Unequally Safe

Abstract

School safety is a critical issue for school staff, policy makers, and parents. Efforts to promote safety often focus on reducing school violence and disorder, including zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, metal detectors, and police officers in schools. Yet little is known about how safe students feel at school and how safety varies within schools. Using survey data for the population of middle school students in a large urban school district, this article identifies gaps in feelings of safety between Black students, Hispanic students, and their White and Asian peers. Key characteristics of schools and neighborhoods that relate to safety gaps are identified.

School Climate and College Attendance for Black Adolescents: Moving Beyond College‐Going Culture

“…Understanding the factors that promote positive life course trajectories (i.e., college attendance, particularly 4-year college attendance, as it is more and more necessary for reaping the benefits of educational attainment; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) is especially meaningful for populations that have had historically low rates of educational attainment. Black students in American schools face unique challenges in accessing postsecondary education due to their historical position in society (Lacoe, 2015;Skiba et al, 2011;Steele, 2003). As such, our study's focus specifically on Black youth offers a third contribution to the literature by identifying how facets of affective and general school climate are linked to increasing college enrollment among this vulnerable population.…”

“…These persistent stereotypes and prejudices have many consequences, including implicitly and explicitly influencing interactions in schools. For example, researchers have documented that Black students, in contrast to students from other racial/ethnic backgrounds, face disproportionately high discipline and exclusionary practices in school (Skiba et al, 2011) and have disproportionately low perceptions of safety while at school (Lacoe, 2015). Understanding Black adolescents' high school experiences and the ways in which they are associated with the transition to college is critical for increasing their educational attainment.…”

Preventing School Violence and Promoting School Safety: Contemporary Scholarship Advancing Science, Practice, and Policy

“…Increasing emphasis has been placed on the importance of centering race and ethnicity in scholarship and practices to promote school safety (Eddy et al, 2020;Felix & You, 2011;Fisher et al, 2020;García-Vázquez et al, 2020;Gregory et al, 2021;Juvonen et al, 2006;Lacoe, 2015;Madfis et al, 2021;Naser & Dever, 2019;Parker et al, 2020). Jimerson et al (2021) highlighted the importance of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of school psychology, highlighting the importance of featuring scholarship that advances our knowledge and understanding of minoritized youth, families, and communities.…”

“…This special topic section contributes multiple articles advancing science, practice, and policies featuring race and ethnicity as key considerations in understanding and promoting school safety and preventing school violence. Research during the past several decades reveals Black students' concern for their safety at school (Chandler et al,1995;Lacoe, 2015), differences in Black students' perception of the school climate (Voight et al, 2015), as well disparate outcomes for Black students resulting from policies meant to increase safety in schools (Kupchik & Bracy, 2009;Noguera, 1995Noguera, , 2003Noguera, , 2008Triplett et al, 2020). In "Centering Race to Move Towards an Intersectional Ecological Framework for Defining School Safety for Black Students, " Elianny (2021) highlights the impact of institutional racism on Black students' safety and disparate outcomes resulting from policies meant to increase safety in schools.…”

“…Student perceptions of school safety among diverse populations of students and contexts warrants further empirical study. Findings from research examining the racial/ethnic differences in the perceptions of school safety have been mixed, with some revealing no racial differences in students' perception of school safety (Bachman et al, 2011;Hong & Eamon, 2012) and others revealing differences in students' perception of safety at school among ethnic groups (Jackson, 2015;Lacoe, 2015;Thibodeaux, 2013). In "Unequally Safe: Association between Bullying and Perceived School Safety and the Moderating Effects of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Grade Levels", employ social-ecological, social identity, and social misfit theories, to examine the gender, racial/ethnic, and grade-level differences of students' perceived school safety and their associations with bullying victimization and school-wide bullying.…”