“The proportion of students missing school because of safety concerns was 2.6 times higher following Columbine than before the incident,” says Nancy D. Brener, Ph.D., of the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Four percent of the students reported that they felt too unsafe to attend school before April 20, 1999, the date of the Columbine shootings, compared to 10 percent of the students questioned after that date.
Brener and her coworkers used data from the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of more than 15,000 high school students nationwide, three-quarters of whom completed questionnaires before the shootings. Students answered eight questions about interpersonal violence and five questions related to suicide. Brener’s study compared results from before the incident with those obtained afterward.
Students were also significantly less likely to report that they were considering suicide after the Columbine incident. However, the incidence of suicide attempts remained essentially unchanged.
“It is unclear whether the reduction in students’ reports of suicide thoughts or plans following the Columbine incident reflects a real decline in the prevalence of suicide ideation,” says Brener, or if it “reflects students’ unwillingness or inability to report these symptoms following Columbine.”
Students’ fear of unsafe schools varied depending on where they lived. The percentage of urban students who felt that it was unsafe to attend school increased from 5 percent to 11 percent, while the figures for suburban students increased from 3 percent to 9 percent. Rural teenagers showed the largest change, with only 4 percent being concerned before April 20 compared with 33 percent who thought school was unsafe after that date.
“These results highlight that the aftermath of an extreme incident of school violence can extend well beyond the immediate community to impact many more lives nationwide,” notes Brener.
“Ongoing research about youth violence will provide even more strategies for addressing this important public health problem,” she adds.
The study was conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, sponsored by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Preventive Medicine, is published eight times a year by Elsevier Science. The Journal is a forum for the communication of information, knowledge and wisdom in prevention science, education, practice and policy. For more information about the Journal, contact the editorial office at (619) 594-7344.
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