The Power of Research in the Fight Against School Violence

Note: This article discusses gun violence and bullying. If you or someone you know is in crisis, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline—(800) 273-8255—offers free, confidential support from trained counselors.

The murders of 19 students and 2 teachers and wounding of 17 more people in Uvalde, TX mark the deadliest school shooting since 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT.?Even as this most recent incident marks an extreme, it is painful to reflect on how commonplace these tragedies have become.

While we may never fully understand the motivations behind an individual act of violence, we do know a lot about their broad characteristics. GAO’s June 2020 work on school shootings identified the following characteristics of shootings inside and on school grounds. Using the Naval Postgraduate School's K-12 School Shooting Database, we identified 318 school shootings in school years 2009-10 through 2018-19. ?

• Shootings motivated by disputes were most common, followed by accidental shootings, and school-targeted shootings
• Half were committed by current or former students
• Half occurred in Southern states
• Suburban and rural, wealthier, and whiter schools had more school-targeted shootings; such shootings were most commonly committed by students or former students, more commonly occurred inside schools, and were the deadliest (more than half of the 166 fatalities were the result of school-targeted shootings.)
• Urban, poor, and high-minority schools had more shootings overall and more motivated by disputes; these shootings were most often committed by non-students or unknown shooters, more commonly occurred outside, and were less deadly.

We also know a lot about violence in schools more broadly, and that it is on the rise:

• The number of physical attacks (with and without weapons) in schools increased from school year 2015-16 to 2017-18
• The number of physical attacks with weapons almost doubled during this same time period

Most importantly, we know that improving school climates reduces violence in schools. Research tells us that hostile behaviors, including bullying and harassment, are at the root of many of violent incidents at schools: Research also tells us that bullying and harassment negatively affect students’ short- and long-term mental health, education, and overall well-being. Uvalde is a tragic example of this – we know that the shooter was bullied. And no place is immune: bullying occurs in nearly every school—1 in 5 students aged 12-18 are bullied each year, and one in four students aged 12-18 see hate words or symbols at school.

As policymakers at all levels—local, state, and federal--consider tools and strategies available to address gun violence and other forms of violence, they should look to what research tells us.

?GAO’s November 2021 work on student’s experiences with bullying and victimization shows that social-emotional learning programs, peer mediation, and restorative circles made a small but statistically significant difference in school climate. Schools that used them had slightly less bullying occur regularly than schools that did not offer such programs. Experts also shared with us that schools experiencing bullying on a regular basis—daily, weekly, and monthly—can benefit from this type of supportive programming.

What kinds of monitoring and security mechanisms made the most difference??Turns out some of the simplest ones were also the most effective:

• Students attending schools where there were options to anonymously report hostile behaviors were less likely to hear hate-related speech or to get into fights
• Students attending schools where staff supervised students in hallways were less likely to say they experienced or witnessed emotional bullying or heard hate speech.

These issues are even more important in the wake of the pandemic’s impact on the existing mental health crisis among US youth. Indeed, a new National Commission on Education Statistics survey reports that only 12 percent of schools strongly agreed with the statement: “My school is able to effectively provide mental health services to all students in need.”

?Of the rest, 44 percent of schools said they moderately agreed with this statement, while the other 44 percent either disagreed or did not express a view, with respondents citing insufficient staffing and insufficient funding as the reason for the gap. In that same pulse survey, 70 percent of public schools reported that the percentage of students seeking mental health services had increased since the start of the pandemic.

These numbers sadly do not surprise me; we estimated that only about half of schools offer mental health assessments and even fewer – about 38% -- offer mental health treatment. We also know that some of the nation’s most vulnerable students attend schools that frequently have no mental health services or school counselors available.

As a policy analyst and a mother, these statistics break my heart and haunt my dreams. My childhood memories of school emergency drills are of fire drills. My daughters, both born post-Columbine, carry far more disturbing memories. Theirs are of active shooter drills starting in kindergarten.

The thing I find particularly vexing is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Research is a powerful weapon in the fight against school violence. We know what works. Research-informed investments should pave the way forward.

To learn more, see two recent GAO reports that address these issues:

?K-12 Education: Characteristics of School Shootings. Published June 9, 2020

K-12 Education: Students' Experiences with Bullying, Hate Speech, Hate Crimes, and Victimization in Schools. Published November 24, 2021?