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Essay on Report On Youth Violence

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There are many misconceptions about the prevalence of youth violence in our society and it is important to peel back the veneer of hot-tempered discourse that often surrounds the issue.... While it is important to carefully review the circumstances surrounding these horrifying incidents so that we may learn from them, we must also be cautious about inappropriately creating a cloud of fear over every student in every classroom across the country. In the case of youth violence, it is important to note that, statistically speaking, schools are among the safest places for children to be.
Final Report, Bi Partisan Working Group on Youth Violence
106th Congress, February 2000

Public policy towards children has moved towards treating them more …show more content…

Department of Education show that crime of all sorts is down at public schools since 1990, some studies say by as much as 30 percent. Less than 1 percent of all violent incidents involving adolescents occur on school grounds. Indeed, a child is three times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed violently at school.
Still, fueled by media hype, fear of the unthinkable and perhaps even a bit of guilt, more parents are demanding that school boards implement strict policies to deal with kids who step out of line.

So-called zero tolerance policies being implemented across the country are snaring large numbers of regular kids in broad nets designed to fish for troublemakers.2

The nets are indeed broad. In a report issued in the spring of 2000 by the Justice Policy Institute in Washington and the Kentucky-based Children's Law Center:

- A seventeen-year-old junior shot a paper clip with a rubber band at a classmate, missed, and broke the skin of a cafeteria worker. The student was expelled from school.
- A nine-year-old on the way to school found a manicure kit with a 1-inch knife. The student was suspended for one day.

The report notes that many of these children are also referred to juvenile court:

- In Ponchatoula Louisiana, a 12-year-old who had been diagnosed with a hyperactive disorder warned the

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