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Table 5.  Number and percentage of public secondary schools reporting incidents involving theft, possession of a firearm, and possession of a knife or sharp object with the number of incidents reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic Theft/larceny1   Possess firearm/explosive device2   Possess knife or sharp object
Number
of
schools		 Percent
of
schools		 Number
of
incidents		   Number
of
schools		 Percent
of
schools		 Number
of
incidents		   Number
of
schools		 Percent
of
schools		 Number
of
incidents
All public secondary schools 9,398 79 100,261   1,824 15 2,972   6,929 59 23,727
                       
Enrollment size                      
Less than 300 1,368 70 5,054   142 7 142   643 33 1,338
300–499 1,281 68 9,407   ‡ ‡ ‡   801 43 2,385
500–999 2,552 81 16,628   575 18 844   1,655 52 4,466
1,000 or more4,196 87 69,172   1,066 22 1,945   3,829 79 15,537
                       
Urbanicity                      
City 1,842 78 28,730   546 23 1,250   1,679 72 8,051
Urban fringe 3,323 87 45,858   617 16 852   2,607 68 9,107
Town 1,376 77 9,507   190 11 236   990 55 2,520
Rural 2,856 74 16,166   471 12 633   1,652 43 4,049
                       
Crime level where students live3                      
High 291 62 3,093   128 27 423   350 75 1,589
Moderate 1,437 76 17,696   379 20 655   1,400 74 5,291
Low 6,293 79 61,069   945 12 1,347   4,115 52 12,735
Mixed 1,330 90 17,436   353 24 511   1,042 70 3,875
                       
Percent minority enrollment3                      
0–5 percent 2,915 79 22,269   386 10 531   1,535 42 3,692
6–20 percent 2,334 85 25,302   405 15 522   1,714 63 5,785
21–50 percent 1,998 79 23,500   425 17 689   1,678 66 6,028
More than 50 percent 1,954 74 28,633   567 21 1,189   1,832 70 7,775
                       
Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch                      
0–20 percent 4,180 87 47,387   771 16 1,102   2,739 57 8,532
21–50 percent 3,599 77 39,044   686 15 1,056   2,747 58 9,813
More than 50 percent 1,620 70 13,830   367 16 814   1,442 63 5,382
                       
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                      
0–5 percent 2,719 78 28,670   351 10 505   1,753 51 4,668
6–15 percent 4,429 81 46,648   700 13 923   2,894 53 10,188
More than 15 percent 2,250 77 24,943   773 27 1,544   2,281 78 8,871
                       
Percent of students likely to attend college                      
0–35 percent 1,917 73 14,336   469 18 855   1,672 63 5,417
36–60 percent 2,869 77 29,639   535 14 1,032   2,314 63 8,008
More than 60 percent 4,612 84 56,287   820 15 1,084   2,943 53 10,302
                       
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                      
0–25 percent 665 75 5,516   195 22 275   608 69 2,386
26–50 percent 1,796 72 17,689   412 16 729   1,598 64 5,171
51–75 percent 3,281 82 37,016   546 14 1,041   2,370 59 7,812
More than 75 percent 3,656 82 40,040   671 15 928   2,353 53 8,358
                       
Percent male enrollment                      
0–44 percent 714 64 5,514   129 12 153   717 65 1,618
45–55 percent 7,915 81 88,550   1,588 16 2,672   5,737 59 20,450
More than 55 percent 769 80 6,197   107 11 146   474 50 1,659
                       
Student/teacher ratio3,4                      
Less than 12 2,601 73 20,108   295 8 508   1,575 44 5,013
12–16 3,251 79 35,419   766 19 1,188   2,624 63 8,405
More than 16 3,013 87 40,710   680 20 1,137   2,391 69 8,953
                       
Number of classroom changes3                      
0–3 changes 396 82 2,764   166 34 200   355 73 955
4–6 changes 4,691 81 54,039   1,119 19 1,996   3,797 66 13,909
More than 6 changes 3,637 76 38,591   434 9 634   2,474 52 7,793
                       
Use of paid law enforcement5                      
Regular use 8,520 81 95,680   1,780 17 2,928   6,602 63 23,192
No regular use 878 68 4,581   ‡ ‡ 44   326 25 535
                       
Number of serious discipline problems6                      
No problems 3,637 74 25,746   469 10 666   2,044 42 10,485
1 problem 2,078 79 21,876   336 13 585   1,566 60 4,409
2 problems 1,739 86 19,771   542 27 891   1,419 71 4,046
3 or more problems 1,944 84 32,869   477 20 831   1,900 81 4,786
                       
Transfers as percentage of enrollment3,7                      
0 to 6 percent 3,022 77 29,929   547 14 955   1,948 50 5,182
6 to 11 percent 2,062 78 21,553   364 14 463   1,430 53 4,496
11 to 21 percent 1,901 81 20,384   347 15 609   1,514 64 6,323
21 percent or more 1,906 82 23,602   437 19 777   1,644 71 6,038
                       
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions3,8                      
No disruptions 6,563 80 63,218   1,118 14 1,775   4,457 54 13,128
Any disruptions 2,254 80 30,856   520 18 810   2,036 72 8,577
                       
Percent of students absent without excuses                      
None 732 69 7,764   ‡ ‡ 52   437 41 736
1–2 percent 3,263 83 28,482   537 14 711   2,010 51 6,006
3–5 percent 2,811 79 31,465   579 16 979   2,162 61 6,937
6–10 percent 1,916 83 25,507   437 19 673   1,511 66 6,771
More than 10 percent 676 70 7,044   232 24 557   808 83 3,276
‡ Reporting standards not met.
1 Theft/larceny (taking things over $10 without personal confrontation) was defined for respondents as, "the unlawful taking of another person's property without personal confrontation, threat, violence, or bodily harm. Included are pocket picking, stealing purse or backpack (if left unattended or no force was used to take it from owner), theft from a building, theft from a motor vehicle or motor vehicle parts or accessories, theft of bicycles, theft from vending machines, and all other types of theft."
2 Firearm/explosive device was defined as, "any weapon that is designed to (or may readily be converted to) expel a projectile by the action of an explosive. This includes guns, bombs, grenades, mines, rockets, missiles, pipe bombs, or similar devices designed to explode and capable of causing bodily harm or property damage."
3 Some schools are omitted from these categories because of missing data on their school characteristics. For this reason, the detailed results do not sum to the totals. See appendix J of 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Detailed Data Documentation (NCES 2004-307) for further information.
4 Student/teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time equivalent teachers. The total number of full-time equivalent teachers is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers, including special education teachers, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
5 Schools were included as regularly using paid law enforcement if they reported the use of paid law enforcement during any of the following times: at any time during school hours, while students were arriving or leaving, at selected school activities (e.g., athletic and social events, open houses, science fairs), or at any other time that the respondent specified.
6 Serious discipline problems is a count of discipline problems reported by principals. These discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, and student acts of disrespect for teachers. If a principal reported that any of these problems occurred daily or weekly in their school, each was counted once in the total number of serious discipline problems. Undesirable gang activities and undesirable cult or extremist group activities were also counted once as a problem if the principal reported that these events occurred at all in their school.
7 Transfers as a percentage of enrollment combines the number of students who were transferred to a school and the number of students who were transferred from a school, divided by the total number of students enrolled in the school.
8 Schoolwide disruptions include actions that disrupted school activities such as bomb threats or anthrax threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. "At school/at your school" was defined for respondents as including activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that are holding school-sponsored events or activities. Respondents were instructed to, unless the survey specified otherwise, only respond for those times that were during normal school hours or when school activities/events were in session. Secondary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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