The 2 p.m. dismissal bell echoes off the concrete buildings at Crawford High School in San Diego as Principal David LeMay takes his position at the top of the school's stairs. LeMay knows that here, on this brick and concrete transition zone between school life and street life, violence is most likely to strike his school. Children are killing children. And when children die, there is a sense of the future slipping away. In the last few weeks, the deaths of high school students in San Diego and San Marcos have reminded LeMay and school officials, parents and students throughout the county that no school is invulnerable to violence.
Parents are scared.
School officials agree. School violence no longer confines itself to the inner city, they say, but touches urban, suburban and rural districts as well. Especially now, as violent incidents seem to follow one after another, parents wonder if schools are doing enough to protect their children. Crime statistics indicate that the current rise in school violence is less the result of an increase in the number of crimes than an increase in severity. The problem is that fistfights are being replaced by gunfights.