School Violence Sends 90K Kids to ER Every Year

10% of school injuries are intentional: study
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2014 9:18 AM CST
School Violence Sends 90K Kids to ER Every Year
Some 90,000 kids per year end up in the ER after school violence.   (Shutterstock)

"Intentional" injuries received at school send some 90,000 kids to the ER each year, a new study shows. There's only been a slight decrease in that figure over the past decade, in what researchers see as a disappointment. "With so much emphasis on school safety and bullying now, we expected a bigger decline," study co-author Siraj Amanullah tells NBC News. Even more worrying: The figure could be misleadingly low. Kids underreport bullying because authorities don't take much action, Amanullah says.

Some 40% of injuries were cuts and bruises, while 12% were fractures, 10% brain injuries, and 7% sprains and strains, NBC notes. Assault—usually by someone known to the victim—accounted for 96% of the injuries, and 10% included multiple attackers. The study reviewed the period from January 2001 through December 2008, during which there were 7,397,301 school injuries among kids ages 5 to 19; about 10% of those were intentional, LiveScience notes. "Every school should assume they have an issue," says an expert. (More school violence stories.)

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