Also this week:
Special report on teens & safety
Katie Couric on the lessons of Columbine
One school's solutions to violence
William Pollack on if our sons are natural-born killers
Tipper Gore and USA WEEKEND's Teen Panel tackle tough topics
Full Teens & Safety Survey results by question
Teens, we want to hear from YOU
Back to Teens Index and survey results
Where on the Web: School Safety
This year's winners:
USA Weekend guest editors
USA Weekend guest writer
Channel One announcer
Disney Cruise

Meet our teen winners

Five students who took this year's USA WEEKEND Teen Survey were selected for special honors.

USA WEEKEND GUEST EDITORS: Last month, James Banner, 17, of New York City, and Dawn Yerger, also 17, of Gary, Ind., spent two days at the headquarters of USA WEEKEND in Arlington, Va., where they helped edit this special report on Teens & Safety. Dawn, a senior at Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts, participated last fall in a national teens-and-safety conference in Washington, D.C. Now, she is launching a student mentoring program at her school. "When we learn about each other, we become unafraid," she wrote in an essay that accompanied her survey. "Only then will the violence cease." James, a senior at St. Raymond's High School for Boys in the Bronx, is working this semester as an intern at HomeToHarlem.com, a local news and lifestyle Web site. He believes school safety is a matter of personal responsibility. "I combat violence," James says, "by being a positive person."

TEEN PEOPLE GUEST WRITER: This week, Kristina Woo, an eighth-grader at Montgomery Middle School in Skillman, N.J., will spend a day in New York as a guest writer at Teen People, a partner with USA WEEKEND in the Teen Survey. Kristina, 14, says she wishes teens came with a handbook for parents to follow. Her essay began with a clever "parental warning": "This teen is a fragile being. Look after them with love. Failure to do so will result in a slow breakdown of the teen."

CHANNEL ONE ANNOUNCER: Last week, Rebecca Campbell, 14, of Harrison Township, Mich., was flown to Los Angeles to announce the survey results on Channel One News. The L'Anse Cruese High ninth-grader, who plays soccer, volleyball and the saxophone, feels safe at school but has grown more aware of how alienation can drive teens to act out. "Are the shooters kids with a lot of friends?" she wrote in her essay. "Not usually. They are teens with not many friends or [with] a problem they are trying to deal with." Her solution: peer mediation.

DISNEY CRUISE: Francisco Nava, 15, of Colleyville, Texas, was flown to Florida earlier this month with his mother, aunt and younger brother for three days aboard Disney's Wonder Cruise Ship. The Colleyville Heritage High 10th-grader is in the top 1% of his class and active on the debate team. He cautioned against turning schools into fortresses: "The implementation of security measures disrupts the learning comfort in our schools. Many children feel unsafe in an environment where cameras watch their every move." He challenges adults to address students' fears by talking with them and helping them appreciate one another regardless of cliques.

Teens & Safety: Then and now

This special report marks the 13th time USA WEEKEND has asked students for their input on an important subject -- and the third time we've inquired specifically about their safety at school. The magazine has tracked the lives and attitudes of American teens through surveys and special reports since 1988. Since then, more than 1.6 million students in grades 6-12 have responded to our surveys on topics such as drugs, violence, race and money.

Because of its clear urgency after the killings at Columbine, we decided to repeat the topic of school safety and ask some of the same questions.

When we compare the results, there is no simple answer to the question of whether today's students feel more or less safe than their counterparts a decade ago. The numbers fluctuate. For example, when we asked students in 1989 if they, personally, felt safe at school, 22% reported they did not. In 1993, that number jumped to 37%. This year, a smaller percentage, 29%, said they do not feel safe. On the subject of weapons at school, improvement is clearer: Asked if students "regularly carry weapons to school," 38% said yes in 1993, compared with 11% this time. The first time we asked, in '89, 25% said yes.