Can school violence be prevented - Essay Example

Educators are confronted with acts of violent behavior in schools. But for educators, parents, administrators and the student, there are many issues that are inhibiting them from preventing to make schools safer and violence free. Nevertheless, there are many ways that can help in curtailing the violence that is becoming more and more apparent in schools. School violence is an important issue which needs to be tackled and it needs to be assessed that which strategies can assist in overcoming this problem.

It will be prudent to state here that the perception of school violence is differentiated among the stakeholders of education systems. Administrators, students, teachers and parents all have varying explanations and perceptions of school violence. Administrators in most cases feel that schools are safe for students but the need for more empowerment of the staff and effort in better security cannot be ignored. Teachers were found to be of the opinion that violence in schools was the result of violence in the community that has seeped into the education system.

Students perceived violence as a catharsis of the bullying that they may face at some point of their lives. This increases the importance of creating or formulating a strategy that will help in aligning all into coordination and focus on prevention of violence in schools (Algozzine & McGee 2011). One of the foremost reasons for school violence has been the sudden changing of demographics. It is a fact that whenever change happens there is bound to be agitation. Consistency in the status quo is welcomed whereas sudden change can lead to frustration, anger and confusion.

That is why when communities observe changes in their demographics that is changes in religion, ethnicity and race, this frustration, anger and confusion is released in brutal catharsis. But these changes can be met and adapted to by holding dialogues between the conflicting elements. Schools are most prone to dissonance which results in an act of violence when demographics change. This violence due to changes in the demographics is attributed to the fact that school is the place where students of diverse backgrounds converge and also have to spend a substantial amount of time with each other.

Dialogue helps in understanding what is different about different cultures and also helps in finding common ground between the conflicting groups. To make the dialogue a success it is important that students who have been more angry and upset must be brought together from the start. (Wessler, 2011) Another approach to curtailing violence at schools will be determining the barriers or the issues that inhibit social workers and educators in implementing various studies and programs aimed at addressing the interpersonal violence at schools.

There have been a lot of studies and research in finding better ways to encourage students to restrain themselves from being violent. The main barrier in implementing these studies is that there is so little time for the social workers to spend on cases and students that needed counseling. The academic needs of the students are given more importance and counseling of students is seen as diverting the attention of students. Staffing is another barrier. Effective staffing and more support from the staff of social workers can be paramount in handling violence in schools (Cawood, 2010).

Acts of violence at schools have led to many studies and investigations but all these have been done in