(WWJ) A new report says this has been one of most violent years ever in our nation's schools, with school fights and other events on the rise.
Educators and psychologists say the pandemic contributed to the volatility in schools by causing a surge in student mental health problems, trauma at home, a lack of socializing opportunities, along with reduced adult supervision and guidance.
Joe Sbar, a psychologist in a school district Michigan's Upper Peninsula, said this has been building for a long time, even in the years before the pandemic.
Speaking to WWJ's Sandra McNeill, he said he believes the pressure to achieve — as students are falling even further behind due to the pandemic — is making things worse.
"We weren't seeing proficiency rates nearly where we wanted them to be, and then you add the pandemic and disruptive instruction on top of that," he said. "Now kids are very far behind, but our expectations for them academically have not changed."
"In the service area where I work, we saw higher rates of behavioral referrals, a higher rater of kids qualifying for emotional impairment eligibility," he told McNeill. "And we also saw higher rates of kids of needed threat assessment, to determine if they were a risk to themselves or others, than we had at any point previously."
There is no national data that tracks school fights and assaults, but the Associated Press reports education officials across the country say violence erupted more often and more fiercely, while reports from members of the National Association of School Resource Officers suggest there were more weapons on school campuses, more assaults and more fist fights across the country,
Some students, he said, are also being affected by their parents' stress:
"There are people who internalize their problems, and they might use substances more, they might become withdrawn, they might be highly anxious," Sbar said. "Or, some people cope with their stress by externalizing, which means more fighting, more outbursts, vandalism, crime, you name it."
He said there is a vicious cycle: stressed out teachers and counselors are resigning, which makes the whole situation worse.
Sbar added that a general lack of qualified teachers and counselors is absolutely contributing to these problems.
