ABSTRACT
As an issue of law enforcement, school violence is synonymous with criminal activities that occur at school: gang wars, illicit drug use, vandalism, weapon possession, and personal assault. From an educator’s perspective, school violence encompasses those behaviors that seriously disrupt the safe learning environment of a classroom or school. For students, ‘school violence is anything that makes us afraid to come to and stay at school’ (Grade 7 female). School violence, as recognized by students, is not limited to schools in large urban centers. Surreptitious and often subtle forms of violence such as intimidation, harassment, and discrimination can occur in any school: urban, rural, public, separate, suburban or inner-city. Although officials in many schools believe it to be a minor issue, probably because it has not come to their attention, it is not a lowkey problem for students. In many schools, young people are accepting physical or psychological conflicts as a natural part of adolescence. Students tolerate conflicts and behaviors because they feel powerless to do anything about it. Adults would not have to endure such conditions. Adults, for example, would not be subjected to racial taunting in the workplace, or be expected to endure insults directed at body size, clothing or accent. It would be rare, in the adult world, for an individual to be shoved up against a wall, knocked to the ground, spat upon, groped, attacked by a group of colleagues for coffee money, or denied access to the bathroom until they forfeited their ballcaps. Adults would be in a position to ameliorate such conditions. But this is reality for an increasing number of students in our schools.
