Teachers across the nation are increasingly concerned about the violence in schools and on school grounds. A survey administered by the National Center for Educational Statistics found that from 1987 to 1994 there was an increase in the percentage of teachers reporting physical conflicts among the students as a moderate or serious problem (Shen, 1997). This survey also indicated that the percentage of teachers reporting weapons possession in schools as a moderate or serious problem had doubled. During the 1995-1996 school year, the California public schools reported that twenty two thousand violent crimes occurred in California schools including assault and battery (Remboldt, 1998).

Currently, school violence is perceived as one of the most serious problems facing our schools. Fighting, violence, and gangs were listed as the number one concern facing public schools today in the recent PDK Gallup Poll (Rose & Gallup, 1998). A survey of sixty-five thousand school students conducted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) found that over half of the tenth through twelfth grade students knew of weapons in school and more than one-third of the students sampled felt unsafe in school (Gullat & Long, 1996). According to Buckner and Flannery (1996), one-fourth of all suspensions from school were because of violent incidents committed by elementary school students, and 12 percent of the incidents involving guns were at the elementary level. The violence that we once saw happening on our nightly news, usually in someone else's neighborhood, has made its way into our classrooms -- urban, suburban, and rural. . .