During the 2007-08 school year, 21 school-age children were killed on their school campuses, and five committed suicide at school, according to a report published by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice.
During the same year, 85 percent of public schools documented that at least one violent crime, theft, or other kind of crime occurred on their campuses.
The report says that from 1992-93 to 2007-08, from one to nine youths committed suicide on school campuses each school year, with no consistent pattern of an increase or a decrease from year to year.
There was an overall decline in rates of victimization at school for youths ages 12 to 18 from 1992 to 2007, but the crime rate on school campuses did not change significantly between 2004 and 2007.
The report was released by the Education Departments Institute of Education Sciences and the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Justice Department.