The back-to-school buzz is in the air. Many children are
thinking happy thoughts about new backpacks, new teachers, and
seeing old friends. But for some parents, thoughts of the
horrifying school shootings in Littleton, Colo., Jonesboro, Ark.,
and Santee, Calif., among others, may tinge that excitement with
apprehension.
Gallup's annual Work and Education poll, conducted Aug. 9-11*,
indicates that more than one in four (28%) parents of school-age
children in the United States fear for their oldest child's
physical safety at school -- essentially unchanged from 24% at this
time last year. Most parents -- 71% -- say they have no such
worries.
Lynne Spear, a grandmother who lives in the Los Angeles suburbs,
says she doesn't worry. "The children are in public schools in a
very safe neighborhood. I prefer to think that the school shootings
of the 1990s were an aberration."
Those perpetual worrywarts -- a.k.a. moms -- seem to be a bit
more concerned than dads about their children's safety. Gallup has
been asking this question about school safety since 1999, and in
most instances, women have expressed a higher level of concern than
men have. In the 2004 survey, 33% of mothers say they worry for
their child's safety, as do 22% of fathers.
Whose Else Is Worried About School Safety?
In the August poll, Gallup also asked parents if their children
ever express worry about their safety at school. Just 10% of
parents say that their kids told them they are worried about their
safety at school this fall.
Richard Troth of Missouri, and his son, a fifth-grader, both
worry about school safety, but according to Troth, their concerns
are about "other kids, gangs, bullies," rather than gun
violence.
Bottom Line
Although only a small percentage of parents report that their
kids tell them they are afraid at school, other data suggest that
kids may be more worried than they are letting on. A new Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention study of more than 10,000 high
school students found that although school violence in general has
decreased in the last 10 years, teens' fears about
attending school have increased. In 1993, 4.4% of teens said they
had missed school because of safety concerns, compared with 5.4% in
2003, according to the report. The CDC surmises that the increase
may be a result of increases observed among white students and
ninth-graders in being threatened or injured with a weapon on
school property and higher perceived vulnerability after the school
shootings in the 1990s.
In 2003, the Gallup Youth Survey asked high school teens
directly, "When you are at school, do you ever fear for your
physical safety, or not?" Twenty-four percent said yes, while 75%
said no. School violence or no school violence, the fact remains
that some parents are worried about their children's safety at
school, and some children are worried, too.
*Results are based on telephone interviews with national
adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Aug. 9-11, 2004. For
results based on sample of 291 parents with children in grades
K-12, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of
sampling error is ±6 percentage points.
