Post Scripts: Clear and present danger

Spring is in the air, and we can see and feel it. Flowers have resurrected from the warming soil, bushes have shaken off the rigors of cold and frost, and the grass has grown lush and green so quickly we have had to give in and mow lawns smooth in late March. This seems a pleasant chore after the dullness of a winter largely devoid of snow.

It will soon be that time, too, when many parents will steel themselves for the end of the school year, when the daily routine is concerned mainly with what to do with the kids and how to keep them busy, happy, satisfied and free from mischief. It’s a full-time job if done right, they say, and one can forgive devoted parents who will give a big sigh of relief when the children make that long trek back to the classroom this fall.

However, the quiet assurance parents once enjoyed as their kids trekked back to school is long gone. It’s quite different these days when parents wonder if their child will return home in a bus or a casket; when children leave for school with visions of tragedy racing through their minds and distrust for any classmate who dresses in a certain way. No matter how we like to deny it, life at school isn’t like it used to be, particularly in metropolitan schools.

In some schools teachers must worry about who will be the class marksman, not the class clown.

I well remember sitting next to a girl I really liked. I could barely contain myself. I recall the teacher I considered a witch but discovered by the end of the year I loved her. I remember it seemed a long time till June. It’s sad to note these days some students actually fear for their lives while in school.

We have a tendency to turn away from the problem of school violence. That’s the easy solution.

Parents, school officials and politicians have proposed remedial efforts, including restrictions on what movies children can see, what video games they can play, gun control, tighter security at schools, and something about "old-fashioned values." None of these solutions answer the question of "Why?".

Why do violent movies and video games inspire a child to kill? Why would being able to carry a gun to school motivate a child to shoot classmates? Why does a kid stockpile weapons in his locker? Sociologists are studying these very questions, but it cannot end there. What good is this research if a few professors write a paper that gets filed in a prestigious university "back East"?

Perhaps it has something to do with what us older and wiser folks taught them. Children learn at an early age to stereotype, to categorize folks by the color of their skin or by the house they live

in or the car they drive, their social standing in their church and community. Some adults have a way of classifying people based on the way they think. Remember, those Columbine students wanted to kill "the jocks and the Jews." Hate can brew within kids until they just can’t contain it any longer.

Some parents, unconsciously, teach their children fascism. A sandbox full of kids get along just fine without thinking about what their playmates look like or their ancestry. Then they go home and hear parents talk about how people of a certain race or color and how they "just don’t fit in." So while we can build great schools and secure campuses, the root of the problem remains. Too many are still teaching their children to hate. We will continue to live in violence until this stops. Kids will be kids. Well, maybe, but something’s wrong when American children make the news all around the world because of their escapades with violence at school. Other nations worldwide look at us and wonder what’s gone wrong.

America is a great country; we enjoy freedom. No one could ask for a better place to live. We have come a long way since the Revolution, but let’s face the fact school violence is a clear and present danger – a new challenge that cannot be ignored.