School violence
School violence is the name for violence that occurs in schools. It includes violence of pupils agains other pupils, violence of pupils against school staff and teachers, and violence of teachers against pupils. Bullying (also called mobbing) is a big issue at schools. The most extreme cases of violence at schools are school shootings and people running amok (killing themselves and sometimes others), because they can no longer cope with the situation. Violence of teachers and school staff against pupils usually takes the form of corporal punishment.
There are different risk factors:
- Different parenting styles: At home, the children may often be confronted with violence; or the parents may try to protect them too much.
- In school, there may be a high pressure on the pupils to adapt their behaviour. The cost of failing a test may be high. Also, social relationships may suffer from this pressure.
- The peer group and peer pressure may lead to criminal or violent behaviour. Also, pupils may be bullied.
- Socal status: some of the problems in the families may be poverty, not having a job or being dependent on help from the state
- The media often shows that viloence is a normal way to solve problems.
- Sometimes, religious groups say that violence against others is alright.
Prevention usually takes the form of special trainings. These trainings will show pupils who are insecure how to act more confinently. It will also show the different participants how to indentify a dangerous situation, and how to try to de-escalate the situation. Often, schools also offer a way of students to report incidents (like being mobbed, or seeing how another child is being mobbed).