School Violence Sends 90K Kids to ER Every Year

"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.)