Education and Crime

I came across a website that lists some very interesting statistics on education and crime, and it reiterates how I feel about our schools. Every school should be a safe haven for teaching and learning, and it should be completely free of violence and crime. This is pretty depressing, but it is something that we need to be aware of so that programs can be put in place to make change.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, during school year 2005–2006 there were an estimated 54.8 million students were enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 12. Preliminary data show that among youth ages 5–18, there were 17 (14 homicides and 3 suicides) school- associated violent deaths from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006.

Among students ages 12–18 in 2005, there were approximately 1.5 million victims of nonfatal crimes at school, with 868,100 thefts and 628,200 violent crimes. Although there's some evidence that student safety has improved, the victimization rate of students ages 12–18 at school declined between 1992 and 2005. Violence, theft, drugs, and weapons continue to pose problems in schools.

These numbers are not pretty and it is why I am on the Board and work with charities like Children of the City. Our Executive Director Joyce Mattera has some great hopes and plans for 2008. She mentioned that the charity's after school program "is doing amazing well ... with several students in our program who were at risk in Junior High and are now doing fabulous in high school, and volunteering their free time back into the program."

It is through programs like this that we can help make a difference to mitigate crime. In fact, you can read more about Children of the City and the other charities I represent at my website -- http://www.roccobasile.org/