School Violence is down in Pennsylvania, according to a new report from the state. Gov. Tom Ridge released the findings Wednesday during a speech in Pittsburgh.
State law has a broad definition of a violent incident in school.
It could be everything from a bomb scare, to a fight, to a shooting. Individual school districts are also left to decide what incidents to report to the state. With all that in mind, the governor says violent incidents are down in Pennsylvania. According to the report, there were over 33,000 incidents of violence during the last school year, 1999-2000. That's a more than a 20 percent drop from the 1998-1999 school year, when there were nearly 42,000 incidents.