Issue of Violence in Schools

Abstract

This research proposal will deliberate the violence among children at any school. There are numerous occurrences of violence that are taking place in various schools around the states. School Violence has been affiliated with factors like media and entertainment, bullying, and mental illness. There are several causes that played a role in school violence by being exposed to long hours viewing media such as TV, movies, and video games that glorify violence.  Depression and isolation are some examples of mental conditions that influenced by bullying which can cause people to use some violent measures to the stop the act. I will be discussing the implications that school violence played regarding the students who are involved. I will name a few steps to prevent school violence. No school violence will be prevented without the two parties involved. I will give a case study on the perceptions of  school violence. This qualitative case study examines how school violence is understood by students and teachers, who are the two primary parties in the school environment. 20 teachers, 1 vice principle, and 120 students from 5th to 10th grade from a public school were asked some flexible questions about their perceptions on the nature of violence in their schools including the reasons and possible ways of prevention. The content analysis and integration of the results will be displayed in this proposal

Issue of Violence in Schools 

There are numerous occurrences of violence that are taking place in various schools around the states. The factors that can cause school violence can be based on media, bullying, and other mental concerns. Violence in schools can have huge implications that will affect many students in the future. Violence in schools can cause a drop in the student’s academic performance, distract the students from their learning, and cause physical and mental effects.  To prevent violence and react the right way, it is extremely important that the students, administrators, and teachers know what violence is when, and how often is remembered in schools.  Furthermore, it is essential to gain the administrators, teachers, and students’ views about the causes for violence, the implications, and apparent steps to prevent from happening in schools. Therefore, I will conduct the qualitive study that is determined teachers and student’s views about school violence. This qualitative examines how school violence is understood by students and teachers, who are the two primary parties in the school environment. 20 teachers, 1 vice principle, and 120 students from 5th to 10th grade from public middle and high school were asked some flexible questions about their perceptions on the nature of violence in their schools including the reasons and possible ways of prevention. The content analysis and integration of the results will be displayed in this proposal

Literature of Review

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Violence in public schools has been a growing concern for educators, parents, and students nationwide. It is any activity that can create chaos in an educational setting. School violence involves physical violence, including student on student fighting and corporal punishment; psychological violence includes verbal abuse, sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment; many forms of bullying including cyberbullying and carrying weapons to school. School violence has occurred in grade school and high school. This form of violence can occur on the collegiate level. According to Hauser & O’Connor (2007), the massacre at Virginia Tech is the deadliest rampage shooting in American History. (Hauser & O’ Connor, 2007) In this paper, I will be discussing the implications, the causes, and prevention of school shootings. School has a huge impact on educators, parents, and students nationwide.

 The implications of school violence on students are very important. Some students are exposed to violence at school hurt physically and psychologically. According to Research (2015), a little more than 1out of seven of all age children have been victims of a physical assault at schools (Research highlights extent effects of school violence in U.S, 2018) The physical effects of violence in the worst possible case scenario can lead to death.  Other physical effects can be minor like little scrapes and cuts. There some huge effects that can hurt the person psychologically. The first effect that can be damaging to the person mind is that it can distract from education. School violence can distract the teacher from going over their lessons. On the count of, are tasked with being on a lookout for the disturbed students and go through all accounts get on personal level with the students. Teachers must not only teach the students, but the must protect the students. School Violence can also distract the students from their education because they are fearful. When a student feel that an environment is unsafe; they tend not show up. According the CDC (2018), Nationwide, about 7% of students had not gone to school at least 1 day during the 30 days before the survey because they felt they would be unsafe at school or on their way to or from school. (CDC, 2018) Another effect that school violence has on people is that it can lower their academic performances. According to Coelho (2013), Research shows the exposure to an occurrence of violence can contribute to lower test scores, but it doesn’t impact the grades due to homework. (Coelho, 2013) The reason why that they are failing tests is because they haven’t got enough sleep. Children who are distracted and doesn’t get enough sleep are able to concentrate on getting the task done. The final effect that school violence has on people is can create other mental health concerns like PTSD and Depression. Some school kids may end up fearful of other students or going to school. Some issues may not be present for days, weeks, or years after the event has taken place.

There are many causes of school violence. School violence can occur on the television news broadcasts recently; large disasters are quite difficult to forget. However, school violence can include bullying and other factors that made teens feel unsafe. School violence is an extremely dangerous issue because is too difficult to locate what causes it. The first factor that can cause school violence is the media and entertainment. I know that we have heard this reason. Many people have tried to put the blame on violent video games that children play, music with explicit and sensitive lyrics, and movies that displays violence. According to Salem & Stack (2018), there is little evidence to prove these sources of entertainment have long term impacts leading to school violence. (Salem &Stack, 2018) Not all people react with violence after they play Mortal Combat, listen to gangster rap, or watch Rambo. According to Thornman (2018), researchers have argued that the media content is not the direct cause, but the lack of adult monitoring and a talk about violent media could be a factor. (Thornman,2018) In this crazy with so many people in different races, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, and nationalities, it can be very hard to fit in. It can be even harder to your lane if everyone pokes fun at you because of the qualities that makes you unique. Bullying that many others face can contribute to school violence. According to Langman (2014), Although fewer than one in ten bullied students head out on a shooting spree, about half of school shooters show evidence of being bullied and about half bully others. (Langman, 2014) People are cruel and a quiet guy can take so much before he snaps. The Final factor that can play a factor in school violence is the person’s mental concerns. About half of all adolescents in the US have some type of mental disorder. Something will set someone off to commit an act that they will affect the lives. The root of these mental concerns can trigger from their genes, strangers, or something horrendous happen to them like rape, death of family, or assault.  According to Geher (2018), Psychological disorders and mental health concerns, such as depression and anxiety, have been on the rise for decades. (Geher, 2018) They can contribute to violent behavior, but they are not a given in a school violence people. Still be aware that there are factors in school violence. The person just need to stop them before anything serious to happen.

All schools work to prevent school violence and schools are extremely safe. Students, faculty, staff, and parents all have significant role in promoting school safety. Adults can give leadership by encouraging students that schools are a safe place for children and teens and stating what safety measures and student supports are already in place in their schools. According Cowan & Paine (2015),  Adults can first create a safe, supportive school climate (e.g., school wide behavioral expectations, caring school climate programs, positive interventions and supports, and psychological and counseling services).(Cowan, K & Paine, C, 2015) Another step to prevent school violence is to encourage students to take responsibility for their part in maintaining safe school environments, including student participation in safety planning. That is some huge reason school board meetings are important. It gives the student the voice to speak their opinion and show action. That is the only reason to get things done in life. The third step into preventing school violence is to know the warning signs. Knowing what’s normal behavior for your children can help recognize even small changes in behavior and gives a warning signal saying that something is wrong with your kid. The sudden changes can be light to dramatic- it gives the parent to potential problems. These include withdrawal from friends, decline in grades, abruptly quitting sports or clubs that your child had enjoyed, sleeping disorders, and physical problems. The fourth step into preventing school violence is help organize a community violence prevention forum. That means is that parents, school officials, and community members needs to work together to make an effective impact to prevent school violence. The final way to prevent school violence is to stay involved in the child’s school. Show your son or daughter that their education is important and that you want your children to do their best in school by being involved in their education, get to know your child’s teachers and help them to get to know you and your child. Simple, the parent should stay involve in your kid’s life including education.

Violence in school are a growing concern for everyone in the United States. There are many factors including home problems, school problem, mental concerns and bullying that help contribute to school violence. If these factors don’t resolve; there are huge implications that can affect a lot of people. If you follow these steps in the paragraphs above; then you should prevent school violence.

Methods

Research Design

Case Study Qualitive Research Design, I will conduct interviews and will be incorporating open ended questions to students and teachers about their perceptions on the nature of violence in their school including reasons and the possible ways of prevention. The data will be collected through these open-ended questions. Data will be transferred into a digital environment and will be analyzed by content analysis with frequencies.

Participants and Sampling Procedure

The study will include 20 teachers, 1 vice principle, and 120 students from grades 5th to 10th grade coming from a public school. The setting for the study is a school, which is run by the county school system. Most of the students will be coming from lower to middle class families. Most of these students are in good physical and mental condition.  A total of 20 teachers, 1 administrator, and 120 students from grades 5, 6, 7,8,9, and 10 voluntarily will be participating in the study. These participants will come from different genders, races, and different religions.  The study will be a total population sample with a typical sampling method. 

Instrumentation

Tape Recorder/Tapes

It is an instrument that I will be using to record the following groups responses to the open-ended questions. Once the answers session is taped I can listen to the taped session and transfer the responses to the digital form.

Transcripts

Is a written completed version of the responses that the participants used in the taped session that I will keep in my files. Also, to record the results with.

Interview Guide

 A document that consists of open-ended questions that I will be asking the participants in the interview. Things what to do a lot to do in an interview. The questions will be about their perceptions of school violence.  Sample: Why do think these occurrences happen all the time?

Microsoft Word

 It is a digital environment where all the data that I will be collecting will be transcribed. The results will be formulated and displayed. The results will be displayed in a color-coded system to sort the data and to find the effort in finding themes and patterns that emerged.

Theoretical Memos

 Are short interpretations made up of the data in the session. Theoretical memos will be used to check for accuracy within the data. All adults will receive a copy of this document.

Consent Form

 a form signed by a patient prior to a medical procedure to confirm that he or she agrees to the procedure and is aware of any risks that might be involved. The primary purpose of the consent form is to provide evidence that the patient gave consent to the procedure in question.

Note Pad/ Pen

It is instrument to write notes and other important information that you will need later. It is also helpful when the tape recorder is not working.

Procedure

 Approval to execute the proposed study that has been granted by the IRB board, and the school that I am doing this study on.  Following the provision of informed consent, the participants will be split up into different groups. The following groups will be called the administrators, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th ,9th ,10th.  The interview will 30 to 45 minutes to complete. I will interview each group with an interview sheet and an interview guide to lead me. During the interview, I will adhere to the questions from the interview guide except for the follow up questions. The main questions to ask the group is 1. What are the overall perceptions of the school community including students, teachers, parents and community members regarding school violence? 2. To what extent does school violence impact student success and teacher effectiveness? 3. To what extent does school violence impact student success and teacher effectiveness? The participants responses can be short ended or long ended. Once the interview is recorded, I as a researcher will transcribe each interview into a Microsoft document. Then, I will write a summary of the contents of the interview which should be included the following: name of the group, the time and location of the interview, the reasons the groups were included in the study, and how long the interview last. Following the transcripts and summary of the interviews, I will have organized and prepare the data for analysis.  I will be reading through all the data to gain a general sense of info and to reflect on the overall meaning. Then, I will begin a detailed analysis with a coding process. Once I developed theme or categories, then the data from the interview will be sorted and pasted based on established themes. Themes will enable me to seek answers in ways to draw conclusions. After I make the final decision on each category, the themes were organized into a narrative that describe the findings of this study. Then, I will be placing all the data belonging to each category in the same one place and perform a primary analysis. This may be needed to recode the existing data.

References

About School Violence. (2018, October 23). Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/schoolviolence/index.html

Coelho, C. (2013, November 6). School violence lowers test scores, not grades. Retrieved from Brown University: https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/11/schoolcrime

Cowan, K., & C, P. (2015). School safety: What really works. Principal Leadership.

Geher, G. (2018). Mental Health and School Shootings If the violence problem is due to mental health issues, the future is bleak. Psychology Today.

Hauser, C., & O’ Connor, A. (2007, April 16). Virginia Tech Shooting Leaves 33 Dead. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16cnd-shooting.html

Langman, P. (2014). Statistics on Bullying and School Shootings. School Shooters INfo.

Research highlights extent, effects of school violence in U.S. (2018, November 22). Retrieved from Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141021134827.htm

Salam, M., & Stack, L. (2018, February 23). Do Video Games Lead to Mass Shootings? Researchers Say No. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/politics/trump-video-games-shootings.html

Thornman, E. (2018). Media Violence: What if we Changed the Question? Center of Media Literacy.

Appendix A

Potential Threats to Validity

There are a few potential threats to validity for this study. First, it was only one school for each grade that is conducting this study. Normal conducting this study, you will usually two or more schools for each grade. Second, the participants that conducting this study have been involved or have someone in their personal lives that have been involved in school violence. So, the chance of biases might increase when it comes to this subject. Third, there might be a chance of the tape recorder being broke or something could alter the speech of the participants. In general, some of the participants might not want to be recorded for personal reasons. That could be a threat to validity. Some of kids might not want to talk, so they will keep their words short and simple. Others probably don’t care about this subject. 

Appendix B

Potential Limitations of the Study

The biggest limitations of this study are discussed within the possibility of generalizing of the results of this study to other settings. Only using one type of school in which one act of violence can happen limits generalizing to a larger population, because all schools have not experience an act of violence. It usually occurred in different schools. Another limitation of this study is the selection of social economic status in a district. I should have chosen combination of both private school and public schools because the data wouldn’t be too narrow. There also a possibility that in this type of semi planned interview the results may be misleading by the participants need to please me as the interviewer. Also, some of the participants will be guarded because of being aware that they are being taped.