This dissertation examines the actual degree of violence within two rural and two urban public high schools in central Virginia. It also examines the perceptions of violence by rural and urban teachers within these four schools. Respondents were surveyed regarding both the level of violence and perceptions of violence within their respective schools. It was found that although both rural and urban teachers felt that urban schools experienced more violence, neither the level of violence nor the types of violence differed among rural and urban schools. In addition, school personnel at rural and urban schools had varying definitions of school violence, illustrating that a universal definition is necessary in order to explore this problem further. Because local community colleges could be invaluable in providing their communities with school violence workshops to discuss both issues of actual violent incidents and perceptions of violence as determined by high school personnel, a sample workshop is described herein.