
Education Trends and Updates
School Crime Falls
Crime
in United States Schools fell sharply from 1992 to 2002 according to the
federal Justice and Education Departments. School crime dropped to an
annual rate of 24 violent incidents per 100,000 students. But in 2002
alone there were still 659,000 student victims of rape, robbery and
aggravated assault. In 2003, 7 percent of students said they were
bullied at school and 21 percent reported street gangs in their school.
In 1999, 9 percent of teachers were threatened with injury by a student
and 4 percent were physically attacked by a student.
School
Fights
According to the National Center for
Education Statistics, 7.2 percent of girls in grades 9-12 reported
engaging in a physical fight on school property. Boys reported 18
percent.
School Safety and Student Attendance
According
to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one out of every 20 high
school students skipped school at least one day because of safety
concerns in 2003. That number is up from 4.4 percent in 1993.
Phone
Camera Ban?
Officials at the
National Association of School Resource Officers calls cell phone
cameras, "a major concern." Schools and school districts
are beginning to seriously consider the impacts of cameras at
school. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, camera
phone sales grew from 1.2 million in 2001 to 6.3 million in 2003 and
estimates sales to double in 2004 and triple in 2005. Perhaps in a
related story, the Freedonia Group reports that the electronic security
market in the U.S. will increase 8.7 percent yearly through 2008 to
$15.5 billion a year.
Special Education
U.S.
federal changes in the law governing our 6.5 million special education
students was signed by President Bush early December 2004.
The law according to Congressional representatives will
reduce "red tape," and the sometimes adversarial relationship
between parents and school districts. For example, parents will need to
submit to mediation or other meetings to give school officials
opportunities to resolve disputes. Parents of special needs
students will also have the burden of proof shifted to them to prove
that their student's disability caused disruptive behavior. The
law also targets the disproportionate share of minority students tracked
for special services.
Dressing
to Express
The issue of student
dress codes in the U.S. has once again become a challenge for
schools. Monetary damages were awarded this year to a student
plaintiff in New York for wrongful removal of a T shirt at school.
Currently in Kansas City, a high school student filed a lawsuit over
denial of his civil rights for wearing his T shirt.
NAACP
Sues over Student Discipline
Disproportionate
disciplining of minority students continues to be an issue in American
schools. Recently the NAACP filed suit on behalf of 14 black students,
ages 10 to 17.
Sexual
Misconduct by School Employees
According
to report by Hofstra University's School of Education, more than 4.5
million school children are forced to endure sexual misconduct by school
employees from inappropriate comments to physical abuse. The best
estimate is that almost one in 10 children, sometime between
kindergarten and 12th grade, are targets of behavior ranging from
unprofessional to criminal.
ATMs
at School?
The
Illinois-based Teen Research Unlimited surveyed 2,000 students and found
that one in 200 had access to a cash machine at school.
Police
in Schools
A Texas police
department uses wireless surveillance technology to monitor inside
school buildings from a laptop in a police car. And a recent survey of
5,500 law enforcement agencies showed 32 percent of school resource
officers carry stun guns at school.