Violence in Schools
On January 18, 1993, Scott Pennington, a seventeen year-old student from Kentucky, shot and killed his East Carter High School teacher Deanna McDavid and janitor Marvin Hicks, and then held his twenty-two classmates at gunpoint for about fifteen minutes. On September 15, 1995, Daniel Watson, eighteen, was charged with one count of kidnapping, two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon on school property, and fifteen counts of first degree endangerment after holding a fellow student at gunpoint at his high school. Watson had been in a fight before school, and then went home and returned with two handguns. In November of 1996, Drew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, opened fire on their fellow students and teachers in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing four students and an English teacher. Is this what should be happening in America's schools? Should students have to be more concerned with their safety, rather than obtaining a good education? Incidences similar to the ones just described occur every year in school systems across the country. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, fifty-seven percent of public elementary and secondary school principals reported that one or more incidents of crime/violenc
The most important element to the solution of violence in schools is the improvement surrounding the actual schools. The first key is to reduce violence through personalization. Overcrowded schools and classes hurt both the educators' efforts to know their students and students' efforts to know one another. The result from this is often misunderstanding, frustration, and increasingly, violence. Smaller classes can enable schools to become communities in which students know and value one another as individuals. They would also allow educators to form steady caring relationships with the students most likely to start or suffer from physical and psychological violence. Available http://nassp.org/news/aprilbul.htm. It is with longing that teachers remember the days when disruptive behavior in school meant running in the halls, throwing spitballs and pulling ponytails. Today, the disruptive behavior is much more frightening. It takes the shape of brutal beatings, stabbings, and shootings. Youth violence disrupts schools and is taking its toll on students, teachers, parents, and communities. Youth violence is threatening the entire structure of public education. The issue of school violence needs to be attended to quickly. This problem cannot be solved by the efforts of one force, but rather it will take the teamwork of the government, communities, and the schools to help reduce the violence. If policies such as the ones described are not implemented, students will continue going to school in fear. Safe and Caring Schools Initiative Project. Online. Internet. Available School violence frequently results from conflicts that are inappropriately managed and therefore intensify. Conflict resolution programs should be offered in schools to both students and educators to give them skills to effectively and constructively hand
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Approximate Word count = 1248
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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