‘Unprecedented Violence’ on the Rise in American Schools: Activist

Tyrone Muhammad, executive director of ECCSC. Courtesy of Tyrone Muhammad

An unprecedented rise in violence being experienced in schools across the country has reached a crisis point even as officials continue to flood the problem with increasing amounts of taxpayer funds—raising questions among local activist groups over how resources are being delegated.

“The same handful of groups continue to receive hundreds of millions of tax dollars year after year, and we continue to see unprecedented violence on our streets and in our schools,” Tyrone Muhammad, executive director of ECCSC, a Chicago-based group promoting social change, told The Epoch Times.

“We all know and see what’s going on. It’s just political theater—the black death hustle.

“Too many people are making money. That is why they keep pumping funds into the same failed programs even as our schools have become a stage for gang warfare,” added Mr. Muhammad.

In 2022, Chicago Public Schools spent $7.5 million to expand an anti-violence program for teens in high-risk situations and connect them with weekly therapy. The amount of federal dollars spent nationally on anti-violence school programs is unavailable but believed to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, according to data released by a watchdog group, the nation’s schools are experiencing a record rise in violence. During the 2023 school year, there have already been 343 reported incidents “in which a gun is brandished, fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims (including zero), time, day of the week, or reason,” according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

In 2020, there were 115 such incidents, with the number rising to 250 in 2021. The number soared again in 2022 to 305, rising to new heights this year.

In May, the Chicago City Council announced that $51 million in financial aid from the budget would go toward addressing the flood of illegal immigrants—these valuable resources could be used to help stem the violence, according to Mr. Muhammed.

“Our leaders have made it clear that they prioritize the migrants more than our own children who are dying on our streets,” he said.

‘We Need to Work Together’

Timothy Brashier, the founder of Practical Preparedness, a group based out of Oklahoma that helps schools with security-related issues, told The Epoch Times that his services “are 100 percent more in demand.”

“It is an issue, and too many schools don’t have a plan in place in the event that a violent situation occurs,” said Mr. Brashier. “We need to work together to be proactive.”

The record increase in violence in the classroom is believed to be a contributing factor to the nationwide exodus from the public school system and the rise in homeschooling.

New Census Bureau data show that 11.1 percent of K-12 students are now independently homeschooled, an increase from 5.4 percent at the start of last spring. Conversely, public school enrollment fell 3 percent between 2019 and 2020, with many families withdrawing children from public education and signing them up for educational alternatives.

In the 2023 school year, a nationwide drop in public school attendance has led many districts to cut staff or even close schools. While other factors have led to the decrease in public education, including lower birth rates, the switch to homeschooling has accounted for more than 26 percent of the 1.2 million decline in student enrollment at public schools nationwide, according to a 2023 study by Thomas S. Dee of Stanford.

Meanwhile, public opinion about homeschooling continues to rise. A recent Rasmussen poll found that among parents whose children were attending school, 62 percent of respondents approved of homeschooling for children, including 27 percent who “strongly approve.” The poll also revealed that less than a third of Americans think the country’s public schools are doing a good or excellent job, with 31 percent of parents disapproving, including 7 percent who “strongly disapproved.”

Mr. Muhammad says that government policies won’t provide the answers and calls for men in the communities to step forward and provide the younger generation with role models and mentorships to help show a positive path forward.

“We trap these young men in the same schools with their rivals and opposition and then ask the teachers to turn around and be mental health specialists and fathers to these broken boys,” said Mr. Muhammad. “How can we ask them to be both fathers and teach curriculum? It’s a hard ask.

“We need to stand up as men and understand that elected officials are not the solution. The people, the men in the community, we are the solution.”