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Extent of Concerns

With the violence in school becoming a huge risk for young teens in school, it has arisen great

questions on why such things occur. The upbringing of kids, in this modern world, all have

different experiences than other generations. The new generation is exposed to different ways of

living that can be the causes as to why violence in schools is taking place, and in effect have

negative outcomes. Some of the causes that produce violence in schools are the access to

weapons, the state of environments they reside in, the violence in the media, and discrimination.

As a result, there are school shootings, mental health concerns, academic performance decreases,

and worst of all, death in suicides is involved.

Access to weapons has become so easily attainable for any student in search of one. With the

power a student can attain with one, many desire one for revenge or to harm themselves. In

“Guns in Young Hands: A Survey of Urban Teenagers' Attitudes and Behaviors Related to

Handgun Violence” by Jack Bergstein et al., a survey was taken with 1,279 seventh and tenth

graders. The 73% of the students claimed that the reason they carried a gun was for safety,

threats, and/ or revenge. The exposure to guns in teens today is far more than what previous

generations had. The U.S. houses more gun owners as compared to other countries in the same or

higher development status (Meleen).

The environmental situations students reside in have a great influence to drive school

violence. According to the article “Causes of School Violence,” on the Constitutional Rights

Foundation website, when a child is exposed to certain behaviors, such as abuse, they tend to

follow these actions as they believe that is a normal thing to do. If families do not succeed in

projecting a positive behavior to their children, they will start to act on those negative behaviors,

thus often becoming violent. The neglect in children as well as an environmental impact to cause
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violence in schools. When adults ignore them or simply do not check upon them, they will try to

gain their attention by doing such actions or doing them while they are unsupervised.

The violence in the media is also a major impact on the cause of violence in schools. The

media has a great power to control and influence what they desire to the public. The media has

become a major part of society’s lives. A study was made on the effects of exposure to

real-world violence from professors A. Badura, D. Ross, and S.A. Ross. One-hundred

preschoolers were divided into four groups. Group 1 watched a live show of a person shouting

and insulting a doll as he hit it with a mallet. Group 2 watched the situation on television. Group

3 watched a cartoon of the scene in group 1 and group 2. Findlay, group 4 watched nothing. As a

result, when they were exposed to frustrating situations, group one, two, and three acted with

more aggression (Causes of School Violence). Video games for example as well have a great

influence on violence as the popular games are mainly related and assimilated to violence.

With the great diversity, the United States has, many citizens encounter problems with

accepting different cultures and beliefs others have. The trouble to accept diverse concepts often

result in discrimination and can conclude to bullying in schools. Being made fun of or physically

harmed because of someone’s uniqueness and different aspects that make them who they are,

creates an internal challenge with the person (Meleen). It is unfair, as their aspects are something

they can not control over themselves as much as they would like to.

One of the results of school violence is school shootings. When there are students who are

billed and not respected by others, they tend to gain resentment, and the urge to revenge grows.

According to an article, “Causes and Effects of School Violence,” by Michele Meleen states that

around half of school shooters show evidence of being bullied and about half bully others. This

goes to show that school shootings in effect, are caused by the school violence a student receives.
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Mental health concerns are one of the other effects based on school violence. Due to the

breaking confrontations, many students end up in a very bad mental state. They can go to affect

self-esteem, physiological disorders such as anxiety and depression, which have been on the rise

for decades, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Meleen). “While these complex issues

can contribute to violent behavior, they aren't a given in school violence perpetrators” (Meleen).

A decrease in academic performance is also an effect on violence in schools. As you are

experimenting with violence in school, it distracts a student drastically from their studies and

decreases its academic performance. A new worry, where fear and stress is added. According to

Michele Meleen on “Causes and Effects of School Violence,” there was research made where

exposure to an incidence of violence relates to lower test scores.

Finally, another effect of school violence is deaths in suicides. When one's mental health is

not the best and they encounter such hard challenges, they think that the only solution left is to

leave their lives. Their decision to commit suicide is such a hard and irreparable action to do. It

goes to show the seriousness of this matter and how it can have an effect on students.

The extent of the causes and effects of school violence can extend to many more. They all

ultimately project a matter of such a serious topic that is school violence, with the causes of the

weapons students can access, environmental impacts, media violence, and discrimination. In

effect to school violence, school shootings, mental health, academic performances, and deaths

are all negatively impacted. This topic is commonly known, and talked about, as it is a growing

concern to society still left unanswered, without a firm solution.

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Works Cited

Bergstein, Jack M. MD; Hemenway, David PhD; Kennedy, Bruce EdD; Quaday, Sher; Ander,

Roseanna. “Guns in Young Hands: A Survey of Urban Teenagers' Attitudes and

Behaviors Related to Handgun Violence.” The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and

Critical Care, vol. 41, no. 5, Nov. 1996, pp. 794-798.

“Causes of School Violence.” Constitutional Rights Foundation.

Courtney. “Violent Crime in Schools Has a Negative Effect on Test Scores, but Not on

Grades.” Brown | News from Brown, 6 Nov. 2013.

Hosack, Daniella. “The Causes and Effects of School Violence.” The Hub, 26 Nov. 2019.

Coelho,

King, Brendan. “Violence in Schools - 4 Root Causes.” Crisis Consultant Group, Inc., 10 Jan.

2018.

Meleen, Michele. “Causes and Effects of School Violence.” LoveToKnow, LoveToKnow Corp,

2012.