Students' perceptions of violence in the public schools: The MetLife survey

Purpose: To investigate secondary school students' perceptions of violence in American public schools. Methods: Subjects included 726 public school students in grades 7 through 12. A two-stage clustered and stratified (by grade level, region, and location) sample design was used to obtain the sample. Each student completed a self-administered survey instrument under the supervision of their teacher. Results: The sample was 54% female and the majority of students were white. One in five students reported living in a neighborhood with a lot or some crime. In the majority of cases, males, students from neighborhoods in which crime was prevalent, and students with low academic achievement were most likely to have committed acts of violence. Almost a third of the boys, 7% of girls, and 40% of those who earned poor grades reported having ever carried a weapon to school. One in ten boys and almost 20% of those who earned poor grades reported threatening a teacher. One in four students reported having ever been a victim of violence at or around school, and 14% were very worried or somewhat worried about being physically attacked or hurt at school. One in four students believed the efforts by their schools to address violence were less than adequate. Conclusions: Schools cannot ignore the need to create a safe environment by coordinating deterrents to violence through discipline, prevention, and education. Because schools alone cannot eliminate the problem of violence, communities must also be involved by working with the schools to create a safe and nurturing environment which fosters learning.