Campus Violence in K. 8 Setting

Violence in K-8 Schools The issue of violence among young people has become demonstratively more controversial within our culture in the last few years. The demands of society in general for more accountability and a greater sense of awareness among both parents and school officials have created an exponential need for research associated with the phenomena.

Society and officials alike have called for a greater understanding of the motivations and reasons for violence within the schools and also a greater security of awareness of the ability to recognize and intervene when potentially violent young people exhibit warning signs of future violence. This work is a proposal for the study of the phenomena of violence within the K-8 school setting, and will be divided into three parts, studying both primary aged schools and middle school aged school settings.

The proposal demonstrates the need for research associated with a tertiary standard, of analysis, interview and observation to gain greater knowledge of the signs symptoms and actions of potentially violent students. The need for a greater understanding of the reasons and motivations for violence among K-8 students is clear in the growing recognition of the problem and the demand for accountability by all involved.

It is clear that the design of such a study and the implementation of it would benefit all involved by giving students, parents and school officials a greater understanding of the warning signs potentially violent students might exhibit, in an attempt to intervene and therefore prevent violent actions in the future. This work will greatly impact the data collection process and intervention process of officials, parents and possibly the students themselves, who are often much more aware of potential dangers than parents or officials.

The research will be an attempt to compile information about the intervention and prevention of violence in schools, including the possible removal of some of the stressors that trigger violence and intervention through disciplinary actions toward students for offences that warn of future violence. It will focus upon this age group as the source of potential future violence at older ages, as it has often been observed that the triggers and stressors of violence are often present long before the events occur.

Historical analysis of incidents and reports of school violence must be performed in order to have research base for the conducting of a comprehensive study of the problem. Analysis of reported incidence of violence in at least four local schools, two in the primary ages and two in the middle school ages, is necessary for a realistic understanding of both the record keeping on the subject and the ways in which officials have addressed the subject in the past.

This will assist the researchers in developing both a baseline for the number of incidents of violence and also the types of warning behaviors the student may have exhibited before the most recent events occurred.

Documentary analysis will be performed to demonstrate several aspects of the incidents: statistical frequency, type and severity of violence, possible clues to reasons or motivations of actions, ways in which officials have historically responded to violence or potential violence, statistical direction of the violence or who are the victims, what warning signs might a student have been documented exhibiting previously, and finally possible what differences can be seen between the type and direction of violence between the ages in question in this study.

The research team will also interview students, parents and officials who have been involved in situations of violence or have observed situations of violence within the schools, historically and also interview any student who is currently thought of by officials as a potential offender or who exhibits violent behavior during the duration of the research time, which will be three years.

The interview process will also demonstrate the significance of the differences within the age groups of this study and try to make comparisons between the historical analysis data, interview findings, and observation of violent events. The interview process will consist of a group of questions, designed to address scope and causation of the offense and all students, officials and parents will be made aware that the interview is not in any way a part of the punishment or consequence phase of the violent occurrence.

All students involved will be interviewed only after parents and students have given informed consent and parents will be given the option of attending interviews, whenever possible. The questions for students themselves will stress the motivation of the acts and the feelings of the student. Interview questions.