Report: ‘Hostile Behaviors’ Among Students Increase, Attacks With Weapons Double
The report warns that these stats don't offer the full picture because the "hostile behaviors" of physical attacks — sometimes with weapons — have been underreported by victims, mainly for political reasons.
Landwebs
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found a huge jump in K-12 public school “hostile behaviors” and that physical attacks with a weapon nearly doubled early in the Trump administration, according to the Washington Post. From school years 2015-2016 to 2017-2018, attacks with weapons jumped 97 percent, hate crimes increased 81 percent, and sexual assaults rose 17 percent.
GAO found that “bullying is widespread in schools nationwide,” hurting 5.2 million students ages 12 to 18, about 20 percent of the school population, in the 2018-2019 school year. Middle school students were more likely to be bullied than those in high school, and students in schools with 300 or fewer learners were more likely to be victims than those in schools with a student body of more than 1,000. The stats probably fall short because “hostile behaviors … are generally underreported to authorities,” by victims, and reporting by victim advocates also declined for political reasons, the report said. Hostile-behavior complaints to the department dropped 9 percent in the 2018-2019 school year and 15 percent the next year. The Trump administration withdrew Obama policies to “avoid, and remedy discriminatory discipline” in schools, “ensure that transgender students enjoy a supportive and nondiscriminatory school environment” and fight “sexual harassment of students, including sexual violence.”
