School Violence

School Violence

In the world today there are many different issues that I feel that need to be addressed. One of these many issues is how to end or even prevent school violence. I have noticed throughout the years that school violence has increased tremendously. Are there programs that are offered to teachers to help with school violence? Why are kids more violent now and are there certain characteristics that each violent child has in common? Is it because of how their parents raised them? Do video games really influence violence in children? I feel there are many different attributes that may contribute to this situation. I also believe there are a lot of different options we can take in the world today to stop school violence and make it a safer world for us to live in. Also, it would be safer for our children to live, and be raised in.

After searching on the internet for a while about school violence I came across a school website that offered teachers a program to help prevent and be aware of school violence. The site explained that, "Teachers will learn a comprehensive and proven theoretical model for explaining, predicting and preventing violence. They will acquire the skills and methods necessary to effectively evaluate violence prevention strategies and programs. They will also learn what baseline data to compile for predicting violence in their schools and classrooms" (Preventing). Although this program is available for teachers to take, it is an optional program that not all teachers will be taking. This class is an addition to their degree that would require an amount of money that not all teachers on a starting salary could afford. The price of about six-hundred dollars and a commitment of twenty-three hours a week, for two consecutive weekends is a large commitment. Not a lot of teachers would be able to have the time to do this program. So even though there are opportunities available to help learn about school violence, I feel there should be a required class that every teacher should have to take before getting their license to teach in a school.

Psychologist, Shawn Johnston, argued the reason that children are violent in school is because they are, "very self-centered, very self-absorbed, angry youngsters who derive extraordinary pleasure from savage vengeance they wreak on one another." Johnston is a psychologist in a private practice in California. He has done over five thousand interviews with adult and juvenile offenders over his past twenty years in forensic psychology. "[Most offenders] are pretty consistent with what I've seen," claims Johnston (Divitt). The article from, What causes school killings, explained how, "the mental world of the young killers is all about me," and how "they're frustrated, angry, in some pain, not getting everything they want. They feel like victims. They have no concern about others - they don't think about others. It's all about who they are and what they want" (Divitt). After reading this article I feel I am able to relate a little more with the children who are violent in school. Now I have a point of view of where they are coming from and how they feel.

I sat down after deciding to write this paper on school violence and wrote emails to a couple of close family friends. I asked them about school violence and how they felt about it. To my surprise one of my best friend's parents had an encounter not to long ago with school violence. She wrote me back explaining how her ten year old son took a knife to school and threatened a couple of kids. "I would have never thought something like this would ever happen to me. I feel I am a very good parent. I have already raised three other children and never had any problems with them. We live in a good school district, and we are a wealthy upper class family. Who would have thought this would happen to me," explained Michelle Matson. After hearing about this situation, it immediately got rid of my assumption that the parents and the environment had a large part on school violence. I had a pre-conceived notion that most school violence happened in the rough neighborhoods where the parents had some personal issues with either drugs or alcohol. Also, I felt that the surroundings in a bad neighborhood would have a negative impact on the child's upbringing. Matson explained to me how, "after talking to the psychologist who sat down with my son, I feel that one of the reasons my son had an inexcusable outburst in school one day, was because of the video games I allowed him to play. He used to play a lot of video games that had violence and solved their issues by killing a character. I feel my son had a problem interpreting real life and video games. Now I regret letting him play them" (Matson). To this