Gun violence is rising in schools, but overall crime is down, government report shows

Gun violence has become more prevalent in K-12 schools compared to a decade earlier, a new report from the Education Department shows. At the same time, bullying and violence against students and teachers on school campuses declined.

The report, published on July 25, highlights the changing environment of K-12 schools, which can "help inform policymakers and practitioners of the nature, extent, and scope of the problem being addressed as they develop programs aimed at violence and school crime prevention," the report's authors wrote.

Earlier this summer, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, issuing a 39-page advisory on initiatives to prevent firearm deaths. The advisory said the rate of firearm-related deaths “reached a near three-decade high in 2021."

Gun violence became the leading cause of death in children and teens in 2020 and remained that way in 2021 and 2022, according to KFF, a nonprofit news organization that conducts health policy research and polling.

Here's what you need to know about crime on school campus:

General crime on school campus is declining

In the decade before 2022, crime committed on public school property dropped. That includes student fights and physical attacks on teachers. Gang violence and hate-related graffiti also declined, according to the report.

The rate of high schoolers carrying a weapon on school property at least once in the past month also dropped from a decade prior. And the percentage of students and staff who reported being threatened or attacked with a weapon on campus declined between the 2011-2012 school year and 2021-2022 school year. The report reflects the most recently available data.

Cyberbullying is more common than traditional bullying

Bullying has long been a reality at public schools – especially middle schools, where pre-teen students are undergoing major physical and emotional changes. However, according to federal data, cyberbullying has become slightly more common than traditional bullying. Separate polling by the Pew Research Center, also conducted in 2022, found that nearly half of U.S. teens reported experiencing at least one form of cyberbullying.  

For kids ages 12 to 18, about 19.2% reported being bullied during school in the 2021-2022 school year, the report from the Education Department shows. A decade prior, 28% of kids reported the same.

Of the students who were bullied, young women were more likely to experience it compared to their male classmates.

Gun violence persists in schools

The threat of gun violence has become a fact of life for America’s schools. Schools across the nation are going into lockdown on a more regular basis, and roughly one in four teachers in a nationally representative survey from the Pew research Center said their campus had at least one gun-related lockdown in the last school year.

The report from the Education Department found that the rate of student firearm possessions in the 2021-2022 school year was higher than any other year in the previous decade.

In 2022 alone, 52 people were killed or wounded in an active shooter incident on school campus. This was the second highest number of causalities from an active shooter incident on campus, following 2018, when 81 people were killed or wounded.

Contributing, Alia Wong, Paste BN