An increasing number of students are carrying a weapon to school. The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey reports that 20% of high school students nationwide reported carrying a weapon in school (Youth, 2002, 1). Yet, while many continue to argue that ethnicity or race plays a significant role in the increase of violence among youth in schools, the CSPV argues that “the strongest predictors for school violence rates are local neighborhood crime rates” (School, 2002, 1). Such a predictor demonstrates tha

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Such violence that is racially motivated appears to be the norm at many high schools across the nation. In one recent incident that has legal significance, a Native American high school student was neurologically and psychologically traumatized after being attacked by a group of students because of her race. The Supreme Court cited “peer harassment” and found the school district liable (Zirkel, 2000, 635). However, one must note the irony of such cases because of the fact that inner-city poverty-ridden neighborhoods often are filled with minorities who, as minorities, are unsafe in the school setting. As Professor of Education at Lehigh University Perry A. Zirkel (2000) argues, “One cannot help but notice the irony in this case that in the ghettoized inner city, where the minorities constitute the majority, the victim was a Native American. For America’s schools and society, are the cities the new frontier?” (635).

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Anonymous. (2002). School violence and social conditions, (Fact Sheet). Center for the Study & Prevention of Violence, Available: http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/publications/factsheets/schoolviolence/FS-SV05.html, 1.