VIOLENCE IN RURAL SCHOOLS - AN EMERGING PROBLEM NEAR THE UNITED-STATES-MEXICO BORDER

Often considered largely an urban problem, school violence has been fo und to be unusually high in rural schools near the US-Mexico border. B eyond being a social problem and a public health problem, school viole nce is an educational problem, limiting the ability of students to lea rn. Seventh through twelfth graders (n = 2,746) in thirty-eight rural school districts were surveyed regarding their involvement in school v iolence and victimization. More than half of the boys had fought with fists or weapons in the past year at school. More than half of the boy s had carried a knife at school. Eighteen percent of fifteen to sevent een year old boys had carried a handgun at school. In the past year 16 percent of students had been robbed, 37 percent had been threatened, and 15 percent had been attacked (often repeatedly) while at school. T en percent had someone try to force them to have sex against their wil l while at school. A constellation of factors was found to be related to involvement in school violence. These provided the basis for recomm ended prevention strategies.