Welcome to the September 2023 edition of Campus Safety’s 5 Facts!
Five Facts, which runs the last Friday of every month, reviews what Campus Safety has recently covered as well as the quirky, interesting, random information or factoids I come across on practically a daily basis when I’m searching for news.
This month’s edition covers window security, cyberbullying, suicide prevention, and more.
Fact No. 1: Campus protection professionals are much more aware of their glass windows and other openings’ security vulnerabilities than ever before.
The 2023 Campus Safety Access Control and Lockdown Survey found that safety and security executives at schools, institutions of higher education, and healthcare facilities are now much more concerned about the vulnerabilities their glass windows and glass openings pose than two years ago.
The survey takers who said the design and/or placement of their windows is very challenging or extremely challenging increased 23% from 29% in 2021 to 52% today.
The new research also covered visitor management, locks, and door hardware, NFC/BLE mobile phone access, biometrics, lockdown trends and more.
Fact No. 2: LGBTQ students with access to at least one school-related protective factor had 26% lower odds of attempting suicide.
The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People found that 46% of LGBTQ teens, ages 13-17, and 34% of LGBTQ adults, ages 18-24, considered suicide in the past year. The study also found that 14% of LGBTQ youth actually attempted suicide in the past year, including nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary people.
However, that same study also found that LGBTQ middle and high school students with access to at least one of the following school-related protective factors had 26% lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year:
- Access to a gender-neutral bathroom
- Teachers who respect students’ pronouns
- History classes that discuss LGBTQ people
- Sex education that includes LGBTQ experiences
- Access to a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA)
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can text TALK to 741741 or initiate an online chat at suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/. You can also call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Additional resources can also be found at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
Fact No. 3: More public schools report their students are being cyberbullied.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences, and Department of Education have released the Report on Indicators of School Crimes and Safety: 2022, which provides official estimates of school crime and safety from a variety of data sources, including national surveys of students, teachers, principals, and post-secondary institutions.
The studies found that higher percentages of public schools in 2019–2020 than in 2009–2010 reported problems with student cyberbullying (16% vs. 8%) at least once a week.
The report also covered the rates of active shooter incidents, school shootings, carrying weapons on campus, threats of students and faculty, hate crimes, forcible sex offenses, and more on K-12 and higher ed campuses.
Fact No. 4: The U.S. child poverty rate more than doubled from 2021 to 2022.
The U.S. child poverty rate more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, according to data released by the Census Bureau earlier this month. The primary driver of the jump, from 4.6% to 12.4%, a surge affecting millions of children, was the end of the child tax credit expansion at the end of 2021.
Fact No. 5: Newly discovered ancient tablets reveal previously unknown language.
A new ancient language has been discovered in a UNESCO World Heritage Site being excavated in northern Turkey. The new language was discovered in Boğazköy-Hattusha, which was once the capital of the Hittite Empire, one of the great powers of Western Asia during the Late Bronze Age (1650 to 1200 BC).
The site has undergone excavations for more than 100 years, and most of the texts that have been found on the tablets there are written in Hittite, the oldest attested Indo-European language and the dominant language at the site. However, this year’s excavations revealed a recitation in a hitherto unknown language.
The newly discovered language is mostly incomprehensible, but it is being studied by ancient language experts.
