School Administrators’ Perceptions of School Violence

Abstract

Across America, waves of violence within the school system have shocked and horrified Americansociety. A generation of young people whose main focus should have been on hanging out with friends,getting homework done, not being late to class, going to the mall, or who their date to the prom was tobe, instead, are engaged in a sometimes life and death struggle to survive the school day. The tragedyof Columbine High School, where two high school-aged gunmen took the lives of 13 students andteachers and wounded 23 others (Klein and Chancer 2000), while never to be forgotten, should noteclipse the smaller outbreaks of violence that happen in America’s schools on a daily basis.