By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com
The state of Mississippi jumped from 44th place to sixth place in the concern for school-based violent threats and incidents nationwide, according to a study conducted by Educator’s School Safety Network—a national nonprofit school safety organization.
Mississippi fell into the top ten states for the 2017-2018 school year that was recognized for more than half (51%) of all school-based threats and incidents of violence, according to the study.
For the 2017-2018 school year, Michigan, Ohio, Alabama, Kentucky and Washington took the top five places respectively. Pennsylvania tied with Mississippi in being placed sixth on the list.
The study was based on increases in both incidents and threats of violence computed per capita, which this past study deemed as dramatic, resulting in the Magnolia State being ranked sixth in the nation, the study stated.
“Perhaps the most concerning figures are the significant increases in threats and incidents from school year to school year,” the study stated. “There were at least 3,380 threats recorded in the 2017-2018 school year, a 62% increase from 2,085 threats in the 2016-2017 school year.”
The study said although incidents happened in all 50 states, the rate of violence for individual states differed. It used a pyramid ranking system based on three different levels—most concerned, moderately and some concern—that ranked all 50 states into the respective categories.
The composite score for the top ten states of concern was determined by a state’s ranking in the four subcategories, which then determined their overall ranking. If a state ranked higher in each of the four subcategories, it would reflect so in the overall ranking.
The study stated the top states ranked with the highest composite scores have experienced a significant number of both threats and incidents when viewed by the actual number of events as well as per million residents.
The higher the overall score, the more concerning the school safety situation is within the state. (Note that because of tie scores, this year there are 11 states of greatest concern.)
For more information on state rankings, read “Violent Threats and Incidents in Schools: An Analysis of the 2017-2018 School Year.”
