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Randi
Longmeyer Education
101 Dr.
Little December
9, 1999 Violence
in Schools
The materials taught will always be the same. We will always teach
reading, mathematics, history, and science, but the areas we need to improve are
the social areas. Many students in the nineties turn to violence, gangs, drugs,
and even suicide. So many teens turn to violence that we can not go a day
without hearing about a school, a drive-by shooting, or another violent act. We,
as parents, educators, and role models, need to give teenagers alternative
solutions rather than the harmful choices. We also need to help students
understand that these things will not help them in the future. Students who join
gangs are not the low-income, abused children. Gang members are also from
middle- and upper-income families, the smart students, and even the shy,
socially unacceptable students. They join to be accepted into a society that
they think is the right one.
At Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the school is
conducting “dummy” shootings and hostage situations. Even though they chose
a teacher in-service day, some students played important roles as victims.
Teachers were trained in the different situations. It was a prevent and prepare
situation. Hopefully Thomas Jefferson High School will never face this incident
in real life, but at least they will be prepared.
Gangs are situated in every part of the United States, whether they are
chronic and entrenched or just emerging. They start doing things that are
illegal because of the peer pressure put on them by their “friends”. There
are even gang initiations that involve kidnapping and raping women. I received
an email from a friend that told of one such incident. Luckily the gas station
attendant, who saw a man crawl in her back seat while she was inside, saved this
young lady. They couldn’t charge the young man with anything, except
trespassing because he was unarmed. Many young women are in danger of these hate
crimes because of the population of gang members in the United States. Luckily
this man admitted his true intentions so others can be aware, but how many women
won’t be this lucky. This whole thing scares me because I will be teaching
these young people in the future and I may have gang members in my class. What
if the next initiation is to kidnap your teacher and rape her or even kill her?
We need to understand the early warning signs that teenagers face in the
real world. Many parents work and are unable to monitor their children’s
activities. Teachers and other authority figures need to watch for stressors
such as abandonment, domestic violence, abuse, lack of order, structure, and
discipline, alcohol, drugs, fear of the unknown, rejection or failure.
The best way to help
teenagers is to reduce stressors. Adults need to help students by establishing
trusting relationships, being alert for detachment, with- drawl, threats, and
disciplinary problems. We must also watch for unusual interest with weapons,
bombs, violent entertainment, abuse of animals, suicide threats, and
self-mutilation. We must also talk to children honestly.
In order to stop future outbreaks of violence, we must prevent all of
children’s bad conduct, such as aggression, bullying, and hate bullying. This
would include diminishing undirected anger, stopping the targeting of someone
weaker, and halting the victimization of someone deceived as weaker because of a
different gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.
We, as school administrators, must conduct school security assessments to
see if our children are safe. The three major concerns are to prevent and
prepare, reduce risks and liability, and to improve public relations by
communication. There will now be a six million-dollar Safe and Drug Free Program
to provide more effective prevention. Schools need to provide effective
anti-drug and violence prevention programs, secure schools and pathways to
schools with metal detectors and agreements with law enforcement to patrol
school grounds and paths to schools. Schools also need to provide training for
teachers and staff and, for the youth, provide after-school activities to extend
the day and to develop links to other activities. Hopefully in the future, we won’t have to worry about gang violence, drug or alcohol abuse, differences between cultures, abuse, or rape. Our schools will then be a more peaceful environment to live in. Then we can once again concentrate on the reading, mathematics, history, science, and spelling. Works Cited “Early Warning Signs of Youth Violence: School Safety and Security” http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/warning-signs.html (2 Dec. 1999) Newman, Gary. “Police Simulate Shooting at School.” Omaha World Herald 2 Nov. 1999 “School Safety, Security, Crisis, and Gang Training” http://www.schoolsecurity.org/training/gangs.html (2 Dec. 1999) “Stopping School Violence” http://www.ncpc.org/2achvio.htm (2 Dec. 1999) |
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Randi