A recent report from the Education Department reveals that gun violence in K-12 schools has escalated compared to ten years ago. Meanwhile, incidences of bullying and violence against students and teachers have decreased on school grounds.

The report, released on July 25, sheds light on the evolving atmosphere in K-12 schools, stating it can “aid policymakers and practitioners in understanding the nature, extent, and scope of the issues they are tackling while formulating violence and crime prevention strategies,” according to the authors.

This past summer, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy labeled gun violence as a public health emergency, issuing a detailed advisory with 39 pages outlining measures to curb firearm-related deaths. The advisory noted that firearm-related fatalities “reached an almost 30-year peak in 2021.”

Gun violence emerged as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in 2020 and continued in this trend for both 2021 and 2022, as per KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy research and polling.

Here are some key points on campus crime:

Overall crime rates on school campuses are decreasing

In the decade leading up to 2022, criminal behavior on public school property saw a decline. This includes fights among students and physical assaults on teachers. Incidents of gang violence and hate-based graffiti also diminished, as reported.

The proportion of high school students bringing a weapon onto school property in the last month fell compared to a decade ago. Additionally, the percentage of students and staff reporting threats or weapon assaults on campus decreased from the 2011-2012 school year to the 2021-2022 school year, as indicated by the latest data.

Cyberbullying is now more frequent than traditional bullying

Bullying has always been an issue in public schools, particularly in middle schools where pre-teens face significant physical and emotional changes. However, federal data shows that cyberbullying has slightly surpassed traditional bullying in frequency. A separate survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in 2022 revealed that nearly half of U.S. teens reported experiencing some type of cyberbullying.

Among students aged 12 to 18, approximately 19.2% reported bullying in school during the 2021-2022 school year, compared to 28% a decade earlier, as indicated in the Education Department report.

Young women reported being bullied more frequently than their male peers.

Gun violence remains a serious issue in schools

The reality of gun violence is now a pervasive concern in American schools. Schools nationwide are increasingly going into lockdown, with about one in four teachers in a nationally representative survey from the Pew Research Center stating that their campus experienced at least one gun-related lockdown in the last academic year.

The Education Department’s report highlighted that the rate of students possessing firearms in the 2021-2022 school year was the highest recorded in the past decade.

In 2022, there were 52 individuals who were either killed or injured in an active shooter incident at school campuses, marking the second-highest casualty count for such events, following 2018, when 81 were killed or injured.