Violence in the public schools Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Violence in the public schools - Research Paper Example Other forms of violence such as assault with or without weapons, theft, kicking, biting, and gang violence can lead to serious injury and to some extreme cases death (McCluskey 75-77). The public schools teachers have rated the following as the most common disciplinary problems in public schools. They consist of; talking out of turn, making noise, violations of the dress code, littering, drug and alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, and assault. This is because socialization in the public schools is often violent and cruel. Bullying, peer pressure, sexual tensions, racial cliques, and the competition for the approval of the teacher often create a stressful and violent environment. Cameron (57-59) reported that bullying can actually leave anyone feeling angry, frightened, depressed, and totally undermined. The children’s acts of bullying crop up because the bullies have a biased concept that the bully acts are justified According to Snell and Volokh (45-6) assert that the risk factors that contribute to violent behavior is attributed to the following: poverty which typically lays a foundation of discontent and anger; illegitimacy and breakdown of families, which often lead children to seek for stability and caring environments of gangs. They act violently during periods of unsupervised time. Moreover, the constantly shifting school demographics often reflect huge upheavals as communities undergo changes in economic well being, size, and racial and ethnic mix can impact negatively on the behavior of the youth. Next is that some of the children are subjected to neglect, sexual, and substance abuse by their parents making them to develop negative violent behavior pattern Another factor is societal violence rates and the juvenile violence rates. This makes the children to be affiliated to certain subcultures in the society. The subcultures decision to affiliate and