Uniformed security guards stand vigil at the entrance. Metal detectors have been tested and are ready. Spot check s for weapons in progress at the parking lot. Escorts, sometimes armed, are available to transport people from place to place on the grounds.
Is this the Pentagon? Perhaps a military base, or the White House?
Nope.
This is the campus of a California public high school on a regular school day. Not to pick on California, there are many schools, just like this one, bolstered for warfare across the nation, and with good reason!
To paraphrase one high school principal, no matter where you are, safety and security for the students is actually more important than a quality education, (“Washingtonian” Magazine, 1997). According to many surveys, of both students and teachers, this educator is absolutely correct.
According to a study by Anderson & Smith, 2003, homicide is the second leading cause of death in people ages 10-24. In 2001, 5,486 young people in this age group were murdered, an average of 15 per day. A majority of these deaths, (79%), were perpetrated by guns, (CDC, 2004).
From the same study, during the last five years when information was available, more people ages 12-24 died from gun related incidents than from injuries sustained in auto accidents. Males were three times more likely to carry a weapon than females, however, both groups carried them everywhere, including to school.
Unfortunately, a problem with weapons has filtered down to the elementary levels of school as well. According to the California Healthy Kids Survey, 2004, somewhere between 5-8% of 7th graders are packing some sort of weapon, both in and out of school, as well. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education reports that possession of weapons among elementary and secondary school children had more than doubled from 1984 to 1997. That was more than 10 years ago!
There are so many other statistics on this subject which could be shared, but these are more than enough to make the point. Of course the public school system still serves its original purpose for many students. A number of children continue to take advantage of traditional scholastic opportunities and advance on into jobs or higher education.
However, for an increasing number of kids, school is no longer an institution for the development of education, social values, and character. It has become a breeding ground for pestilence, learning and teaching “social survival tactics” in a dangerous and sometimes violent arena.
Sadly, at times, the price of upward mobility within this pecking order demands the commitment of a life, while the consequence of failure may require the loss of one!
So, what can be done to correct this problem? Since the data suggests elementary aged children are becoming involved, any plan has to be flexible enough to be effectively administered to an age group of 10 to 19 year olds. A number of safe school organizations have developed ideas which are being discussed. Here are just a few of their recommendations.
- Create a panel of “stake holders” in this crisis including principals, teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders.
- Develop a survey for students exploring the reasons why they feel it necessary to carry weapons, or if they know why others feel the need to arm themselves, both in and out of school.
- Discuss the survey results in an open forum with the school-based panel and all interested students, weather or not they completed a survey.
- Research indicates students with other stress issues such as substance abuse, low self esteem, poor academic performance, and delinquency, prove to be more likely to carry weapons. Identify and monitor these children, and provide help options for them.
- Promote a youth development program which emphasizes communication, conflict resolution, and taking individual responsibility for one's conduct.
- Operate schools in a less restrictive manner, but develop certain expectations with achievement awards and suggested guidelines to help accomplish these goals.
- Remove disruptive students from the environment. Discard those who are repeat offenders in such areas as habitual delinquency, disrespect toward students and faculty, showing no concern for academic achievement or their own personal success, and all those who continue to break both criminal and civil laws.
It is time to take back control of the schools! It is time to give priority to feeding the minds of future generations with good, useful information and general respect for the rights and lives of others.
So many people have devoted their very beings in one way or another to help make and keep America a proud and prosperous nation. To allow all of this sacrifice and effort to waste away in a river of increasing dissipation is a crime for which we would all pay the ultimate price, the price of national destruction!
