As a teacher, this incident scares the hell out of me. For obvious reasons, of course. When Columbine happened in 1999, it seemed like there was this huge wake up call on violence in all schools. I think a lot of folks out there have forgotten Columbine. As an educator, it's always in the back of my mind. Will one of my students do this? We tend to think violence only exists in the inner-city schools and it's soooo not true! Last school year, I had a student of mine that brought a gun into school. I worked in an effluent community - no diversity - and, it was the mother of that student that called in to say that she thought her son might have brought in a gun to school that day. The year before, I had one of my students that shot and killed himself on the front stairs of the school in the middle of the night after a fight with his girlfriend. Point: it doesn't matter where you live or the type of community you teach in, violence is always there.
I'm trying hard to process the events that took place in that school. I just don't get how someone can just randomly go into a school and start shooting innocent children. It's been a busy few weeks with school shootings. This one happened on a college campus in Canada. Another one happened in Wisconsin and the victim was a high school principal. And, of course the latest incident that has everyone completely shocked and stunned. The Amish are a group of people that are very peaceful and religious. No one deserves a tragedy like this to happen but the Amish? What did they do? This article from CNN tries to put the school shooting thing in perspective - what is going on in our schools? Is our government responsible? Schools? Family? All of the citizens in this country are responsible. It takes a village to raise a kid (Go Hillary!).
I was just told today that my school has a few gangs in it(I currently teach in school that is considered inner-city) - and, these gangs have been known to bring weapons into school. I teach four freshman classes and one sophomore class. From what I'm told, it's the upperclassmen that have large gang activity. However, Thursday night, a bunch of freshman girls were arrested due to some "problems" related to gangs. We are not being told anything else except to keep our eyes and ears out for any rumors or mentioning of violence.
Why am I sharing this information with you? Well, obviously these kids are reaching out for love and family. Same goes for the school shooting kids. They are reaching out for help - either emotionally or physically. All this violence just has me thinking of how can we, as a society, help these kids? How can we help them deal with their anger issues? I do not allow students to be made fun of or teased in my classroom. Respect is a huge rule in my classroom. I do realize that there are some teachers out there that do allow the teasing and tormenting. They need to do something. However, the parents need to take some responsibility as well. Don't duck your head in the sand when you notice your child behaving differently. Don't be your child's friend - trust me, they have enough friends. They need a PARENT! What about members of the community? What can they do? They can support positive after school programs by supporting them financially or volunteering their time to help establish those programs.
We need to work together folks! Otherwise, this craziness will continue!
The families of the victims are in my thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time.
Good Bless!
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5 comments:
I agree with you, Lori. Parents need to keep track of what their children are doing and who they are hanging out with. These school shootings scare the crap out of me, having 2 children in school. Corey especially scares the crap out of me being in jr high now. Jr High kids do sooo much more than we ever dreamed of doing when we were that age! It's terrible!
You've got lots of good points... you should rework that alittle and submit it as an "open forum" or "letter to the editor" and put it out there for more people.
I agree with you too Lori. Where are the parents? We see this on the news and stories that you tell us but you see if first hand, and I can't even imagine how you deal with all of this.
I just don't understand it all? The parents should be ashamed of themselves.
I don't mean to be so simple about this problem. And, I don't mean to imply that the problem lies on the parents. We are all responsible.
I don't know the answer.
I know this . . . the answer is NOT to give a teacher a gun!
One guy wrote on one of the blogs that I read is that teachers need to be armed! I really don't want to be armed! Yup! That's the answer! Match up violence with violence!
its too sad whats going on in the schools. and its almost as if putting it on the news gives others ideas... when you hear one, you hear of about 10 more. its crazy. and the amish community being hurt like that - is the worst. what is the reasoning for any man to just walk into a school & kill these young girls!??!? not that any reasoning is ever good enough - but WTF? why is it you're in turmoil so you create unbelievable grief to others?
something has to be done - more security, metal detectors something. my mum said when she was in school the doors would be locked. if you didnt get there on time you had to ring a buzzer & have someone let you in. maybe schools need this with a camera to see whos outside - no more open doors.
so not only do you have to worry about students with violence, or teachers having sex with their students, we now have to worry about just some idiot off the street.
its just disgusting and heartbreaking to hear all this going on. innocent babies being killed. when will it stop?
thats scary loo with the gangs in your school. maybe you can all sit down & come up with some kind of security plan. even if you need a fundraiser to help gain the funding.
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