ANN ARBOR—While many high schools have resorted to metal detectors, video cameras and security guards to help stem the rise of violence on school grounds, a University of Michigan researcher says that putting teachers in school areas where most violence now occurs may be a better deterrent.

In his survey of more than 100 students, teachers and administrators at five Midwestern high schools, Ron A. Astor, U-M professor of social work and education, found that of the 166 reported acts of school violence, all occurred in locations where few or no adults—especially teachers—were present.

About 40 percent of the incidents took place in hallways between class periods, while another 20 percent occurred in cafeterias during lunch time, he says. Other dangerous areas included gyms, locker rooms, auditoriums and parking lots, especially right before or after the school day.

“Our results suggest that school violence occurs in predictable locations and times in and around the school building,” Astor says. “Although staff members were deeply disturbed by violent events in their school, most did not believe it was their professional role to secure dangerous locations or intervene to stop violent events in those locations.”

While teachers in the study indicated a sense of ownership and responsibility for the space within their classrooms, many were reluctant to extend that feeling to areas of “undefined public space,” which accounts for about a third of all school space, Astor says.

He adds, however, that because school culture and the institutional system have not always clearly defined teachers’ professional roles regarding school violence, teachers are often uncertain about who should intervene and what procedures to follow.

“Teachers are really caught in the middle,” Astor says. “Intervention strategies prescribed by school administrators have not always been clear or effective. Teachers need to be given encouragement and support to develop effective ways to deal with violent incidents.”

Those teachers in the study who did intervene to stop violence did so out of personal moral conviction, rather than an obligatory organizational response, he says.

Although many schools have security guards, hall monitors and other adult aides present in common areas, the students in the study said that “unowned” public places must be “personally reclaimed” by adults who have authority, who know students personally and who know what procedure to follow when conflict arises in those locations.

“By far, the most effective violence intervention described by students, teachers and administrators was the physical presence of teachers who are willing to intervene, coupled with a clear, consistent administrative policy on violence,” Astor says. “There was consensus among the students that caring teachers saw their role as transcending beyond the walls of the classroom to all areas of the school.

“We believe that, in the final analysis, teacher-generated and -implemented interventions hold the greatest likelihood of securing safety and preventing violence.”

Astor’s colleagues on the study were U-M graduate students Heather A. Meyer and William J. Behre. The study was presented at a recent meeting of the American Psychological Association.