SCHOOL SHOOTINGS : What should we do to protect our schools?

Perhaps we'll make a crappy, quasi-real reality show for teenage girls about it.

Cycloptichorn

Arm the children, of course. I a .22 (that would be the right size for a first or second grader, I'd say)and two .38s to devote to the cause.

We should all get involved.

If Iran goes nuklur so should p.s. 128.

Damn straight.








;>

Well lookie there - it's Lash!

I think she's been away dating OmSigDavid and that's why I haven't seen her.

I think the best thing to combat school shootings would be to raise a nation of better parents.

Only people with no guns to donate to the cause would say such a useless thing.

Hey Lash!

HI!!! How're you doin??

What's with school?

I'm so sleepy all the time.

Yup - arm the grade-schoolers, and give the headmaster a suitcase nuke.

No further discussion needed here...

Hmmm. Ordinarily, I would agree with that sentiment, Boomer. But in this particular case, I think you'll agree that none of these incidents can be blamed on parents. The tragic case in Lancaster County, PA was not a Columbine-type shootout where the perps were teens themselves. How do you guard against a psychopath like this man obviously was? I don't know. Most schools in the big cities, such as the one I live in, already have metal detectors and security police on premises during the school day. That's why these shootings happen mostly in hick towns and out-of-the-way places where the idea of closed-circuit TV and x-ray machines to check backpacks would be prohibitively expensive to install. Again, I don't know.

The idea of arming six and seven year olds is obviously meant to be satirical. Something like Swift's "A Modest Proposal." But is there a good reason for teachers and school administrators not to be armed? Seriously. Yeah, well, maybe there is. How do we know the principal isn't really a child-hating psychopath himself?

Thank you. I am surprised it needed clarification, but sadly, I see it did.

never underestimate the stupidy of fellow posters. Hey, Possum you carry?

<looks around for Italgato>

Merry's makes good points. I have long been at a loss as to why these things happen - and why, more importantly, they seem to be happening more frequently. I thought it ironic that the columbine shooting took place in a very conservative - religious-right - community. I thought that these kids were suppressed by strict lifestyles and rigid moral codes and this caused sever rebelion. Now I see that can't be the root problem.

So, what is it? There is something causing a major sense of disconnect between certain individuals and society.

Way back in the early 70s, progressive (they were fresh and new then) school reformists in inner cities were actively invovling family and community members into schools. The idea was to instill a sense of self-identity and civic duty in their youngsters. We've lost a sense of ommunity since I was a kid. Children don't run around neighborhoods willy nilly anymore. They don't have that sense that any parent in their community is a safe adult. There's no sense of civic duty to help eachother - grandparents live away while in decline, neighborhood cleanups are few and far between and under-utilized when they do happen.

I think civic responsibility in ealry ed can help kids build that connection which is missing.

<getting off soapbox>

Break downs in community fiber? Disolving of multi-generational family structure?

<snort - sever rebelion!>

Re columbine as it was my old neighborhood, total disconnect between parents and children "we bought the kid a new BMW and took him out to dinner once a month-he had everything" affluent because both mom and pop were creating careers 24/7 and by next year would have that condo at Vail.

I think it's bullying, frankly, and social rejection. The cause, IMO, is what Kris says--a disconnect from peer groups aka society.

The Lacote? (Native North American kid), Columbine, the WV kid--they all were said to be either "loners"...goths....quiet kids... People don't do that as a choice. They either have an internal schism that makes people not want to hang around them--or their just don't measure up to our lovely society's sterling standards. (Ask Merry about sarcasm)

Parents can many times see this and intervene before things get awful. The Columbine parents were practically assessories, IMO. If they'd ever stuck their heads in Eric or Dylan's bedrooms, they'd've seen the hardware all over the place.

I do feel horrible for the kids, though. All of them.

Crossed dys'. If I'd waited, it would've saved me a lot of typing.

Well, this dairy truck driver surely needed some therapy sessions to deal with his grief over the death of the new born child nine years before - and, if it is true he molested young relatives when he was twelve, he needed help (is help possible?) to deal with that behavior. Not a mentally healthy fellow. I feel sorry for his family on top of feeling sorry for all the victims and their families. I'm impressed with the Amish collecting to help his family as well as the victims families, if I read about that correctly.