Respect for oneself, for one another, for property and for the world is needed within the global context. In line with global trends, the South African government has consistently included these principles in its policy documents over the last 20 years. While media reports suggest that the behaviour of learners, specifically in secondary schools,…

The purpose of this paper is to encourage persons concerned with violence and vandalism in schools to take a more critical look at school-crime statistics and reports and their data-gathering methods. It makes two points. First, writings on or about student crime and violence may be misleading because of certain errors in quantifiable data, such…

This paper is part of a symposium focusing on the Safe School Study recently completed by the National Institute of Education. The symposium attempted to delineate the critical methodological problems arising from ethnographic research in the school setting on school violence and delinquency, and to report recent findings from studies using…

This paper was presented as part of a symposium attempting to document historical trends in the extent of disruptive behavior in schools and some contemporary responses to the problem. Fragmentary evidence suggests that disobedience and resistance to authority are not new, but incidents have become more serious. Still, few students are either…

New Jersey's Vineland High School North faced many behavioral and vandalism problems during its first year of operation (1976-77) and adopted a program to improve this situation during its second year. This effort involved adoption and thorough dissemination of student rules, a series of parent orientation meetings, a new community information…

The president of the National Association of School Security Directors, citing many specific incidents of school vandalism and personal assault and battery, states that the safety and security of school personnel and facilities are necessary requirements for effective education. The author's approach to a school security program is to determine…

This report consists of six papers prepared for the Seventh Annual Conference on Strategies for School Security, which was held January 21-23, 1976 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The papers include "School Security--A Growing Problem," by Charles Trotter, Jr.; "School Violence and Vandalism," by Joseph Grealy; "Identifying Security Problems and Needs,"…

Describing a 1978 demonstration program of the school board of Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this paper lists strategies developed by the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Program. The two basic aims of the program were to reduce opportunities for crime created by school building structure and the layout of school grounds…

The kinds of destructive acts that take place on college campuses, the circumstances under which different behaviors occur, and the norms governing current students' attitudes toward destructiveness were studied. Data were collected in 1980 and 1981 through administration of two questionnaires to a national sample of undergraduates. Responses to…

If the findings of recent research are any guide, the dollars that are now spent on security devices and personnel, and the educational time now lost by involving teachers and administrators in expanding security programs, would be better spent on strategies for making schools more humane places in which learning can take place. We should look for…

All types of school vandalism have a monetary cost, but they also have a social cost. Monetary costs are arrayed against social costs, giving four basic types of vandalism according to the major effects vandalism can have, regardless of motive. Prevention priorities should be established to control the two types of vandalism with high social cost,…

This paper examines the relationship between the evaluation (for both behavior and academic work) and authority systems of public high schools and the extent to which students in those schools become disengaged. Student disengagement is reflected in student absenteeism, low-level student participation in school, and student participation in…

Increasing school violence and vandalism, in Philadelphia and nationwide, require discussion of the likely causes and of new solutions. Crime in schools is extensive, according to the national Safe School Study. Philadelphia data show that school crime there increased from 1975 to 1980 in seven out of ten categories. The authors of the Safe School…

Workshop materials, all from Broward County (Florida), include job descriptions for the positions of director of security, security investigator, security specialist, and security patrolman. A security report also contains charts reflecting arson, vandalism, and theft costs from the school in years 1970 through 1979. The last section contains…

After introductory sections on the incidence of crime among juveniles and in the schools, the author concentrates on the rights of students in the schools and in the courts. He traces the historical development of juvenile courts from their original intentions up to the Supreme Court decisions that have granted substantial civil liberties to…