Table 4.  Number and percentage of public secondary schools reporting threats of physical attack and robbery with the number of incidents reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic Threat of attack with a weapon1   Threat of attack without a weapon1   Robbery2 with a weapon1   Robbery2 without a weapon1
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   Number of schools Percent of schools Number of incidents
All public secondary schools 1,693 14 4,681   8,541 72 98,946   163 1 359   1,200 10 5,229
                               
Enrollment size                              
Less than 300 135 7 197   1,120 57 5,696    
300-499 259 14 1,110   1,197 64 8,992   # # #   146 8 218
500-999 356 11 575   2,287 73 18,410     188 6 526
1,000 or more943 20 2,799   3,937 82 65,848   93 2 277   808 17 4,368
                               
Urbanicity                              
City 491 21 1,834   1,805 77 28,226   121 5 255   474 20 2,517
Urban fringe 570 15 1,899   2,990 79 43,099   30 1 81   533 14 2,108
Town 311 17 524   1,354 76 11,642     104 6 283
Rural 321 8 423   2,392 62 15,979   # # #   89 2 321
                               
Crime level where students live3                              
High 102 22 915   382 82 5,528   90 19 194   164 35 528
Moderate 356 19 962   1,478 78 22,458     283 15 1,734
Low 897 11 1,647   5,534 70 56,222   31 # 51   573 7 2,021
Mixed 319 22 1,063   1,099 75 14,207     152 10 832
                               
Percent minority enrollment3                              
0-5 percent 417 11 948   2,501 68 21,510   # # #   116 3 312
6-20 percent 327 12 602   2,045 75 22,245   31 1 51   152 6 577
21-50 percent 408 16 667   1,854 73 23,704   # # #   325 13 1,061
More than 50 percent 532 20 2,445   1,997 76 29,223   132 5 309   596 23 3,258
                               
Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch                              
0-20 percent 626 13 1,212   3,473 72 42,518   31 1 51   405 8 1,940
21-50 percent 570 12 1,679   3,442 74 36,749   41 1 115   535 11 2,252
More than 50 percent 497 21 1,790   1,627 70 19,678   90 4 194   260 11 1,073
                               
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                              
0-5 percent 461 13 773   2,592 75 24,741   # # #   143 4 287
6-15 percent 629 12 2,019   3,647 67 43,249   38 1 64   535 10 2,357
More than 15 percent 603 21 1,888   2,302 79 30,956   125 4 295   522 18 2,585
                               
Percent of students likely to attend college                              
0-35 percent 318 12 771   1,856 70 20,595     260 10 1,120
36-60 percent 624 17 1,890   2,835 76 32,428   84 2 162   441 12 1,778
More than 60 percent 751 14 2,020   3,850 71 45,923   50 1 88   500 9 2,331
                               
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                              
0-25 percent 95 11 153   643 73 9,193   # # #   71 8 209
26-50 percent 459 18 1,309   1,756 70 17,943   81 3 124   306 12 1,331
51-75 percent 509 13 1,501   3,013 75 38,015   63 2 198   412 10 1,728
More than 75 percent 630 14 1,718   3,129 71 33,795     412 9 1,961
                               
Percent male enrollment                              
0-44 percent 86 8 105   855 77 8,449   # # #   142 13 332
45-55 percent 1,520 16 4,362   7,007 72 83,932   139 1 323   907 9 4,307
More than 55 percent 87 9 213   679 72 6,564     151 16 590
                               
Student/teacher ratio3,4                              
Less than 12 427 12 859   2,309 65 19,282     275 8 988
12-16 512 12 1,244   3,000 73 34,309     285 7 1,098
More than 16 708 21 2,447   2,725 80 42,169   49 1 136   469 14 2,158
                               
Number of classroom changes3                              
0-3 changes 91 19 153   353 75 3,052   # # #   39 8 72
4-6 changes 953 16 3,173   4,273 74 55,088   114 2 243   644 11 2,711
More than 6 changes 541 11 1,048   3,346 70 35,958   49 1 117   435 9 1,607
                               
Use of paid law enforcement5                              
Regular use 1,617 15 4,568   7,805 74 95,683   163 2 359   1,200 11 5,229
No regular use 76 6 112   736 57 3,262   # # #   # # #
                               
Number of serious discipline problems6                              
No problems 353 7 509   2,888 59 20,791   # # #   287 6 651
1 problem 453 17 1,316   2,163 83 21,990     266 10 816
2 problems 292 14 760   1,657 83 21,888   62 3 197   279 14 1,867
3 or more problems 596 26 2,095   1,833 79 34,276   42 2 104   368 16 1,894
                               
Transfers as percentage of enrollment3,7                              
0 to 6 percent 317 8 762   2,503 64 24,373   81 2 136   404 10 1,659
6 to 11 percent 410 15 1,386   1,919 72 19,894     197 7 1,200
11 to 21 percent 505 21 1,232   1,833 78 22,383     277 12 897
21 percent or more 390 17 1,032   1,920 84 29,051     226 10 805
                               
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions3,8                              
No disruptions 1,042 13 2,374   5,987 73 64,207     630 8 2,207
Any disruptions 511 18 1,772   1,967 70 29,413   84 3 207   463 16 2,638
                               
Percent of students absent without excuses                              
None 89 8 107   616 58 4,374   # # #   37 4 514
1-2 percent 419 11 996   2,749 70 27,071   # # #   181 5 843
3-5 percent 469 13 1,004   2,636 75 28,052     348 10 1,031
6-10 percent 478 21 1,286   1,743 76 27,898   69 3 156   432 19 2,337
More than 10 percent 237 24 1,288   797 81 11,550     203 21 504
# Rounds to zero.
‡ Reporting standards not met.
1 Weapon was defined for respondents as, "any instrument or object used with the intent to threaten, injure, or kill. Includes look-alikes if they are used to threaten others."
2 Robbery was defined for respondents as, "the taking or attempting to take anything of value that is owned by another person or organization, under confrontational circumstances by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear. A key difference between robbery and theft/larceny is that robbery involves a threat or battery."
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.