School violence and bullying - What it entails, what’s behind it and ways to deal with it

School violence and bullying

What it entails, what’s behind it and ways to deal with it

Meant to be safe learning havens, schools throughout the world are struggling with apparently increasing levels of violence.

Shootings have tended to dominate headlines, with a widespread perception that the phenomenon is worst in the USA. However, the data on Infoplease.com shows that it’s widespread throughout the world.

From Dunblane in Scotland in 1996 through the years to Alaska, Yemen, Germany, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Finland, Brazil, Norway, France, Argentina, Nigeria, Kenya and Mexico, children have died in school shootings, and the likelihood is that it’s only a matter of time before the next tragedy takes place.

South Africa has also buried children over the years, the victims of shootings that took place in schools and on campuses in Soweto, the Free State, the Eastern Cape and Cape Town among others.

A global problem We know that school shootings are attacks on educational institutions using firearms. Perhaps not as well-known is that, according to Wikipedia, incidents resulting in four or more deaths are also categorised as mass shootings. The phenomenon, says Wikipedia, is most widespread in the United States but takes place “in many countries across the world”.

According to a report by UNESCO, released at the 2019 Education World Forum in London in January this year, school violence and bullying are serious problems globally.

Its findings, from 144 countries, a report by UNESCO revealed that almost one out of every three pupils or 32 per cent had been bullied at school, and a similar number had experienced some form of physical violence. Aside from the main forms of bullying: physical, sexual and psychological, the report also noted the increase of online and mobile phone bullying.

What’s behind school shootings and other forms of violence? Widespread studies reveal multiple factors at play. These include but are not limited to dysfunctional families, mental illness and psychological issues as well as gangsterism, racism and radicalism.

What’s become increasingly obvious in recent years is that there is no single one size fits all attacker profile. Infoplease. com refers to the results of a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the USA many years ago, which after analysing 18 school shootings, described shooters as “middle-class, lonely/alienated, awkward, Caucasian males who had access to guns.”

The most recent report, however, says Infoplease.com, cautions “against the assumption that a perpetrator can be identified by a certain ‘type’ or profile”. “The results from the study” it continues, “indicated that perpetrators came from varying backgrounds, making a singular profile difficult when identifying a possible assailant. For example, some perpetrators were children of divorce, lived in foster homes, or came from intact nuclear families. The majority of individuals had rarely or never gotten into trouble at school and had a healthy social life.”

Solutions The UNESCO report says that, despite the gravity of the problem, some countries have made significant progress towards reducing or containing school violence and bullying. “Bullying has decreased in almost half of the 71 countries and territories studied and a similar proportion of countries has also seen a decrease in physical fights or physical attacks, the report says.

“These countries have a number of successful factors in common, notably a commitment to promoting a safe and positive school climate and classroom environment, effective systems for reporting and monitoring school violence and bullying, evidence-based programmes and interventions, training and support for teachers, support and referral for affected students, student empowerment and participation.”

“Political leadership and high-level commitment, together with a robust legal and policy framework that addresses violence against children and school violence and bullying, have proved effective in reducing or maintaining a low prevalence of school violence and bullying.”

Stefania Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education says: “We are greatly encouraged that nearly half of countries with available data have decreased rates of school violence and bullying. This proves that through a combination of strong political leadership and other factors such as training, collaboration, reporting and monitoring, we can alleviate the climate of fear created by school bullying and violence. All children and young people have the right to safe, inclusive and effective learning environments.”

Meri Wallace, writing on psychologytoday. com, says survivors of school violence are renewing their campaign for greater gun control, a political hot potato in the USA. “Preventing children from access to guns can surely make a huge difference. But,” she warns, “it’s important to be aware that studies have shown that in gunless cultures, children use knives to attack other students.”

Technology Craig Badrick, CEO of USA-based Turn-key Technologies Inc, stresses the role that cutting-edge technology has to play to prevent the next national tragedy” in his blog titled: School security systems: What’s now and what’s next.

“With the unfortunate rise in school shootings over the past two decades, administrators, teachers, parents, and students are advocating for better security in their districts. While the vast majority of schools have implemented basic safeguards, the capabilities of those security systems vary widely.”

Some of the technology is on the market already, he says, while other capabilities are still in the development phase. He believes that artificial intelligence (AI) is going to play an increasingly important role in “next-generation school security systems”, citing components such as selflearning video analytics and appearance search technology.

“Similarly,” he adds, “new gunshot detection systems are helping school administrators and law enforcement to respond to active shooter scenarios faster and with better situational insight.”

Able to distinguish between slammed doors and gunshots, he says the technology employs acoustic microphones and infrared sensors.

Georgia-based Fulton County Schools has added AI-enabled security cameras to its security system, he continues. Calling it “a glimpse into the future of high school security systems”, he says at the click of a button, operators can search for people and vehicles across all cameras on a site, quickly and efficiently.”

“Typically, today’s school security systems are comprised of interdependent technologies that offer school administrators, security professionals, local law enforcement and teachers the options they need to respond appropriately in the event of an emergency,” Badrick says. “These subsystems typically include access control, surveillance technology, monitoring and supervision capabilities, intrusion detection, personal panic buttons, mechanical security hardware, lighting and special detectors, and appropriate signage.”

He continues: “Most public schools have some combination of these discrete capabilities in place. According to their research, 89.6 per cent of high school security systems include controlled access to their building during school hours and 94.2 per cent have security cameras monitoring the premises. While the remaining statistics primarily concern protocol rather than technology, these numbers make it clear that administrators are beginning to invest in the hardware they need to keep their schools safe.”