I have very little useful advice to give in this field, but maybe an observation may help.

I work in a country high school in Australia. Admittedly violence is not a major problem for us but there was an undercurrent of aggression in the school a few years ago. What we did that mostly removed the sense of aggression was to:

1. Frame the school as 'the safe place to be'. In other words we spent time selling the idea that school was special and needed to remain separate from the troubles outside of school.

2. Reduce agression from the system itself. We removed the concept of punishment and retrained r3achers to speak in non punitive ways (a difficult job). Teachers were told not to punish students with detentions, lines, etc but instead students were asked to 'sort the problem' they had with the teacher. This may involve them staying behind to discuss, acknowledge and respond to the issue in a way that was designed to solve the problem, but it was NOT a detention.

this is just a short description of what we did. The 2 factors I described interacted such that we now yave a much less aggressive and much happier student and teacher community.

Mark this is really different. Even though the influences of Garrison communities are so strong in inner -city schools here, I feel motivated by your experience and will move my investigation to explore all possibilities in the direction you suggested.

I assume you are speaking of Jamaica the island. I went to high school in Jamaica in the late 70's to early 80's. Back then violence was not allowed in high school. I still recall the two girls who were expelled because they had a fight after school, away from the school compound. The issue of violence in high schools in Jamaica that is currently of concern is a much bigger issue than mere disciplinary strategies can solve. It stems from the breakdown of families. Poverty and high unemployment has forced many parents to leave their children behind to seek opportunities overseas; mainly to the continental USA and Canada. Immigration policies have become more draconian and there have been massive increases in fees. As a result children end up remaining behind for long periods without appropriate parental supervision. Then there is the issue of 'deportees' - individuals who migrated to the USA, got in trouble with the law, went to prison, and were deported on their release. Often these individuals have no family back in Jamaica; they are taken to the country by US Marshals who drop them off at the airport. With nowhere to go and no one to turn to most of these deportees turn to crime. Since these massive deportations began crime in Jamaica has spiraled out of control. What is happening in the schools is a reflection of what is happening in society. Many Jamaicans live in fear of these deportees who seemed to have been deprived of reason and remorse. Indeed it is a multifaceted problem in need of a like solution.

Thanks Sharon. There are some Jamaican school, considered to be traditional like Campion College, Immaculate High School for Girls, St Andrew High School for Girls and a few others that are managing to some extent where discipline is concerned which make these schools stand out from the rest of Jamaican high Schools. These schools seem to cater to children from a different social class from those students attending the violence prone Jamaican schools.

The majority of the 'New' High Schools have instituted the Safe Schools Programme which is a Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Constabulary Force and the Ministry of Social Security initiative. This programme assigns schools with gangs and identified anti- social students behaviourh a Dean of Discipline and police officers known as Safe Schools Officers.These persons are the chief officers responsible for the Disciplinary Portfolios of schools with anti-social behaviours. While this intervention helps to minimize crime and indiscipline in New High Schools in front of the Safe School Officers, depending on how the officers are viewed their very presence on some school compound can cause serious resentment among some delinquent students. This resentment strengthens daily until at a particular point when they are unavailable in the school.

In keeping with your observation of broken homes due to financial struggles of some parents, the Deportee factor and the general indiscipline of the society it could be argued that a lack of respect for education and what schools do for students in economically depressed communities seem to be fueling an alternative approach to traditional education, where achievement commands little respect.

I have started to probe each aspect of your suggestions to and all other suggestions received so far to utilize all usable solutions.

Jacqueline:

Violence in schools is usually a function of the school climate. I have taught in schools in New York City with dean of discipline and with police officers. I have seen deans that were excellent at maintaining discipline; I have seen ones that were totally ineffective. I have not been in any school where I felt having a police officer on the premises made a huge difference. In one school I taught in that had police officers in the building a student explained to me how he brought a gun into the school.

I have found that parental involvement makes a big difference. When I taught it was parental involvement that maintained discipline in my classes. Of course parental involvement can't be a factor if there are no parents. If you can't have parental involvement then you have to work directly with the violent child. You can counsel violent children and teach them strategies to handle their anger. You can help them find avenues (sports is usually a good one) into which to channel their energies.

It might be a good research strategy to gather statistical data on school violence, use that data to determine which schools have the highest prevalence of violence in various categories. You must keep in mind that violence in schools in Jamaica has always been viewed as a major issue. If you have two acts of violence in a school that traditional had none it will seem like a major crisis to the school community. I would focus on violence against teachers and violence in general. Then you can pick out those schools with the highest prevalence and begin to look at demographic and social factors related to the cases.

This is just great. You have granted me a more thorough perspective to face the problem. Your discussion specifically as it relates to parenting is a serious problem in Jamaican Inner-City Schools. They are either dead, migrated, missing , uninvolved in the child's education or too young to view themselves as parents. With each teacher being accountable for between forty and fifty students per class in the specefic case i am investigating in a school of over 2000 students, teachers are often faced with Burn Out and experience depersonalization. I am going to review the teacher student relationship carefully to get a better perspective.

Hi Jacqueline, Sharon's suggestion correlates with what we found in an admittedly more benign context as I said in the first comment. It's hard to influence outside the school, so make the school 'special', more homely and above all a safe place to be. There was an article in Huffington Post today about an North American police chief who reduced violent confrontation in demonstrations by reducing the conflict at the front end, ie from his police and established a low confrontation setting that the demonstrators responded to (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/chris-burbank-salt-lake-city_n_4170154.html)

The similarities to my school situation were:

Reduce the systemic aggression by changing power players' responses to ALWAYS one of 'negotiating a solution'. The teachers need a lot of help at this approach.

Leader(s) who acted as front end people to actively set up the 'frame' through which all players in the situation viewed the situation.

As well in our situation, we framed the school as someplace special, where you left all outside influences and situations behind. Where you could feel safe to sort out the school problems (note! NOT outside problems. They remain outside)

Hi. Mindfulness techniques have been found to be helpful in addressing stress and trauma which is correlated to aggression. There are quite a few research studies on mindfulness strategies that can be used in education (both cognitive techniques as well as meditation). An organization that works in impoverished nations providing training to teachers and students interested in meditation The International Association for Human Values.

There are also some studies that have looked at how teachers interact with students (including in the field of linguistics) that are report really remarkable results in the area of classroom disruption which is promising in that they are role-modeling for the kids on healthy ways to approach engaging with others.

Another area that is truly promising, is using a trauma treatment approach with individuals who are engaging in altercations. A technique that can be taught to volunteers is Trauma Incident Reduction. You can explore the research noting the correlation between adverse childhood events with severity in acts of violence, depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms..

Hi Kathy,

I spent some time researching stress and trauma, after reading your response, and their correlation to aggression specifically among teenagers. I have gained much new knowledge and want to thank you for your insights that caused me to explore research I probably would not have considered as helpful.

I also feel greatly inspired since I have done a thorough investigation of Role Modeling and how to train staff to become the Role Models of discipline in their classes and in the way they interact with each student. I am now looking at how to tighten up the entire shift by implementing a holistic disciplinary approach where all actions taken in the school are disciplined based and designed to further improve discipline,

I have never been exposed to the Trauma Treatment approach in providing disciplinary solutions in school but I am deeply interested in learning all that I can about it so that as a school we can move into a non- violent era and experience the educational transformation the school badly needs. I am now exploring this research and feel pleased to let you know how appreciative I am of your ideas. I am aware that much training of staff will be necessary but if as a school we can evidence even a few positive changes in students behaviour we will be sure to get Stake Holders on board who will help us financially so that we can acquire the needed social and academic transformation of our students and the school as a whole.

Jacqueline.

This was nice of you to respond. Sometimes I've found it helpful to simply start developing and implementing based on the best material one has access to. Waiting for funding often leads to inaction. I personally believe in God, hence I trust that when one actively engages in change and implementation results can follow thoughtful action and this can lead to surprising opportunities and access. A couple of articles I found quite interesting:

Margutti, P. (2011). Teachers’ reproaches and managing discipline in the classroom: When teachers tell students what they do ‘wrong’

Djigic, G., Stojiljkovic, S. (2011). Classroom management styles, classroom climate and school achievement

Loukas, A., LRoalson, L. & aHerrera, D. (2010). School Connectedness Buffers the Effects of Negative Family Relations and Poor Effortful Control on Early Adolescent Conduct Problems

Marguttia, P. & Piirainen-Marsh A. (2011). The interactional management of discipline and morality in the classroom: An introduction

there are some good meditation techniques for stress reduction that have been done with children and asthma. These can also be done in the classroom. Additionally: Deep diaphragmatic breathing exercises, with a focus on the breath, can trigger the relaxation response. Progressive muscle relaxation techniques, where you alternately contract and then relax each muscle group moving progressively from head to toe, will elicit the beneficial effects of the relaxation response.

You might also contact International Association for Human Values. They teach meditation courses in schools.