How can we help stop school violence/ school shootings?

Question

This is for a 4th quarter english project

Answer 1

There are two aspects of this: school massacres, which are very rare, and school violence related to neighborhood problems.
There is no way to guarantee that school violence will never occur, but it surely can be reduced.
School massacres like the Virginia Tech massacre are often (though not always) committed by people who are psychotic. I am 99% certain that Seung Cho was paranoid schizophrenic, though it doesn't seem that he ever got a real diagnosis. The Texas Clock Tower shooter had a brain tumor. The laws currently in the US make it extremely difficult to commit a psychotic individual for treatment against his will. Yet a psychotic person is, by definition, out of touch with reality; he can't make a rational decision. Also, though it is technically illegal in most states to sell a gun to somebody with a history of serious mental illness, there is often no way for the gun seller to know whether somebody has this history.
If these restrictions are made in the name of patients' rights, but when you are dealing with somebody incapable of rational thought, the person doesn't even know what is best for himself.
The ordinary type of school violence is actually a greater problem, and therefore more complicated to deal with. I have dealt with it in connection with teens that I am close to, so I'm aware how hard it is. But a good many positive steps are being taken. School uniforms to undermine the gang identification at school, after school activities, quick action when anything happens at school, are all helpful. Parental involvement is key. To many parents protect their children from punishment, deny reality, and put the whole burden of discipline on the school. If these parents can be brought to see that their children actually benefit from being held accountable, and learn some parenting skills, this can help a great deal.

Answer 2

Well in my area we do have a police officer at every school and we just had a school shooting so that didn't help anything, we have the new wands but they can only do random searches. we have the bell where you have to be rung into the school. I feel as if music, tv and internet has demolished the young kids of today they are exposed to horrible things, when I was younger we didn't have cell phones and internet noone could find out how to make bombs etc. So I feel maybe we should have everyones facebook or any form of social networking monitored. Parents should be in the kids lives more and stop trying to be their friends. I don't understand why people are saying Mental Illness was such a priority in this...Yes he was mentally ill but me as a parent would see my child acting crazy and would get them help....So don't tell me there is no funding for this child to get help...any hospital could've kept someone like this and seen through him....I don't know what else can be done at schools unless you have a cop sit in every class room and that takes away allllll kids freedom...and when someone says God in schools im sorry but as much as I believe in god how is that going to stop these situations from happening.

Answer 3

I know this is going to sound really out there, but I think we need more music in schools. Maybe make it a requirement all the way through and in the course include songs with messages of moral conscience. If rap and other type music that gets blamed for influencing the culture can have a negative impact on the mindset of our young people perhaps daily exposure to music with positive messages can have the reverse effect. Like say today a sophomore in school is walking into music class and the song they are working on is the one out right now on the radio, forgive me I don't know the name, that says, "if everyone cared and nobody cried, then you'd see the day that nobody died," then maybe the kids would become a little more contemplative about how they feel about things. The songs could be old classics or new stuff. You can't help but think about a song's message when you learn its lyrics. And a long as you attend it would be a fairly easy A compared to geometry or physics.

Answer 4

The first answer is misleading. Crime has increased, not decreased, in Australia since the gun ban. And it's that way in every country that has legislated strong gun control. The reason is simple: criminals don't obey laws, and gun control laws are laws. Gun control laws only create a black market for the sale of guns, just like bans on marijuana, heroin and cocaine only create black markets for the sale of those drugs. Criminals still get the goods they seek, regardless of the laws against sale or possession. A man without a gun is easier prey to an armed criminal than a man with a gun is, and that's why gun bans increase the crime rate.

A certain amount of violence is an unavoidable part of human behavior. Government has tragically exacerbated the problem in schools with a policy of racial integration, or, more plainly, racial mixing. Humans, including school students, are primates among whom racial tribalism is natural. Mixing the races always raises the level of violence, and no amount of verbal exhortations for "brotherhood" will ever change that fact.

Governments seldom do things in a healthy and organic way. They are used to force, force, force. Slap downs and lock downs. Shoot and bludgeon: tax the rabble and oppress the dissidents. After having created an extremely violent situation in public schools with mandatory race mixing, the government isn't about to reverse itself. Instead, it will turn all the public schools into prisons, with all the accouterments thereunto pertaining: armed guards, video monitors everywhere, an enormous expansion of rules and restrictions on students' speech, movement and other activity. All of that cost and harshness and loss of freedom would be completely unnecessary if the government would simply recognize that racial mixing in the schools is, and always was, a mistake and correct it by resegregating the races.

Answer 5

We can stop ignoring the problem of school bullying, and we can start identifying violent students and get them the help they need instead of putting them on an individual education plan (IEP) and saying they have a right to a fair and appropriate education, without ever considering what appropriate is for that kid. If he has a habit of bringing weapons to school, or talking about blowing things up or is just a violent hair pulling, biting, spitting, kicking, little jerk, then how is that fair or appropriate for the rest of the students not to mention the staff? With every right there is a responsibility, and the student is responsible for their behavior while they are at school. If they cannot adhere to rules of behavior and attendance then they should not be the responsibility of the school district.

Answer 6

Look to the REAL source of such problems. No, I don't mean guns. We've had guns in this country for hundreds of years, but such school violence only for a decade or two. The problems go much deeper - latch-key children who have no real bonds with their parents because their parents care more about having careers than raising well-adjusted children who feel loved and secure; war on poverty - it's infinitely better to teach someone to fish than to give them a fish; sexual revolution - has taught children that life is no longer sacred and that personal responsibility is not important. There are soooo many angles to take, if you look deeper than the bandaid of "gun control."

Answer 7

Well, one can treat the symptoms or one can treat the source. By that I mean security guards and metal detectors change how someone would commit violence, it wouldn't change why. Strengthening our mental health system to be better able to deal with folks like Cho (or the number of mentally ill who are homeless or incarcerated) would be a big step. Gun control is controversial, but like Izzard says, guns might not cause violence, but they certainly help. Sadly, we don't value prevention in our society becuase you can't measure the number of crimes prevented very effectively.

Outside of mental illness, nothing breeds violence like desperation, tho.

Answer 8

I think we can help stop school violence by educating students about the resources that are available when students are faced with personal issues. The college I went to always sent out e-mails and flyers about the counseling center-- how it was free, private, and confidental. The school I work at also lets students know where and how to seek help. The biggest piece is letting students know that seeking help doesn't label you as crazy!!

Answer 9

The bad guys prefer unarmed victims!!.
When seconds matter calling 911 and asking the bad guy to wait is not a viable option.

Better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it!!!
**Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens.**

So you are against the private ownerships of gun! Do you believe in fire extinguishers? Why, you can always call the fire department!!


No Weapons Allowed
Criminals this is a defense free zone
All law abiding people have been disarmed for you

Answer 10

Reduce the sample population size in the survey until the problem disappears.

OK, I'm being cynical. But remember there are 300 Million people in the US and our news collection casts an ever wider net. At some point on the curve, fixing the problem makes it worse.