Posted by
Team Turk on Friday, October 06, 2006 5:25:47 PM
Jonesboro, Paducah, Littleton, Bailey… We had never heard of them. Yet, we know them all now.
Most of the locations where school shootings occur cannot be easily located. The other day, a gun threat was even called in to my old school, which no one can find on a map. The gun threat was a misunderstanding, but that didn’t stop a school being lockdown or a district wide panic.
After first learning about the threat, my mother said “I can’t believe something like this would come to a town this small.”
The towns were all small.
The violence that has invaded our children’s sanctuaries is not occurring in Sacramento, Austin, or Atlanta. The bodies are not being retrieved from Los Angeles, Miami, or Kansas City. The violence is occurring where we would least expect it. That is why it hurts. That’s why we are afraid. That’s why people are moving and doing everything to control their child’s school environment… Because the violence is striking us where we live.
In the wake of the latest incidents, a principal shot in Wisconsin and a massacre in Pennsylvania, I am surprised by the silence. Politicians and people in this profession are always the first one present and seen following horror or national tragedy. So, where are they? Why haven’t we heard calls for a national conversation or more school security? Why haven’t we heard anything?
The violence isn’t happening where it should. It is happening to us. It is hitting us in our backyards. Given this, why aren’t we talking? Why aren’t we trying to understand everything about our children and what precipitates these horrific acts? Why aren’t we engaged? We should be trying to discover what we can do to make our children safer in their most important place.
I’m not talking about diversionary crusades against My Space, what our children watch on television, or the lyrics of their music. Computers, Laguna Beach, and Fort Minor have not killed anyone. Attacking their art, which is irrelevant, would only serve to alienate our children resentful and appease those who treasure their moral indignation more than actually solving a problem.
What I am asking for are conversations as families, politicians, communities, and a nation. Let’s start understanding and learning. The answer to the mushrooming problem of school violence isn’t silencing music, shutting off our televisions, or turning our schools into maximum-security prisons. Honestly, I don’t know how to solve the problem. But I am open to suggestions. Let’s start talking…
Raymond Smalley