NEW REPORT PAINTS GRIM PICTURE OF SAFETY IN SCHOOLS
A new report entitled“The State of School Safety in American Schools 2004-2005” speaks of sexual assault, violent cliques and violent parents as commonplace in the nations schools.
The report was developed by the SERAPH Research team of SERAPH.net, a group composed of educators and crime researchers. The team used interviews with 1,520 educators, 925 law enforcement officials and numerous scientific studies to create a detailed assessment of problems facing American schools.
“In 2000,” states research team leader Dale Yeager, “The United States Human Rights Projects' National Campaign to Fight for Children asked SERAPH to create a detailed report on school safety for select members of the U.S. Congress. Because of the misconceptions about school safety by the public and many legislators, we felt that releasing this year’s report to the public would assist in educating people about the problem.”
The report covers many areas not traditionally discussed in school safety research, such as young children and aggression; educational philosophies and student aggression; health issues and school safety; sexually transmitted diseases; piercing and tattoos; girl aggression, sexism and school safety; and youth-on-youth sex aggression.
“The issue of school safety affects everyone in society. Juvenile crime, domestic violence and poverty are tied to school safety issues. The report will provide factual information to the public so that they can understand the complexity of the problem and provide information to legislators so that they can assist schools in preventing and managing school safety issues,” Yeager says.
The report is available online at .