In an Age of Violence
School shootings in Moses Lake, Washington; West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Littleton, Colorado spark some serious questions throughout the US today. Schools beefing up security all over the country strive to protect their children from these horrific acts. Schools hire guards, put in metal detectors and surveillance cameras, search through student's personal belongings, and even bring in trained police dogs to counteract these violent events. This added security can't be the best solution for the problem, and parents and teachers obtain a false sense of security. Schools should take a more cool-headed approach and not turn schools of today prisons of tomorrow. Society needs to take less drastic measures and step back to look at the problem before blindly trying to fix it. Not all of these hard-nosed attempts to stop school violence have been rationally thought out. School districts driven by fear rely on faster and cheaper fixes; hence the drug dogs, cameras, and searches. Adults always tell their children they want them to have responsibility, but by putting up all these restrictions and security measures their responsibility is s
Although the media paints these negative pictures, people need to look at their own children, and stop focusing in on this one sided news. People then might take reasonable actions against these school shootings. School could use alternative methods that in the hysteria have been over looked. Philip Bleicher, executive director of Student Alliance says, "After school, evening, and weekend programs can help make a difference. Schools should focus less on metal detectors, school police, and a prison like atmosphere and focus more on programs to make school a family like environment." ("Attitude") Instead of making the school a prison, educators and parents should institute procedures that are more relevant to the problem. Not all schools use the harsh measures mentioned. Some schools have made it easier for students to report weapons on campus, toughened disciplinary consequences when students were caught with weapons, and give school personnel more training to help them recognize troubled students and handle campus emergencies. ("Schools") The size of enrollment in schools obviously plays a part for violence. Schools should make the size of classrooms smaller and add more guidance counselors. In schools with a student body of less than 300 students there were only four serious violent crimes. Compare this with schools with 1,000 or more students, where the number jumps to thirty-three. This is out of 1,000 schools polled. (Bonilla 135) Another alternative deals with the police that patrol some school's hallways. There was a poll taken that represented 100,000 public school. It showed that when law enforcement was present more than thirty hours per week, there were 137 crimes committed. While when there were no police stationed only thirty-three crimes o
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Approximate Word count = 1200
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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