The alarming trend of increased school violence in Israel’s public school system continues as the number of youths involved in attacks continues its upward trend.

A report released by the Israel National Authority for Measurement & Evaluation in Education documents violence in the nation’s public schools is on the rise. The report concerns itself with the 2013-2014 school year, which was worse than the years preceding it, basing the information on the completion of questionnaires by students. The report measures violent attacks/incidents against both students and teachers, verbal abuse, thefts, unauthorized absences, tardiness and the general feeling of security among students.

What has been learned is that one in every ten students report involvement in a violent incident in the past month, adding violence is higher in Arab speaker schools as compared to Hebrew speaking schools.

Violence is up in high schools, down in elementary schools and an increase in attacks in Arabic-speaking junior high schools. 30% of students report there are gangs and/or bullies in their school with a large number reported in Arab-speaking schools than Hebrew-speaking schools.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)