diversified, and everyone probably has their own opinion of what they are. For example, teachers perceive that the major factors contributing to student violence are lack of parental supervision at home (71 percent), lack of family involvement with the school (66 percent), and exposure to violence in the mass media (55 percent) (taken from The American Teacher, 1993). Today's children are pretty bright, they realize that since both of their parents work if they do something wrong at school it will be very hard to contact their parents. They also probably believe that even if the school gets in touch with their parents that they will be too busy to respond to the school other than by just answering the phone. Compounding these problems even further, when children repeatedly get into trouble, parents may still refuse to deal with the situation and have their sitters or housekeepers take care of the problem. Some parents may even believe there is nothing they can do to control their children, or that the school itself is the one to fault and not their children. Why can't the school do more to control the actions of the students? After all, they see them more than we do.This thought process along with the student violence itself poses serious problems to our schools and the future of our society in general. But who is to blame; who is ultimately responsible; and what can be done to remedy these problems? This new educational environment, which in some respects often resembles a war zone, has created a need for society to develop programs that will offer a safe learning environment for all children and the teachers who teach them. Since laws demand that children attend school, schools have the inherent responsibility to provide them with a safe place where they can learn. To reach this goal most schools have taken technological steps (such as metal detectors and/or police guards) to try to stop some of the more violent acts from ...
