90,000 ER visits each year are due to assaults in school

New research has found that 90,000 emergency room visits in the United States each year are children and teenagers that are assaulted at school.

This report was published in the January 13 issue Pediatrics.

CBS reports that the researchers looked at ER visits between 2001 and 2008. More than seven million of these visits were due to injuries that happened at school.

96 percent of the seven million ER visits were due to assaults that occurred at school. Only .08 percent of these injuries were sustained from gun violence in schools.

According to Health.com, it is rare for students ages 5 to 19 to be injured by guns at school. 40 percent of the injuries that students attend the ER for were things like bruises and scratches. Very few of the injuries require hospitalization after the ER visit.

“[The number of injuries] appears to be concerningly high, especially when you realize that such a substantial number of injuries are occurring in the school setting, where safety measures are already in place,” said lead author of the study Dr. Siraj Amanullah.

Amanullah indicated that schools need to address safety strategies.