Giving Compass' Take:

· Despite data showing a decline in school violence and reports of schools being safer than ever, The 74 explains that fear continues to resonate in the minds of students, parents and teachers.

· How can districts make students feel safer during school? What cautions do schools take for safety and security?

· Read more on school safety, violence and the fear of shootings.

Moments after she had escaped the high school where a gunman killed 10 of her classmates, a Texas teenager spoke to a TV crew about her experience. The reporter asked if she ever thought this would happen to her. The student gave a shaky laugh. “It’s been happening everywhere,” she said. “I always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.”

Her response went viral, perhaps because her words resonated with the fear so many people in the U.S. have around school shootings. One recent survey found that most adults and students are afraid a school shooting will happen in their neighborhood. Another found that parents’ fear for their children’s safety at school has tripled in the past five years. The new national Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that in 2017, 6.7 percent of students reported they missed class in the previous month because they felt unsafe at school — an increase from 4.4 percent from 1993, but not a significant change, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

But in reality, researchers say, school shootings are rare and their numbers are not increasing. Schools are safer than they’ve ever been, and violence and bullying have decreased over the past 20 years, according to federal data. Every year, more than 1,100 school-age children are killed — but only 1 percent of them are killed at school.

Read the full article about school violence by Kate Stringer at The 74.