While it is true that mass shootings in schools have continued nationwide, leaving behind many deaths and terror among students, parents, teachers and the community in general, an investigation by the University of California at Los Angeles has pointed out that day-to-day violence in California schools has declined sharply.
The analysis points out that during the two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a pronounced and constant reduction in serious forms of violence, including bullying and behaviors related to weapons, in California middle and high schools.
UCLA scholar Ron Avi Astor, co-author of the study that was published in the World Journal of Pediatrics, suggested that outbursts of gun violence should be treated as a separate social and psychological phenomenon.
"Every school shooting is a devastating act that terrifies the nation, and there is a growing sense in the public that little has changed in two decades to make schools safe," Astor said.
"But the mass shootings are only part of this story. Overall, on a day-to-day basis for most students, American schools are safer than they have been for many decades."
Astor is a professor of social welfare and education at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.
Using data from the confidential California Healthy Kids Survey, he and co-authors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine analyzed responses from more than 6 million middle and high school students between 2001 and 2019.
"Over the 18-year period examined, California high schools saw massive reductions in all forms of victimization," including physical threats with and without weapons, verbal and psychological abuse, and property crimes, the authors wrote.
It should be remembered that gun violence is the third leading cause of death among US youth ages 15-24 and the fourth leading cause of death among children ages 10-14.
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, in 2022 there were 303 shootings in schools in the US, while so far in 2023 there are 104.
The organization founded by David Riedman, specifies that from 1970 to date, 792 school shootings have occurred due to a dispute that has escalated, followed by accidental shootings, drivers shooting, illegal activities, suicide or suicide attempts.
Most of the cases, he points out, have occurred during morning classes, sporting events, and afternoon classes.
While 63.6 percent of these shootings occur in high schools, 18.2 percent in elementary schools, and 10.2 percent in secondary schools.
This information includes gang shootings, domestic violence, shootings at sports games and after-hours school events, suicides, fights that end in shootings, and accidents.
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