WASHINGTON - Nearly 1 million students carried a gun to school during the 1997-98 school year, and nearly half of them were armed six or more times, a key annual survey of kids said Thursday.
But the PRIDE study of 154,350 students in grades 6-12 also showed the number of students bringing guns to school declined over the past five years, from 6% in 1993-94 to 3.8% in 1997-98.
The study, which also looked at drug use among the children, comes amid an increasing number of school shooting incidents around the country.
"With this volatile mixture of guns, bad attitudes and drugs, it only takes one student to create a national nightmare like Jonesboro, Ark., or Springfield, Ore.," said Thomas Gleaton, president of PRIDE. Students were killed by schoolmates at both locations.
PRIDE is a non-profit drug prevention program that has conducted the survey annually for the past 11 years.
Other findings:
- 64% of the 973,000 who carried guns used an illegal drug on a monthly basis.
- 51% of the students who carried guns to school said they had threatened to harm a teacher; 63% had threatened to harm another student.
- Of the students who carried a gun to school, 59% were white; 18% black; 12% Hispanic; 3% Asian and 3% Native American.
The survey found a connection between participation in school and after-school activities and a reduction in violent behavior and drug abuse.
Students who did not carry guns were 53% more likely to be involved in after-school programs and 34% more likely to participate in school activities.
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