Table 5. Number and percentage of public 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

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Table 5. Number and percentage of public 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/larceny ¹			Possess firearm/explosive device ²			Possess knife or sharp object
School characteristic	Num- ber of schools	Per- cent of schools	Num- ber of incidents	Num- ber of schools	Per- cent of schools	Num- ber of incidents	Num- ber of schools	Per- cent of schools	Num- ber of incidents
All public schools	37,343	46	217,611	4,513	6	8,536	34,911	43	85,683

Level
Elementary	15,111	30	42,179	877	2	3,039	17,219	35	34,737
Middle	9,917	65	62,628	1,483	10	2,157	8,578	56	23,118
Secondary	9,398	79	100,261	1,824	15	2,972	6,929	59	23,578
Combined	2,917	61	12,543	330	7	369	2,186	45	4,250

Enrollment size
Less than 300	6,633	33	21,900	542	3	565	5,867	29	10,437
300–499	9,106	40	34,628	360	2	432	7,776	34	16,019
500–999	15,313	51	73,521	2,294	8	5,129	15,080	50	36,614
1,000 or more	6,290	73	87,563	1,317	15	2,411	6,188	71	22,613

Urbanicity
City	10,178	53	67,286	1,269	7	2,341	10,499	54	30,496
Urban fringe	11,579	44	82,143	1,736	7	4,374	10,524	40	26,976
Town	4,766	46	22,857	357	3	420	4,699	45	10,179
Rural	10,819	42	45,324	1,151	4	1,401	9,188	36	18,032

Crime level where students live ³
High	3,354	60	16,929	541	19	2,989	3,448	62	10,690
Moderate	6,954	49	41,198	841	13	1,230	7,653	54	20,599
Low	22,486	42	122,501	2,491	8	3,327	19,700	36	42,702
Mixed	4,434	56	35,915	623	14	953	3,965	50	11,379

Percent minority enrollment³
0–5 percent	10,675	44	49,313	897	4	1,159	8,098	33	16,004
6–20 percent	8,011	44	54,008	1,093	6	1,391	7,348	40	18,850
21–50 percent	7,433	46	47,713	945	6	3,456	7,802	47	19,506
More than 50 percent	10,586	49	64,067	1,493	7	2,445	11,167	52	30,257

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced- price lunch
0–20 percent	10,668	47	74,501	1,372	6	1,893	7,990	35	18,550
21–50 percent	13,604	47	84,221	1,776	6	2,458	12,155	42	31,225
More than 50 percent	13,071	44	58,889	1,366	5	4,186	14,765	49	35,908

Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	9,901	40	54,980	768	3	1,067	8,627	34	18,172
6–15 percent	15,044	46	90,947	1,726	5	2,079	13,728	42	33,574
More than 15 percent	12,399	52	71,684	2,019	8	5,390	12,555	52	33,937

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	11,935	48	56,355	1,563	11	4,338	12,190	49	32,282
36–60 percent	12,642	43	68,453	1,327	9	2,100	12,255	42	28,742
More than 60 percent	12,766	46	92,803	1,623	11	2,098	10,466	38	24,660

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	3,928	58	20,800	485	13	611	3,723	55	9,493
26–50 percent	9,641	54	54,042	1,154	12	3,763	8,519	48	21,636
51–75 percent	11,813	45	69,079	1,253	10	2,055	11,371	43	27,806
More than 75 percent	11,962	39	73,690	1,622	10	2,109	11,298	37	26,748

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	4,387	44	18,181	340	7	2,496	3,859	39	8,092
45–55 percent	29,333	47	182,383	3,875	11	5,611	27,625	44	70,123
More than 55 percent	3,624	37	17,047	299	6	430	3,427	35	7,468

Student/teacher ratio³,⁴
Less than 12	11,420	42	57,226	938	3	1,428	11,095	41	25,475
12–16	13,217	49	74,064	1,658	6	2,276	11,724	43	29,500
More than 16	11,315	49	78,240	1,650	7	4,509	11,013	47	27,611

Number of classroom changes³
0–3 changes	6,672	30	18,611	368	2	468	7,260	33	15,774
4–6 changes	15,741	44	100,543	2,202	6	5,483	16,266	46	42,431
More than 6 changes	12,452	62	84,303	1,719	8	2287	9,598	47	23,589

Use of paid law enforcement ⁵
Regular use	24,998	59	176,730	3,695	13	7,569	22,591	53	61,090
No regular use	12,345	31	40,882	819	3	967	12,320	31	24,593

Number of serious discipline problems ⁶
No problems	15,781	35	58,799	1,405	3	1,786	14,437	31	28,684
1 problem	7,978	50	46,599	1,025	6	1,492	6,954	44	16,704
2 problems	5,578	62	40,071	853	9	1,343	5,518	61	14,495
3 or more problems	8,007	72	72,142	1,230	11	3,914	8,003	72	25,800

Transfers as percentage of enrollment³,⁷
0 to 6 percent	9,261	47	54,149	1,106	10	1,730	6,556	34	14,601
6 to 11 percent	8,133	46	45,650	935	10	1,173	6,407	36	15,256
11 to 21 percent	8,301	44	51,947	984	10	1,488	8,695	46	21,468
21 percent or more	10,566	47	59,016	1,278	11	3,856	11,837	52	30,806

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions³,⁸
No disruptions	29,854	44	158,952	3,245	5	6,554	27,805	41	63,230
Any disruptions	5,278	65	47,506	934	11	1,435	5,070	62	17,590

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	4,754	31	22,005	282	2	377	3,643	24	7,064
1–2 percent	14,099	43	71,784	1,510	5	1,971	13,665	41	29,989
3–5 percent	11,063	52	65,889	1,367	6	2,033	10,024	47	23,240
6–10 percent	5,464	65	44,921	939	11	1,329	5,416	64	17,279
More than 10 percent	1,963	53	13,012	415	11	2,826	2,163	58	8,111
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. Elementary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8. Middle schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 4 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 9. 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. Combined schools include all other combinations of grades, including K–12 schools.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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