Nearly 900 San Francisco middle and high school students said they had carried a gun to school at least once last year, most of them saying they had done so four or more times, says a survey reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Some 1,767 students reported bringing another kind of weapon like a knife or club during the same time frame. That’s 4 percent and 8 percent respectively of the survey respondents, rates slightly below national trends.
The raw numbers brought home the daily reality of guns and other alarming conditions in the city’s middle and high schools. Officials said that while some of the numbers are alarming, school safety is not an isolated issue. Students often bring weapons or guns in their backpacks or pockets because they feel unsafe on their way to and from school.