Resumo AbstractThis paper seeks to understand the phenomenon of violence in schools, leading to reflect on its appearance and occurrence. The paper had a public school of secondary education of the administrative region of Santa Maria as its scenario. The methodological approach of the research was the qualitative research. The results showed that verbal attacks are the major forms of violence, family disorganization and the non-participation of parents in the school life of the pupils are triggers of violence and school dropout is one of its consequences. We also conclude that teachers are not prepared to deal with violence.