Teenagers' view of violence and social tension in U.S. public schools.

Results of the latest in the MetLife series of annual surveys of the American teacher showed an encouraging decrease in the level of violence teenagers perceived in their public school. In 1996, 22 percent of 7th to 12th graders thought school violence had decreased during the previous year versus only 14 percent who expressed this belief in 1994. Nonetheless, social tensions are high and violence continues to be a problem in U.S. public schools. Almost half of the students (48 percent) indicated that only some, or hardly any, of their fellow students get along together. However, among students who feel that their teachers teach tolerance and/or who evaluate their education as being of high quality, more than 80 percent perceived positive race/ethnic/religious relations in their schools. Students in urban schools were the most likely to report problems such as gang violence, fights between students, threats or destructive acts or hostile/threatening remarks as being serious issues in their schools. In addition, almost 20 percent of students were at least somewhat fearful of being attacked in or around their schools; this fear was higher in urban (27 percent) than in nonurban schools (15 percent). Gang violence and turf battles were twice as often considered a serious problem by minority students than white.