In Alabama, fewer students have been calling a statewide hotline to report problems that might lead to school violence. To be sure, none of this is to suggest that the nation's schools are complete safe havens. Bomb scares and threatening graffiti have become commonplace across the country in the year since Columbine. Security officer Ken Coffman checks the halls on a closed-circuit TV set at Eagle High School in Boise, Idaho. What progress has been made on violence, experts say, is attributable to growing awareness of the problem among parents, administrators, and teachers.
Some critics claim the decline in school violence has come at a cost.
In New Jersey, a child was suspended for using his finger as a gun during schoolyard play. A Chicago high school junior was expelled when a rubber band-launched paper clip intended for a classmate hit a cafeteria worker instead. Indeed, suspensions and expulsions have nearly doubled, from 1.7 million in 1974 to 3.1 million in 1997. Even the increasingly ubiquitous presence of metal detectors, surveillance cameras, police officers, and emergency drills has left some educators feeling uneasy. A study by two University of Maryland researchers found that the greater the physical security measures taken at a school, the greater the number of fights and thefts and the less safe kids reported feeling.