10. Prevalence of teachers being threatened with injury or attacked by students*

Some of the offenses against teachers are committed by students. Data on physical attacks and threats against elementary and secondary teachers by students can provide a snapshot of the prevalence of this problem.

• In the 1993-94 school year, 12 percent of all elementary and secondary school teachers (341,000) were threatened with injury by a student from their school, and 4 percent (119,000) were physically attacked by a stu-dent (table 10.1).
• Teachers in central city schools were more likely to be victims than were teachers in urban fringe or rural schools in 1993-94 (table 10.1). About 15 percent of teachers in central city schools had been threatened with injury by students, compared with 11 and 10 percent of teachers in urban fringe and rural schools. About 6 percent of teachers in central city schools had been attacked by students, compared with 4 and 3 percent of teachers in urban fringe and rural schools.
• Public school teachers were more likely than private school teachers to be victimized by students in school in 1993-94 (figure 10.1 and table 10.1). Almost 13 percent of public school teachers had been threatened with injury by students, compared with 4 percent of private school teachers, and 4 percent of public school teachers had been physically attacked by students, compared with 2 percent of private school teachers. Teachers in public central city schools were about five times more likely to be targets of threats of injury and about three times more likely to be targets of attacks than their colleagues in private central city schools.
• In 1993-94, secondary school teachers were more likely than elementary school teachers to have been threatened with injury by a student from their school (15 percent versus 9 percent) (table 10.1). However, elementary school teachers were more likely than secondary school teachers to have been physically attacked by a student (5 percent versus 3 percent). The prevalence of teacher victimization by students did not vary according to the racial/ethnic backgrounds of teachers.

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