectors.
Five days before the fatal shootings at Paducah, "I know
eight kids that saw the gun. Not one single one of them told. They didn't want
to get him in trouble."
The student, Michael Carneal, was sentenced to life in
prison with no chance for parole for at least 25 years.
Randy Jensen, principal of William Thomas Middle School
in American Falls, Idaho, says any student caught with a weapon in his school
district automatically goes before an expulsion hearing. "We really try to impress
on our students they are really doing someone a favor" by reporting weapons.
The survey also found that after Columbine, schools are
using a balance of physical and non-physical measures to curb violence:
- 50% of teens surveyed say they go to more school assemblies on violence,
anti-bullying and similar themes.
- 49% note the addition of on-campus police or security officers.
- 49% say conflict resolution is taught in classes.
- 47% note more physical security at school.
"Schools are still safe places, but we have to do more
to provide that continued level of safety," says Pam Riley, SAVE's executive
director. "We don't want to turn schools into prisons, but we do want to provide
that level of comfort."
For more information on this survey, please contact the National Association of
Students Against Violence Everywhere at 866-343-SAVE.
National Association of Students Against Violence Everywhere
SAVE: Youth Voices... Grown-Up Choices! Toll Free 866-343-SAVE
For more information contact cwray@nationalsave.org / Copyright 2007
|
|
