Abstract

As a result of high media attention surrounding school shootings in recent years, it may appear that American public schools are becoming dangerous places (Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016; Elsass, Schildkraut, & Stafford, 2016; Toppo, 2013). Though schools remain to be one of the safest locations for children, various safety measures are discussed and implemented in schools to combat this perceived problem and ensure the safety of school campuses. Discussions of best safety practices spikes directly following a school shooting event from relevant parties, such as school administration, law enforcement agencies, parents, and students, (Crawford & Burns, 2015; Chrusciel, Wolfe, Hansen, Rojek, & Kaminski, 2014) but little existing literature focuses on teachers, more specifically how safe teachers perceive schools to be with regard to gun violence and school shootings. This study seeks to build upon the small body of literature that currently exists on teachers' perceptions of safety and hopes to introduce new opportunities for research in the future. This study is comprised of 212 teachers throughout Central Florida. The results of this research show that while teachers overall feel very safe teaching at their schools, there are areas they believe can be improved upon. Of the safety measures used to prevent and reduce gun violence at schools, program-based safety measures and School Resource Officers make these teachers feel the safest. These perceptions of safety do not vary from one Central Florida county to the next, as most teachers are largely in agreement as to what measures make them feel safe. It was also revealed that most teachers in the sample are also unsupportive of legislation that would allow classroom teachers to carry firearms on school campuses.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2019

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Donley, Amy

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Sociology

Degree Program

Applied Sociology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0007698

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0007698

Language

English

Release Date

August 2019

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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