Three recent fights among Anchorage high school students put youth violence in local headlines and newscasts. The fever seemed democratic a new school each time, spreading like a bad virus.

First, a videotaped duel at a Hillside park was attended by scores of Service students. Then, a fight between girls at a Chugiak hockey game spilled over into a dispute on private property. And finally, a Dimond High youth recovered from a coma several days after being hit with an aluminum baseball bat after a fight.

The number and proximity of the incidents was disturbing, prompting concern over increasing youth violence and whether the climate at Anchorage schools has changed.

Here's what the numbers show.

Over the past three school years, the number of students suspended for fighting or assault has dropped about 19 percent, from 473 in 1997-98 to 387 in 1999-2000, according to the Anchorage School District's end-of-the-school-year "Suspension/Weapons/Expulsion Report."

Fighting, for which 297 students were suspended last year, was the second-largest category. It was exceeded only by alcohol and drug violations, for which 385 students were suspended.

Nationally, statistics show incidents of violence in the general population are at their lowest point since the 1960s. Schools mimic this trend. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed high school students over safety issues in the late 1990s. As reported by The New York Times in October 1999, the CDC found that between 1991 and 1997, the number of students who reported having been in a physical fight decreased by 14 percent. Those reporting injuries from a fight decreased 20 percent.

In a New York Times/CBS poll of more than 1,000 students nationwide conducted in October 1999, students said they feel safe at their school. Only 1 percent of those polled said their schools were "not at all safe." Forty-five percent said they were extremely or very safe.

In a similar student attitude survey conducted in 1994, 22 percent of those polled identified violence and crime as their biggest problem. By 1999, that number had decreased to 9 percent.

While the numbers nationally and locally are encouraging, local school administrators still have strategies for addressing the problems they see on their campuses.

Lewis Sears, Bartlett High's principal, explained that Bartlett, like most other schools in Anchorage, has a peer mediation program to help students talk through problems that can lead to fights.

He says that there is "some form of mediation going on every week" and that although the mediators don't deal directly with fights, they can do things to keep rumors from spreading, which he believes are a major contributor to fights between students.

Dimond High principal Guy Okada thinks active students face fewer problems.

"We need to engage the students in the learning process," Okada said, explaining how he thinks schools can help prevent violence. Okada believes that students who can identify with other students and with adults are more successful and less likely to be involved in fights.

Dimond High is one recipient of a grant issued by the U.S. Department of Education to help schools investigate the benefits of smaller classes, "schools-within schools, and . . . reduced teaching load." The grant, known as Smaller Learning Communities, has been issued to several hundred schools across the country.

Russell Moore is a senior at Polaris K-12 and an editor of Perfect World.