ALMOST EVERY WEEK a dramatic new incident of school violence grabs the nation's attention. Headlines such as "Boy, 6, Shoots, Kills Girl in Class: First-Graders May Have Quarreled," carried by the San Diego UnionTribune in March 2000, seem to have become commonplace. Since the early 1990s, shootings at American schools have become big news stories not only with the national but also the international media.

The drama of these incidents—striking even at the lowest grades of elementary school—and the ensuing media coverage have made school safety a hot topic. Today, public concern for school violence is greater than ever. When President Clinton said, "The recent series of killings in our schools has seared the heart of America about as much as anything I can remember in a long, long time," on July 7, 1998, he spoke for many...