ABSTRACT
Parents, teachers, and students rightfully expect that school environments must be safe havens, free from violence, giving students a positive environment in which to learn and to grow. Unfortunately, as headlines too often proclaim, violence does frequently occur in school settings. And, as Kevorkian and D'Antona (2008) suggested, conceptions of violence need not be limited to physical attacks:
Name-calling that makes a child feel anxious, angry, or unworthy may diminish a student’s drive for education. Many times this will happen in front of peers. Teasing can have severe and even life-long consequences. Exposed to this type of abuse for a long time, these children may become incapable of reaching their potential. They actually feel like they deserve to be picked on. Kids are left feeling like they are not important and don’t belong in school. (p. 21)
