Violence in Schools

Protect Our Future

Parents have, and always will, worry about their children's safety. Years ago, they worried about whether their children were eating healthy, were staying away from cigarettes and alcohol, and were learning the skills necessary to become successful adults. Today, however, parents have MUCH bigger worries. They have worries so harshÐ'...Ð'.....that every time someone mentions it, they're skin chills up. They worryÐ'...Ð'....about whether their children will be shot and killed in cold blood while attending school. In the 1990s, school violence in the United States reached an all-time high. What once was simple bullying has escalated to kids using weapons like knivesÐ'....gunsÐ'...Ð'.... and even homemade bombs. The chances of predicting when acts of school violence will occur, is slim to none, but these occurrences are usually deadly. For this reason, we must act now and be proactive in our fight to eliminate school violence before it happens. Simply statedÐ'...Ð'...security and safety in American high schools is not strong enough. Metal detectors with security officers need to be in ALL schools, students should be required to wear uniforms to eliminate the possibility of gang affiliations, and teachers should have to go through crisis training in order to recognize dangerous behavior and handle these situations before they happen. If these measures are taken, we can lower the amount of violent acts in schools today.

Violence in schools has been a problem for as long as schools have been in existence. It started with teachers who beat students with rulers as a form of punishment and later included stronger students who bullied weaker students for fun. Bullying has continued to today, where kids get bullied everyday because of their religion, race, sexuality, social status, and just because of how they look. School violence was a relatively small issue until the first deadly murder occurred. On January 29, 1979, sixteen-year-old Brenda Spencer sat at her house across from her elementary school in San Diego, and SNIPED students and teachers with her .22 caliber rifle her father had bought her as a Christmas present. When Brenda was asked why she did what she did, she stated "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." She killed TWO teachers and wounded a policeman and eight children.

Of course, since thenÐ'.....like everything else in this world, we've "upgraded".

The shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado was the most horrendousÐ'.... and also the most publicized act of school violence. On April 20, 1999 two seniors Dylan Klenbold and Eric Harris, came into their high school late, with duffel bags full of propane bombs and shotguns. They were ready to kill. Eric and Dylan opened fire in the cafeteria and the library and the classroomsÐ'....with hundreds of students between them. By the time the shooting spree was done, twenty-three people lay on the floor DEAD in the halls and rooms of Columbine High. They even had timed bombs to go off in the parking lot for when the rescue units arrived, but luckily they had failed. After their deadly massacre they took their own lives before police could capture them . After the incident at Columbine High School a movie was put out by director Michael Moore about the reasons our nation is so violent. According to Moore, You can find violence everyday on TV, in video games, and in movies. Compared to other nations, we see the same amount of violence as the others countries, and most of the violent games and movies come from overseas.

Taft 4

Another incident of deadly school violence occurred in St. Cloud, Minnesota at Rocori High School, when two teenage students, one 14 and the other 17, were gunned down by a freshman. Seth Bartell, 14, now has to use a ventilator to breathe and sleep upright to keep the swelling down in his brain. He was shot in the forehead and the bullet is still lodged in the back of his brain. The suspect, Jason McLaughlin, shot Rollins in the neck and Bartell in the back, both less than 30 feet away, with a 22 caliber pistol. Bartell managed to get away up a flight of stairs where the suspect followed him and pointed the gun at the eyes of Seth and pulled the trigger with him looking down the barrel. McLaughlin, the son of a Stearns County Sheriff's Deputy; is being charged as an adult for second degree murder for the death of Aaron Rollins. The following day, all Minnesota flags were sailing at half staff.

Some schools have turned to increasing security measures like having metal detectors at the entrances with a security guard present. The processes to enter some schools are almost the same as the process of entering an airport especially after 9/11. Experts say that about one fourth of all large school districts use metal detectors each day to keep guns off campus. The metal detectors have dropped violence in the inner city school by stopping the numbers of weapons brought in. If metal detectors are in schools there needs to be an officer at each entrance, so student can't sneak in the back ways. A 1993 report from the Dave County School Board States; "students become creative. They pass weapons in through the windows to there friends, hide knives