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On a daily basis, 100,000 students carry guns to school, 160,000 miss classes due to fear of physical harm, and 40 are injured or killed by firearms. (National Education Association, 1993, "School Violence," Washington, D.C.)

One-fourth of all suspensions from school nationally were for violent incidents committed by elementary school students. (Harvard School of Public Health, Louis Harris Poll as cited in "Education Week," August 4, 1993; and Centers for Disease Control, "The Battle Over Gun Control," as cited in "Black Enterprise Magazine," 1993.)

Sixty-three percent of incidents involving guns on school property involved high school students; 12 percent involved elementary students; and one percent involved preschoolers. (Ibid.)

Seventy-eight percent of school board district respondents to a national survey reported that they had experienced student assaults on students, and 61 reported weapons in school. Sixty percent of responding urban districts reported student assaults on teachers, with 58 percent of urban districts reporting some type of gang violence in their schools over the past year. (National School Boards Association, 1993, "Violence in the Schools: How America's School Boards are Safeguarding Our Children," page 2, Alexandria, VA)

Thirty-five percent of school board districts believe student violence has "increased significantly" in the last five years; 47 percent believe student violence has

"increased somewhat" in the last five years, with 12 percent reporting "no change." (Ibid, page 3)

The majority of public school teachers feel "very safe" (77 percent) when they are in or around school, while only 50 percent of students feel "very safe." Forty percent of

students feel only "somewhat safe." (Letiman, Robert and Katherine Binns, 1993, "The America Teacher

1993: Violence in America's Public Schools," page 3, Louis Harris and Associates, Inc. for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY)

Nearly one-fourth (23 percent) of America's public school students say they have been the victim of an act of violence in or around school. More than one-tenth of America's public school teachers say they have been victims of acts of violence that occurred in or around school, with 95 percent of these incidents involving students. (Ibid., page 7)

Thirteen percent of teens age 13 to 17 report having friends who were sexually fondled against their will at school. (Gallup, George H., March 1994, "Violence and Teens in the Home and in the Schools in the 1990s," page 4, The George H. Gallup International Institute, Princeton, NJ)

School crime as reported by America's youth (age 13 to 17) include: Seven percent reported that they had been physically assaulted; 15 percent had money stolen at school; 14 percent had their property vandalized at school; and 24 percent lived in a state of fear at school, worrying about their physical safety. In addition, 30 percent said there was " a very big problem" with classroom disturbances, with 23 percent saying fighting at school is "a very big problem." (Ibid., page 7)

The number of crimes reported on 796 college campuses in 1993 in compliance with Federal law is as follows: 15 murders; 430 forcible sexual offenses; 83 non-forcible sexual offenses; 367 rapes; 1,340 robberies; 3,103 aggravated assaults; 20,123 burglaries; and 7,032 motor vehicle thefts. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 3, 1995)

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