
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 26, 1994                   TAG: 9408270042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CRIME SEEN AS SCHOOLS' TOP PROBLEM

WASHINGTON - Despite statistics pointing to a steady decrease in the nation's overall crime rate, adults see fighting, violence and gangs as the biggest problem confronting public schools, a Gallup poll said Thursday.

The favored solution by 86 percent of those polled: stronger penalties for student possession of weapons.

``For all the hoopla in the national press, there is no crime wave in America - except among blacks,'' said a report by Phi Delta Kappa, a professional fraternity for educators, which commissioned the 26th annual poll from Gallup.

Ranked next as the biggest problems with which their public schools must deal, were lack of proper financial support, drug abuse and standards or quality of education. In the 1993 poll, lack of financial support was listed first.

The public blames the perceived increase in public school violence on factors over which schools have little control: increased use of drugs and alcohol, growth of youth gangs, easy availability of weapons, the breakdown in the American family, schools lacking discipline authority they once had and increased portrayal of violence in media. Blame also was placed, but by fewer people, on the inability of school staff to resolve conflicts between students, shortage in school personnel, trying to deal with troubled students in the regular classroom instead of special classes and a curriculum that is out of touch with the needs of today's students.

by CNB