LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A majority of U.S. teens say they used violence in the past year, and one in five high school-age boys took a weapon to school, according to a new survey conducted by the California-based Institute of Ethics.

"The seeds of violence can be found in schools all over America," said Institute of Ethics President Michael Josephson, who also heads the institute's "Character Counts" initiative dedicated to teaching character-building skills to young people.

"Today's teens, especially boys, have a high propensity to use violence when they are angry, they have easy access to guns, drugs and alcohol, and a disturbing number take weapons to school," Josephson said.

America is experiencing an epidemic of deadly school violence.

In 1999, two teen-agers killed 15 people including themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado. In March, two teens died and 13 people were wounded at Santana High School in Santee, California, after a 15-year-old who was new to the school allegedly opened fire in a boy's bathroom.

The suburban San Diego shooting spurred a flurry of copycat shootings across the United States and a renewed national debate about youth violence.

The random survey, conducted last year among more than 15,000 teen-agers at schools nationwide, showed that 75 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls said they had hit someone out of anger in the past year.

Moreover, the survey showed that 43 percent of high school boys, 37 percent of middle school boys and 19 percent of high school and middle school girls believed it was OK to hit or threaten a person who made them angry.

METAL DETECTORS AND GUN CONTROL CAN'T SOLVE PROBLEM

More than one in five, or 21 percent of high school boys, and 15 percent of middle school boys, took a weapon to school at least once in the past year. At the same time, 60 percent of high school and 31 percent of middle school boys said they could get a gun if they wanted.

The category of weapons was broad, including guns and knives, said an institute spokesman.

"Kids are as much the victims as the perpetrators of the societal trends and pressures demonstrated in the survey," Josephson said. "Metal detectors and gun regulation can't solve this problem alone. We have to work on the character of youngsters, changing their attitudes about violence and fortifying their ability to deal with anger and feelings of alienation."

Results from the eight-year-old biennial survey did not change significantly from one taken in 1998, Josephson said. But in 2000, for the first time, the survey asked questions about student alcohol use and produced some disturbing results.

Alcohol use seemed to coincide with the increased likelihood that teens would exhibit violent behavior, the survey showed. For example, 16 percent of high schoolers and 7 percent of middle schoolers admitted to being drunk at school. Among those, 83 percent said they had hit someone in the past year.

In addition, of the students who admitted to being drunk in school, 48 percent of high schoolers and 57 percent of middle schoolers said they had brought weapons to school, the survey showed.

Teens who said they had been drunk at school were more likely to have access to a gun than their classmates: 71 percent versus 47 percent in high school, and 59 percent versus 22 percent in middle school, the survey found.

Josephson said teachers, coaches and parents needed to pay more attention to warning signs to avoid the types of school violence the country has seen in recent years.

"You hit someone when you're angry, but if somebody is bigger than you are, if somebody is bullying you, you're not going to hit that person, you're going to do something worse," Josephson said.

"We're not talking about just schoolyard fighting anymore. (Kids) are trying to find a way to vent their anger in a violent way."

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