On paper, schools are safer than ever – with more advanced security systems, metal detectors, clear backpacks, and a significant decrease in school shootings. So, why do roughly a third of students in the United States feel unsafe at school?

Violence has always existed but, in more recent years, it has been increasingly romanticized and normalized. Thousands of children have grown up in environments where violence is an everyday experience. This exposure not only creates long-lasting psychological issues, but also fosters a complicated relationship with aggression that is primarily externalized in places like school.

Exposure to violence at a young age creates “an increased risk of developing school-related problems,” according to a study by PubMed Center. These problems include language impairments, mental health issues, learning disabilities, and other neurological disorders. 

PubMed concluded from multiple studies that, “violence exposure, particularly family violence, can wreak havoc on the development of neural circuits underlying basic mechanisms of affective and cognitive development.” There are different ways children can be exposed to violence, whether that’s in the home, in the community, or at school. Most violence in the home is initiated by a parent or guardian, but it can also come from a sibling, relative, or a family-friend.

Violence may begin in the home, but it’s certainly not where it ends. Studies from BMC prove that “violence in schools is one of the most visible forms of violence against children.” This type of violence includes physical, psychological, and sexual violence, along with bullying and cyberbullying. 

School violence is a broad category, including aggression from students, teachers, parents, administrators, and even invisible violence like threats and verbal harassment. But the conflict doesn’t end there. Statistics from ICJIA show, “during the 2017-2018 school year, 71% of U.S. public schools reported at least one violent incident, and 21% reported experiencing a serious violent incident.”

Although rates of school violence have decreased in the United States, the threat of violence still remains a large concern for today’s students. For example, 54% of Leesville Road High School students don’t feel safe at school. “When I see the amount of fights that happen at school and how quickly they escalate, it makes me feel like school is not a safe place to be,” said Elizabeth Hill, junior, via text. “Teenagers have lost the ability to resolve conflict in a civil matter and now resort to inflicting physical harm upon one another.” Hill’s observation proves that an even an isolated incident of violence is enough to hinder a student’s confidence in the safety of their school.

The heightened sense of fear traces back to school shootings, the most prominent and catastrophic type of school violence. Unsurprisingly, as of October, 2025, there have been roughly 64 school shootings, all resulting in injuries, deaths, or both since the beginning of the year (more details on the timeline to the right). Studies from ICJIA show that, “students who have experienced school shootings may have increased feelings of fear, develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or have reduced academic achievement.” 

As of lately, students have begun to react to violence differently. In 2012, one of the most tragic school massacres took place in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. This event took 28 lives, including the shooter, his mother, six administrators, and twenty first-grade students. 

Mr. Brinkman, a history teacher at Leesville, was in 12th grade when he first heard about this event. “I believe, after Sandy Hook, and after the subsequent school shootings that happened afterwards, we made a lot of change, so I can see this as a decisive point in history.”. 

This horrific incident represents one of the worst and more severe school shootings in American history. From 2013-2022, 968 school shootings have been reported – due to this, a surge of emotional numbness has spread throughout society. 

“I am somewhat unfazed when I hear about school shootings and especially unfazed about other violent events,” said Isabel Snyder, junior, via text.

The normalization of violence in our society has caused not only students, but the average American to feel a sense of numbness when the topic of violence arises. Sustain Recovery states that “research published in 2014 shows that…a high level of exposure to violence decreases emotional and cognitive empathy in adolescence.” Due to social media and the increased news coverage of violent acts and events, violence has become something everyone “expects.” 

When exposed to violence in early years of life, it’s easier to adapt than to repel. This inevitably leads to a rocky relationship with aggressive behavior and blurs the boundaries of aggression. This relationship can expose itself in many ways, but school is often the best setting. And once violence is present at school, it can begin to impact not only one’s education, but their future, too. While violence may be an inescapable part of humanity, recognizing its impact on psychological development is the first step towards creating spaces where students are not only physically safe, but feel safe enough to thrive.