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The Federal government’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program supports education and prevention activities to reduce alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use as well as violence in the nation’s schools. The program, authorized by Congress through the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, includes school safety as an important program outcome. While the State of Maryland has supported violence prevention activities in its schools, information about the extent to which students feel their safety is threatened was not known.

As the design of the 1998 survey was discussed, program planners and researchers decided to include questions about how adolescents view their safety, whether in school or in their neighborhood. The survey questionnaire, finalized in 1997, resulted in a series of six questions about students’ safety. These questions were asked of eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students.

The inclusion of the safety questions proved to be fortuitous. Violence within schools, most horribly portrayed in Columbine, Colorado in 1999, has increasingly become a concern in communities across the nation. Understanding students’ perceptions about their safety in and around school provides important information in Maryland’s efforts to ensure incidents such as Columbine do not occur.

Table 9.1 shows that at least half of all surveyed students indicated they never felt unsafe at school, unsafe going to or from school, or unsafe in their neighborhood. In addition, the percentage of surveyed students who never felt unsafe increased by grade level. Tenth and twelfth graders were most likely to feel safest in their neighborhoods while eighth graders were most likely to feel safest while going to and from school. The largest group of students who felt unsafe most or every day at school were tenth graders (7.4%) while eighth graders represented the largest group of students who felt unsafe most or every day going to or from school (6.7%) or in their neighborhood (7.0%). It is interesting to note that the percentage of students who felt unsafe in their neighborhood most days or every day decreased as grade level increased. This also held true for students who indicated they felt unsafe going to or from school most days or every day.

The majority of surveyed students (93% or more) at each grade level indicated they were not absent from school during the last four weeks because they felt unsafe. Of those who did feel unsafe, approximately 2% of eighth and tenth graders missed 4 or more days of school because they felt unsafe. At the twelfth grade level, 2% of surveyed students indicated they missed one day of school because they felt unsafe.

Table 9.2 presents how surveyed students perceived their degree of safety by gender. Eighth grade males and females are almost evenly divided in indicating they never felt unsafe at school (tenth grade¾ males 53.9% vs. females 47.2%; twelfth grade¾ males 61.8% vs. females 52.7%). At the tenth and twelfth grade levels, males are more likely than females to indicate they never felt unsafe at school. For going to or from school, males are more likely than females across grades to indicate they never felt unsafe. Males were also more likely than females to indicate they never felt unsafe in their neighborhood.

When data are examined for students who indicated they felt unsafe most or every day, it can be seen that there were more males than females across grade levels who felt unsafe at school most days. For going to and from school, eighth grade females were more likely than eighth grade males to indicate they felt unsafe most or every day. There was no difference between males and females at the tenth grade level, and there were slightly more males (5.2%) than females (4.9%) who indicated they felt unsafe most or every day going to or from school. Results were also mixed for surveyed students who indicated they felt unsafe most or every day in their neighborhood. At the eighth grade level, equal numbers of males and females indicated they felt unsafe most or every day in their neighborhood (7.0%). At the tenth grade level, there were more males (6.8%) than females (6.1%) while at the twelfth grade level there were more females (4.1%) than males (3.8%) who indicated they felt unsafe in their neighborhood most or every day.

For absences from school because of fears about safety, 93% or more of students at each grade level and gender indicated they did not miss school in the previous 4 weeks because of fears about their safety. Of those who missed school because of safety issues, the largest percentage of eighth graders missed one day of school (males 3.8% and females 3.3%). Similarly, the largest percentage of twelfth graders who missed school (males 2.3% and females 1.8%) missed only one day of school because of safety concerns. For tenth graders, however, the data are different. The largest percentage of tenth grade females who missed school because of safety concerns missed 2 or 3 days of school (2.4%). For males, the largest percentage who missed school were absent 4 or more days (3.3%).

Tables 9.3 through 9.6 present data on students’ perceptions of safety at school, going to and from school, and in their neighborhood by user status. Across grades, user status, and type of substance, the largest proportion of students indicated they "never" felt unsafe at school; almost one half of all students at each grade level and user status indicated they never felt unsafe at school (Table 9.3). For nonusers of alcohol and cigarettes, the percentage of surveyed students who indicated they never felt unsafe at school increased as grade level increased.

Eighth and tenth grade users of cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs were more likely than nonusers to feel unsafe going to or from school on most days or every day. At the twelfth grade level for these substances, there were more nonusers who felt unsafe at school most days or every day than users. For twelfth graders who used other drugs, more users (4.2%) than nonusers (3.8%) indicated they felt unsafe at school most days or every day.

Users of cigarettes or alcohol at the eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade level are more likely (57% or more) than nonusers of these substances to indicate they "never" felt unsafe going to or from school (Table 9.4). For other drugs, eighth grade nonusers were more likely to indicate they never felt unsafe going to or from school than users, while at the tenth and twelfth grade levels, users were more likely than nonusers to indicate they never felt unsafe going to or from school.

Eighth and tenth grade users of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs were more likely than nonusers to indicate they felt unsafe going to or from school most days or every day. At the twelfth grade level, however, nonusers (5.3%) were more likely than users (4.4%) to indicate they felt unsafe most days or every day going to or from school.

In terms of safety in students’ neighborhoods, Table 9.5 shows that users (54% or more) of cigarettes or other drugs are more likely than nonusers across grade levels to "never" feel unsafe in their neighborhoods. For alcohol, eighth grade nonusers are more likely than users to indicate they "never" feel unsafe in their neighborhoods (56.0% vs. 52.1%), while tenth and twelfth grade users of alcohol are more likely than nonusers to indicate they never feel unsafe in their neighborhoods (tenth grade¾ users 60.1% vs. nonusers 57.9%; twelfth grade¾ users 65.1% vs. nonusers 62.4%).

Eighth and tenth grade users of all substances are also more likely than nonusers to have indicated they felt unsafe most days or every day in their neighborhood. At the twelfth grade level, nonusers of cigarettes and alcohol were more likely than users to indicate they felt unsafe most or every day in their neighborhood. Twelfth grade users of other drugs (4.1%) were more likely to indicate they felt unsafe in their neighborhood most days or every day than nonusers of other drugs (3.7%).

Table 9.6 shows the percentage of students who were absent from school during the previous four week period because they felt unsafe by user status. Nonusers of cigarettes and other drugs across all three grade levels were more likely than users to have missed no days of school because they felt unsafe. For alcohol, this was also true except at the twelfth grade level where there were equal numbers of users and nonusers who indicated they missed no days of school because they felt unsafe.

At the eighth and tenth grade level, there were more users than nonusers of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs who missed one or more days of school because they felt unsafe. At the twelfth grade level, however, this finding did not hold true. In some instances, more twelfth grade nonusers than users (such as alcohol, missing 4 or more days) indicated they missed school because they felt unsafe. In other instances, more twelfth grade users than nonusers (such as for other drugs missing 2 or 3 days of school) indicated they missed school because they felt unsafe.

One resiliency factor associated with safety is whether or not a youth has an adult available to talk to them when they have a problem or concern. The 1998 MAS asked students if there was such an adult available to them at home and at school. Students were more likely to have an adult they could always talk to at home than at school (Table 9.7).

Eighth graders represented the largest group (68.8%) who always had an adult at home who was available to talk with them. Twelfth graders represented the next largest group (63.8%), while 61.8% of tenth graders indicated they always had an adult at home who was available to talk with them. Similar distributions are found when examining whether students have an adult to talk to while at school¾ eighth graders represented the largest group (62.3%) followed by twelfth graders (54.3%) and then tenth graders (50.6%). Students were more likely to indicate they "never" had an adult to talk to at school than at home. Tenth graders (15.7%), followed by twelfth graders (13.7%) represented the largest group who indicated they never had an adult to talk to (in this instance, at school).

When the gender of students is examined (Table 9.8), some interesting patterns emerge. First, for surveyed students who indicated they always had an adult to talk to at school, more eighth grade males than females (62.6% vs. 62.1%) indicated this was the case. For tenth and twelfth graders, more females than males indicated they always had an adult to talk to at school. Across all three grades, more males than females indicated they "never" had an adult to talk to at school.

Eighth and tenth grade males were more likely than females to indicate they "always" had an adult available to talk with them at home. At the eighth grade level, the difference between genders represented 2.6 percentage points; this difference was smaller (1.6 percentage points) for tenth graders. At the twelfth grade level, more females (64.5%) than males (63.3%) indicated they always had an adult to talk to at home. Males were more likely than females to indicate they "never" had an adult to talk to at home, with the percentage who indicated this increasing with grade level.

These results were also examined by user status of the students. Table 9.9 shows the percentage of users and nonusers of cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs who had an adult to talk to at school. Across grades and type of substance, nonusers were more likely than users to indicate they "always" had an adult available to talk to them at school. Conversely, users across all grade levels were more likely to indicate they "never" had an adult available to talk to them at school than adolescents who were nonusers of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs.

When these data are examined by type of substance, it is interesting to note that the largest percentage of students across grade levels who indicated they "never" had an adult to talk to at school were users of other drugs. The largest proportion of nonusers who "always" had an adult to talk to at school was eighth and tenth grade nonusers of alcohol (67.2% eighth graders and 57.5% tenth graders). At the twelfth grade level, the largest proportion of nonuser students who always had an adult to talk to at school was nonusers of cigarettes (57.9%).

At the eighth and tenth grade levels, there is some difference between the percentage of user and nonuser students of cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs who indicate they always have an adult to talk to at school. By twelfth grade however, this difference decreases, particularly for alcohol and other drugs.

Table 9.10 presents the percentage of students, by grade and user status, who had an adult to talk to at home. These data show that nonusers, across grade levels and substances, were more likely than users to indicate they "always" had an adult to talk to at home. Nonusers of alcohol represented the largest group of nonusers who always had an adult to talk to at home. Except for other drugs, the percentage of nonusers who indicated they always had an adult to talk to at home decreased as grade level increased. For other drugs, there were slightly more twelfth grade nonusers (68.9%) than tenth grade nonusers (68.2%) who indicated they always had an adult at home to talk to. Not surprisingly, there were more users than nonusers across grade levels and substances who indicated they "never" had an adult available to talk with them at home.

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