High rate of violence seen in teens' lives

Peter Schworm:

More than 40 percent of male high school students in Boston say they have carried a knife and more than 40 percent of all students believe it would be easy to get a gun, according to a new public health survey.

One in five students has witnessed a shooting and does not feel safe in his or her neighborhood, the survey found.

The report, which surveyed more than 1,200 students in 18 Boston public high schools in the spring of 2006, found that two-thirds of students said they had witnessed violence in the year before the survey, and one-third had been involved in a fight themselves. Nearly 40 percent of male students had been assaulted, and 28 percent said they did not feel safe on the bus or train.

The report, which city officials are releasing today to launch a series of community meetings on teenage health, highlights the pervasive exposure to violence among city teenagers and the fear it can generate.

The survey's finding of widespread fistfights - more than one-third of male and female students reported having hit, punched, kicked, or choked someone in the past month - was also disturbing, Ferrer said. Such violence can easily intensify to weapon use, she said.

"We're missing the precursor to more serious violence, which is a lot of aggressive behavior," she said. "We need to give our students some skills on how to resolve conflict before it escalates."

Marcus Peterson, a member of a youth antiviolence group called Operation Greensboro said public apathy contributes to the persistent violence.

"It's not really an issue anymore," he said. "It's just accepted."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 1, 2007 12:10 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas