School violence and the role of the school psychologist

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine school psychologists’ perceptions of the prevalence of school violence, to determine how safe school psychologists perceive their school(s) to be, to assess school psychologists’ reported experiences with student to student violence, and to evaluate school psychologists’ perceived readiness to address school violence. A survey was sent to 357 Nationally Certified School Psychologists currently practicing in Minnesota and Wisconsin schools. Of the 106 respondents who participated in the study, 100% stated that they perceive physical assault with a weapon to be an act of violence, but less than half stated that they perceive less severe, nonphysical behaviors (such as teasing, name calling, etc.) to be forms of violence. However, nearly all of the respondents reported witnessing less severe forms of violence between students on their school campuses, whereas less than one third reported witnessing an assault with a weapon on their school campuses. Additionally, the majority of school psychologists surveyed felt totally prepared to address less severe, nonphysical behaviors such as teasing and name calling, but more than half felt unprepared to address incidents of physical assault with weapons.